Hybrid working

Since the pandemic organisations are navigating hybrid working, as well as returning to working full-time in a location.  Teams are more geographically spread than ever before, and co-location of teams means we need to get good at building teams and relationships when we aren’t physically together.

We work with clients in person, Zoom or Teams, or a blend of some in person workshops, facilitation and coaching, some via zoom. And all work well, with effectiveness and engagement being high in all experiences.  Getting in our cars or catching a train for a development event is great, and we currently have a 50/50 time balance between in person and Zoom (or Teams).

Zoom and MS Teams are our friends, and we love the versatility and democracy that using a virtual meeting platform creates.

Over the last few months we have held two-day training programmes for 3 – 22 people, half-day workshops, webinars for large groups of over 150 people, short bite-sized development sessions and have had great 121 and team coaching conversations.

We maximise engagement, learning and interaction by using breakout rooms, slide share, whiteboards, polls and the chat function for sharing ideas. We work with people to increase meaning, engagement and dialogue, and our feedback is always very positive (indeed we are now training others on how to have impact on Zoom for Commercial meetings and project management).

We design each event to meet the needs of diverse learning preferences and approaches in the following balance of delivery:

• Presentation – 30%
• Group exercise – 15%
• Group discussion (large group and breakout rooms) – 30%
• Pairs coaching – 20%
• Individual reflection – 5%

The impact of Covid and working remotely is also woven into our development stance in many ways including:

• Encouraging leaders to appreciate the difference that leading remotely can make to leader effectiveness – how do I build and maintain good relationships?
• Helping teams work effectively together when they are physically in different locations – how do people support and give feedback to each other?
• Developing managers to manage teams and performance from a distance – how to avoid being a micromanager and still trust and engage
• Building sales relationship skills to keep connected with customers in a virtual world – the nuances of meeting, presenting and training when using the web
• Raising awareness of the importance of well-being when working from home – helping people to develop their own approaches to personal well being
• Skilling people to develop and manage their own and their team’s resilience with compassion, integrity and practicality – how can I manage my effectiveness in this potentially stressful world
• Offering strategies for people to dial up their empathy and listening skills to be fully present in conversations and meetings – how can I be fully present in each conversation
• Leading change to navigate the way through this ever changing world – practical tools and frameworks to lead change and to engage and empower people to action.

Our web site gives you details of what we do and how we do it.

The past few years have helped us to realise that routines and what we took for granted can be easily taken away, and we want to work with you to help you work in this situation with integrity, compassion and purpose. 2020 has provided us with so many lessons, and we look forward to working with you to develop yourself, your people and your business.

Get in touch and we can have a virtual coffee and chat. Or a real coffee !

Helen Askey