Maren Deepwell

Tag: #altc

  • Reflecting on different modes of working

    As part of my work on the Leading Virtual Teams book, I have been careful to define what is meant by terms describing different ways of working. It’s taken me a while to bring the various terms together, and to reflect on their meaning not just now, but also before the advent of digital technologies and more widely available, reliable, high speed internet connections.

    In my childhood days for example, selling Tupperware from your garage was a popular way for women to work from home alongside bringing up children, for example, and that didn’t involve Zoom calls or being online at all.

    Similarly, there are many industries in which distributed working (i.e. across a number of different geographical locations) or working remotely (away from a central location such as a campus or corporate HQ) has been commonplace well before we had the capacity to take much of our “office” with us in the form of a laptop or even mobile device.

    Graphic showing an overview of different Modes of Working - CC-BY by Dr Maren Deepwell, Leading Virtual Teams (2022) Home working: The practice of working from home. Whilst frequently associated with working as part of distributed teams or online nowadays, home working has not historically been associated with use of digital technology. Hybrid working: Working both at home from at the office. Employees have the flexibility to work away from the office for some days each week, for example working three days per week in the office and two days a week at home. Working as a Virtual Team: A blend of all other modes of working characterised by: Digital workflows and communication tools, no physical location, a permanently home-based workforce, and workplace policies that reflect the needs of a virtual organisation. Distributed working: Working across a number of locations. Distributed working across number of locations such as different campuses or offices, usually independent from each other and with their own local workforce. Remote working: Working away from a central hub. Remote working can encompass home working, but employees may also work from other locations that are remote from a central hub (such as a campus or HQ).
    Graphic showing an overview of different Modes of Working – CC-BY by Dr Maren Deepwell, Leading Virtual Teams (2022)

    One of the key themes of the work I have been doing is reflecting on how the way we work impacts on us. More specifically, I am interested in how different modes of working impact on particular aspects of our lives such as physical and mental health, work/life balance or a sense of connectedness.

    Inspired by my coach training, in which our coach trainer recently asked us to practice with a coaching tool called Wheel of Life, I have adapted this coaching tool to explore different ways of working such as working from home, hybrid working,
    distributed or remote working and working in virtual teams and reflect on how the way you work impacts on you and your life.

    Here is one example focused on hybrid working:

    Example of a wheel adapted to reflect on hybrid working

    Each wheel contains eight sections, including one which is blank for you to add your own category. I have been experimenting with what categories to include based on the research I have undertaken, and the mix of what’s included changes for different modes of working.

    For hybrid working, you could reflect on and score:

    • Home working environment
    • Work/life balance
    • Physical and mental health
    • Care and family responsibilities
    • Socialising with colleagues
    • Commute
    • Office or campus work environment
    • and… a category of your choice

    Here is another example that I have completed for working as a virtual team:

    Example of a wheel with scores adapted to reflect on working in a virtual team

    In this example, I have added a lower score for “Virtual socialising with colleagues” and high scores for areas like “work/life balance” and “home working environment”.

    Try out this resource

    You can download this resource and use it or adapt it to better suit your particular needs.

    If you have any feedback or comments, I would love to hear from you. Contact me.

  • Virtual Teams Book – Monthly News, April 2022

    Book news

    BOOM! This month I am excited to share that I have completed the first draft of the book. It’s actually more like draft no. 3, but up to now I hadn’t ever written the conclusion, and now I have. 

    Now my 48,570 words or ~160 pages of work in progress have been shared with internal reviewers for comment and feedback until early May 2022. If you’d like to help review the book, please let me know and I’d be happy to share the complete draft with you. 

    There is still a lot of work to be done, but reaching a point at which I have a complete book feels like a great milestone. 

    Coaching update

    In very exciting news I finished the first coach training course this month and thus I am a step closer to getting formally accredited as a coach. One of the things I am working on is a set of coaching style questions to help reflection on leading virtual teams… so watch this space for more updates soon. 

