A lot has changed within just this past week.
COVID-19 has demanded an unprecedented level of speed and agility from governments, organisations, and individuals at a global level. The impact on the health system is huge, and still developing. The impact on the economy - both nation-wide and globally - will be felt for years to come. It’s been made clear that the most effective way to prevent the spread of Coronavirus currently is self-isolation and social distancing.
The greatest challenge faced by any organisation adopting a remote working plan is how to communicate and collaborate effectively. At Inspiring Stories, remote working is the new normal. We are a team of fifteen people based in Wellington and six rural/provincial communities across New Zealand. We deliver four major initiatives as an organisation – Festival for the Future; The Impact Awards; Inspiring Speakers; and Future Leaders.
We've written this blog to share a few key tools and processes that have been critical in supporting our transition to remote working. We hope you find them useful. If there's anything you think is missing, or would like to add – let us know!
Five key tools & processes
1. For battling social isolation, and keeping the team connected and motivated - do a 30-min ‘check-in’ and ‘check-out’ at the start and end of each day.
Isolation can have serious psychological effects over prolonged periods of time - so we make sure to start and end our days with video calls where we cover everything from general mood, to news, to what’s on top for the day. Having this daily touch-point serves as an opportunity for everyone to stay connected, and prevents mission-drift when working solo. We do this on a call each day using Zoom, and put our priorities for the day on Slack (more below.).
2. Celebrate success and end the week with a bang - do ‘Wins & Gratitude’
Win’s and Grat’s has been a staple of Inspiring Stories for as long as anyone can remember. We all have pretty manic week’s sometimes, so it’s great to end our Friday’s with a time to come together and focus on the positive things. One of us kicks things off by sharing their wins from the week - it could be anything from locking in a deal they’ve been working on, to finding an awesome new Thai place around the corner. Then they pass around gratitudes - Sharing thanks to everyone in the team that supported them in some way that week. A Wins and Grats doesn’t need to be long - someone could take 30 seconds - it’s just about being together as a team, and focusing on the positive.
3. For quick & organised internal communication on specific themes and projects – use Slack.
Slack is a great internal messaging tool, that allows users to post and share messages around a specific project(s) or theme(s), as well as the ability to have individual or group chat. It does this by grouping conversations into themes users set themselves. For example, Inspiring Stories has a channel just for Festival for the Future programme planning. This lets everyone stay focused, and stops people from worrying about ‘crowding out the chat’, which lowers engagement.
4. For Video Calls for Internal and External Meetings – Use Zoom.
Zoom is a great video calling platform that’s free to use - even in group calls (provided they take less than 40 minutes). We use Zoom as our way of getting as close to face-to-face interaction as possible, whether it’s with a team member or an external stakeholder.
5. For File & Document Management, and easy collaboration on files – Use Google’s G-Suite.
Google has created a great range of business tools that focus on collaboration above all else. We often have 5-6 of our team editing a single G-Doc at once, allowing for rapid copywriting, strategy planning, budgeting, and more. If we do have multiple people working on a doc, we often combine it with a phone call or zoom to better communicate what we’re trying to do, and how we’re going about it.
In summary:
There has never been a greater need for organisations to adopt the tools and practices needed to ensure workers can work effectively and safely from their own homes. Already, we have seen communities take dramatic and necessary action towards preventing the spread of COVID-19, and empowering employees to self isolate is one of the most powerful things organisations across the globe can do to prevent this spread, without losing productivity. At Inspiring Stories, we were fortunate to be in a place where we could adopt remote-working rapidly, at an early stage of this pandemic. By sharing the information above, we hope you can now do so too. If there’s anything you think is missing, or something unique you’re incorporating in your work, we’d love to hear from you and build on the list!
Until next time,
The Team at Inspiring Stories