The new not normal…

How many Zoom calls did you have in the last week? How about Teams? Bluejeans anyone? Has anyone else found themselves swaying from meeting after meeting to suddenly having a blissful afternoon free? Or has it been relentless back to back virtual calls? Or you might have even stepped a toe back into the office?

While at Station10 we’ve always worked with multiple locations and working styles, like everyone else it’s now so important to get the basics of collaboration right. And while it’s easy to jump into the negative conversation around how much busier our work days seem to be remotely, we feel it’s important to highlight the things we want to take forward, however and whenever this may be. So here are few areas we’ve been focusing on since lockdown began. Individually they’re common sense – together they work to create a more cohesive working pattern:

Meeting etiquette

We’ve all been there – a full, over-warm meeting room, attendees crammed in, most with laptops open ‘taking notes’, some right at the back out of the line of sight checking in on their social media… We’ve been trying to instill good meeting etiquette virtually. Video always on if possible, to increase engagement in the room for presenters. Mute when not speaking as best practice. Keep the agenda concise, and finish 5 mins early if possible to allow for changeover time.

Daily Check-ins

Right at the beginning of lockdown, we setup a 30 min daily check-in for everyone to join, just a chance to grab a coffee first thing and chat with colleagues, just as you would if you had just stepped in the office. You could join if you want to, but if you have a day crammed with meetings, you probably prefer to give that one a miss. We also found it useful as a commute-like barrier between personal and professional to avoid us rolling out of bed and straight into the work day. Even when some of us are back in the office, we feel it would be good to still continue these to keep those at home connected with those now at HQ.

Calendar and time management

So often meeting scheduling is delayed by showing a false ‘busy’ day in a calendar when in fact some of these meetings could be something easily moved. We recommend giving access to your calendars to colleagues but marking private meetings as such. Avoid filling others calendars with holiday requests – set them as ‘free’ time, or put them in a separate calendar. Book out regular breaks & a lunch hour and try not to move them.

Collaboration

Identify & use each tool for its best purpose. We use Email for more formal, less bite size communication or with clients that can’t use other platforms. We try not to have this open constantly as it’s a distraction, but check in regularly throughout the day. We use Slack to drop questions to the wider team, and have some fun if anyone has some office banter to share. Teams for group collaboration, but tend to move to Zoom when we want to see more than 9 people on a screen. We even experimented with Discord early on to listen to the office playlist, and talk to each other, just like we would in the office!

These are just a few of the things that I’ve really focused on in the last 3 months, a combination of common sense measures to help us work better and stay close as a team. What are your work from home revelations? Let us know.