    Remote working radio… with special guest Lauren Hanks

    I am very much looking forward to doing a special remote working radio show this month, with a special guest, in order to share current thinking in the run up to session we are hoping to run at the OER22 Conference in late April… join me and Lauren:

    Wednesday, 13th April 2022
    14:00 BST
    on DS106Radio

    As this is a special episode, you can expect more conversation and fewer songs.. (and unfortunately no special requests).

    Writing buddy update: Posey has helped me think through finishing the complete draft.

  • Talking about ethical approaches to Learning Technology during Digital Universities Week

    This week I am chairing a discussion about ALT’s development of a framework for Ethical Learning Technology with a wonderful line up of speakers: ALT’s Chair, Professor Helen O’Sullivan, Javiera Atenas whose work helped shape the framework and our President, David White. Each will bring a different perspective to the conversation, helping us explore why taking an ethical approach to digital education is important for leaders, professional and academic staff and, first and foremost, students.

    Programme entry

    Since it’s initial launch in September last year, ALT’s Framework for Ethical Learning Technology (FELT) has continued to develop with input from Members and the wider community. The first part of the work is that we are collecting case studies and examples of policies from across sectors to help establish a baseline of practice and also of gaps in practice, of questions or problems to which we don’t have robust answers as yet. The second part of the work we have focused on is the development of resources that help individuals and teams translate the framework into practice. The first resources, our FELT Reflective Self-Assessment, launched at the end of 2021:

    You can use this assessment tool to reflect on a particular project, a new tool or platform or you can use it to focus on a particular aspect of your work. We encourage all Learning Technology professionals to undertake this self-assessment to reflect on their professional practice in relation to FELT’s four core areas. Based on the outcome, you can then move on to complete individual sections focused on particular aspects of your practice. The self-assessment is mapped to the CMALT accreditation framework and this is indicated throughout the assessment. 

    https://www.alt.ac.uk/about-alt/what-we-do/alts-ethical-framework-learning-technology/felt-resources

    These resources form the start of our efforts to put the framework into practice, and the session this week will enable us to share these more widely as well as exploring why it’s important in different contexts.

    As many of us are emerging into some sort of post-pandemic way of working, we need to make some space for considering the ethical dimension of digital practices in our strategies and the FELT framework can offer a practical starting point for exactly those conversations for institutions, teams, with students and with industry.

    … and returning to in person conferences

    Like many, I am just about to make my first steps back to in person conferences. It feels like closing a loop, the “what I last did two years ago” loop. Part of my role as a CEO is to represent my organisation and share the work we do and the voice of our Members on the best possible platforms. For the past two years, that has been a lot harder than it used to be, and there is a whole dimension of networking and influencing that has been absent from much of my day to day work during the time of online only events.

    Like many, I have mixed feelings about the return of travelling for work, partly because here in Wales we continue to have more restrictions in place than is the case in England. But mainly I am grateful to have the opportunity to represent my organisation again, to have the option of generating engagement (and income) through running events both in person and online and, most of all, to reconnect with colleagues who inspire me and who contribute to my enjoyment of my work.

    Given how much of my professional practice is online, I know what really, really great virtual work looks like. I experience it every week. And I also know how much effort and time and resources it takes to make it happen, and that relatively few people have either the skills or the set up to make it work consistently.

    So I am looking forward to returning to the comparatively ‘easier’ way of connecting in person. And, in just over a month, to dancing with penguins…

  • Virtual Teams Book – Monthly News, March 2022

    This month we are taking a break from sharing updates on the book other than the all important writing buddy pic.

    An escalating shoulder injury has prompted a pause in writing as I need to focus on treatment & recovery.

    Stay well and see you next month for hopefully more updates on the book 🙂

    Posey, my writing buddy

  • Virtual Teams Book – Monthly News, February 2022

    Writing retreat and onwards

    January was extremely busy for me and I am glad that I took a week’s holiday from my day job and focused on writing. It was the first time since my PhD years that I spent so much time focusing on writing, and I really enjoyed it.

    For the week of the writing retreat, I set a number of aims:

    • Decide the title of the book
    • Write “about the book” and “about the author” blurbs
    • Edit the first draft of the book and write the conclusion, which would result in a complete 2nd draft.

