How to Stay Strong and Focused while Working From Home
Team-Building Discussion
How to Stay Strong and Focused while Working From Home (approximately 40 minutes)
My friend Chris Bailey has written hundreds of articles on the subject of productivity, and is the author of two bestselling books: Hyperfocus, and The Productivity Project. Recently he published 3 short, but incredibly relevant, articles to help teams stay strong during this crisis:
- How to Work From Home (During a Difficult Time) – https://alifeofproductivity.com/how-to-work-from-home-coronavirus/
- Ways to Invest in Mental Health During Self-Isolation – https://alifeofproductivity.com/ways-to-invest-in-mental-health-during-self-isolation-coronavirus/
- How to Not Keep Refreshing the News – https://alifeofproductivity.com/how-to-not-keep-refreshing-the-news-coronavirus/
Using a virtual team meeting to process these articles is a great way to motivate and unify your team.
Step 1 – Send the 3 article links (above) to your team members 3-5 days before the virtual meeting. Be clear that they need to read the articles before the meeting.
Step 2 – Schedule a 40-minute online meeting with Zoom or another video conferencing option.
Step 3 – Download and print out the discussion handout and send a copy to each team member (click here for the file). Spend 5 minutes welcoming the group. Work through question #1 for 15 minutes, and question #2 for 15 minutes. Spend the last 5 minutes thanking the group for participating and providing any important organizational updates.
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Icebreaker
The Appreciation Game (approximately 15 minutes)
Carve out some time to deliberately build relationships and team connections at your next virtual meeting. This icebreaker will provide your team members with a much-needed boost of encouragement to help them successfully navigate the road ahead.
Step 1 – A few days before your next meeting, send out an email asking all of your team members to think of something they appreciate and/or miss about each member of the team (their sense of humour, something they specifically did recently that helped, etc.). Suggest that they keep the comments brief. It may be helpful to also include the list of team members names in your email so that no one forgets a person. It is important to tell your team to reply to you ONLY (do not reply all!).
Step 2 – Make sure to schedule 15 minutes at the start of your meeting for this ice breaker. Let the group know you will be reading out a random list of TOP 3 statements written about each person. Example: Person #1- Here are 3 things your team members said about you…
Step 3 – Using the “chat” feature in Zoom (or whatever meeting platform you are using), have each person type in their best guess as to who it is. Once people have typed in their guesses, reveal who the person actually was and move on to the next person.
Have fun!
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