    I am pleased to say that I accomplished the first two, and that I have updated the information on the book page accordingly. The book will be called Leading Virtual Teams – Field Notes from a CEO by Dr Maren Deepwell and will be published in 2022 as an open access publication by the Association for Learning Technology, UK. 

    The book is subtitled Field Notes from a CEO because my years as an Anthropologist gave me a researcher’s mindset that I have never quite left behind. Although I have settled into a different mindset in my ten years as a CEO, no longer just observing, but leading, I still find myself just as curious about seeing the world from someone else’s viewpoint and doing my best to walk a few steps in their shoes. Leading a virtual team has challenged that ambition in interesting ways, and provided me with a new field for exploration.

    I also made significant progress editing the first draft into a more coherent and complete 2nd draft. Of the 51,000 words I wrote since last summer, 47,500 have made it into the nearly completed version. The overall book will be ~55,000 words long.

    What’s left to do is to finish editing Chapter 4, which I wrote first in July last year, and which needs the most work and also to rewrite the conclusion and expand it. I left the conclusion to last, dropping in fragments along the way, as I wanted to get a feel for what the book would be like overall, before finalising my concluding thoughts.

    By the end of this month, the complete 2nd version will be finished and then the next steps await me: getting feedback from a wider circle of critical friends and readers, liaising with our publishing partner to progress the copy editing and deciding on a cover for the book, too.

    Exciting times ahead, that’s for sure!

    Talks and events

    Join our monthly radio meet up on DS106radio. This time I’ll be talking about the writing retreat and share news on book progress on Wednesday, 9th February 2022 at 19:00 GMT on DS106 Radio – chat with me or submit song requests #DS106radio.

    Coaching update

    The first month of coach training has given me a lot of prompts for reflection. One of the fundamental coaching techniques I am learning more about is how to use powerful questions and as I was writing, I discovered that many of the reflective prompts and questions included in various chapters could be used in this context, too.

    One of the ideas this has given me is to create a set of questions specifically about working from home and being part of virtual teams, that could be used in a coaching context, and could also be helpful in wider professional practice. I hope to share these in a future monthly update.

    Writing buddy update

    Posey has been an excellent writing buddy, and we have been taking regular breaks from the computer together as well as our regular afternoon walks. However, the best thing for her this month has been to finally be allowed in the office full-time.

    Posey in full home working mode 🙂
  • Virtual Teams Book – Monthly News, January 2022

    Virtual Teams Book – Monthly News, January 2022

    Writing Retreat ahead

    At the end of last year I completed the first draft of the book and I am really pleased that despite everything that was going on last year, I managed to reach that important milestone. Along the way I made some changes to the structure of the book and now that the draft is complete, I can also see overarching themes emerging.

    My plan was to continue editing the draft chapters over the holidays, but when I finally reached the end of the working year and having had my booster jab, I decided to take a complete break instead. It was much needed and I am glad to have had some proper time off.

    My plan is to still fit in some editing this month before heading on a week long writing retreat at the end of January.

    Talks and events

    This month I am speaking at fewer events as many of the planned conferences have been moved to later in the year. In many ways this is a blessing as it gives me more time to focus on writing. At the end of December I looked back at the talks and articles I published in 2021 – and that were more than I expected.

    One key focus for 2022 is going to be continuing work on the Framework for Ethical Learning Technology and I am looking forward to taking part in the THE Digital Universities Week and Ahead by Bett to share process and new developments.

    Join our monthly radio meet up on DS106radio talking about the journey from learning online to working in distributed teams on Tuesday, 11th January 2022 at 19:30 GMT on DS106 Radio – chat with me or submit song requests #DS106radio.

    Coaching update

    I have had excellent coaching on my journey to becoming a CEO. My own experience has given me an understanding of how powerful the right coach can be and how valuable for developing your approach to being a leader.

    In order to become an accredited coach, an ICF Associate Certified Coach, I am taking part in Katie Linder’s Higher Ed Coach Training. I’ll be blogging every month sharing my experiences and how this relates to leading virtual teams.

    Writing buddy update

    Posey celebrated her 1st birthday this month, so she gets featured 🙂