40 Strategy Stories – Vacilitation and How to Manage Your Team Strategically in a Virtual World. The coronavirus pandemic has put to the test three areas of competency, Strategy, Meetings and Virtual communication. Strategic Plans have a 10% chance of success. 30% of employees are engaged. Prior to the pandemic, only 3% of the workforce were remote. The chances of being competent in all 3 areas is about 7 people for every 10,000. Here is a guide to managing your team against the odds.
Vacilitation – Managing Your Team Strategically in a Virtual World
Status Quo?
Status quo is the 4th most common reason why strategic plans fail however that has not been the problem this year. Status quo is out the door because the global pandemic has changed the way that everyone works and interacts. As your 2020 Strategic Plan is completely worthless, what do we do next?
Unfortunately, this pandemic and economic downturn was not anticipated. If you did a SWOT analysis last year, you may have entered recession as a possible threat. However, did you actually plan a strategy just in case that happened? As the forecast prediction for a recession was just 5% in December 2019. The economic joke is that economists have predicted 14 of the last 5 recessions, therefore many did not take that prediction very seriously.
Therefore, most individuals and organizations were caught flat-footed when COVID-19 hit and the economic replications. As of last week, a record 22 million have filed for unemployment due to the social distancing order causing many businesses to shut down operations and let go of employees. The $350 billion in pay period loans to small businesses were exhausted in just 14 days.
The “new” Norm
Working remotely is the “new norm”. Prior to this event, 3% of the workforce worked remotely and today that is over an estimated 50%. Zoom users have increased from 10 million to 200 million users in just 3 months. Wow!
Yes, we are working from home. Yes, we are following social distancing policies.
But have we improved our effectiveness?
Prior to the global pandemic
- Only 8% of New Year’s goals are achieved
- 30% of employees are engaged
- 3% of the workforce has regular experience working remotely
- We wasted $399 billion on meetings in 2019
Simple Math
What are the chances of being a high achiever, who is highly engaged and effective at working remotely while managing their teams strategically?
8% of the Population Achieve Their Goals X 30% of Employees are Engaged X 3% of the workforce has experience working remotely….
And the Answer is = 0.072% have got this figured out. That is 7 people for every 10,000 workers are engaged, high achievers who work remotely.
My guess, we are wasting more than $399 billion this year.
Let’s not lose hope. There is a better way.
Let us tackle this problem together and solve this problem of managing your team in a Virtual World. I like to call it Vacilitation, the art and science of strategic facilitation done remotely. The three major areas we have to address is:
- Strategy
- Meetings
- Virtual
Strategy
Most organizations that I have spoken with are in A) survival mode B) boom mode and C) sitting and waiting. None of these activities are strategic. Fight or flight survival are tactics to live the next day. Strategy is making decisions about what your organization needs to change to and thrive as we get to the next boom cycle. Great organizations learn to not just survive but thrive in economic challenges. As many of us are currently stuck, here are 6 steps in 2 phases to get you back in Strategy Mode.
Phase 1:
- Create short-term goals (10 to 12 weeks)
- Develop a weekly pulse to achieve that goal
- Celebrate that win
As you see momentum, start the next steps.
Phase 2:
- Create 3 scenarios for 2020, Best Case, Mid Case, Worst Case
- Create goals for each scenario
- Activate different strategies based on traction with each scenario
Meetings
As noted in Inc.’s article on the $399 billion waste of meetings, the following items will hopefully create some momentum to change bad habits. Here are the key elements that every meeting needs to strive for:
- Start on-time. There should not be any delays from your staff walking from one meeting to another.
- A purpose. If the meeting does not have an objective, don’t schedule the meeting.
- An agenda. Clarify the goals of the meetings and the desired outcome.
- Stay on track. (Pro Tip: Have a key word like “squirrel” to remind people they are way off-track.)
- Create solutions to solve problems.
- Establish next steps for your follow-up.
- Set meetings to end 10 minutes early for people to transfer to the next meeting.
Virtual
There are many different tools out there to do your virtual tools. I am a raving fan of Zoom because of the ease of use and value. For this purpose, I will use Zoom as the key tool to host your virtual meetings as 200 million other users agree.
The virtual brings a whole different list of elements that can kill your effectiveness. Very few are good with meeting their goals. The agreed theory is “Meetings have a historical wasted element and now we are just all going to be excellent because we are on Zoom.” That is NOT accurate. But there is hope and a few key tips to be great. I have a PDF for the 40 checklist steps, but here are the ones that will make you better in a virtual world right now.
- Start your Zoom video at least 5 minutes beforehand so everyone can log-in to start your meeting on-time.
- Use this 5 minutes to be informal and chat.
- Record for those who are unable to attend. No excuses.
- Test your audio before the meeting starts and use headphones if there are distractions.
- Use video and require your team to use it too. It is more important than ever to see the non-verbal communication as this is about 90% of actual communication.
- Use a virtual background unless your background looks great. I took a picture of a wall in my office and set my background as that so whether I am in a cafe or having my family dance behind me, you cannot be distracted.
- Use virtual backgrounds that are not distracting as well. Same problem as a messy room.
- When others are speaking, put your speaker on mute. Pro-tip: This will help you listen better as a manager before you interrupt.
- Allow for time to think. Use a tool like Notability or Google docs for others to think through solutions and offer people. Write down thoughts.
- Use Zoom breakout sessions if available.
- Finally, smile. You are being watched. Enjoy it, you will probably not be able to work from home forever. And others said loudly, amen!
Using the above mentioned tips will help you manage more strategically in a virtual world and be one of the 7 in 10,000. Now, that is a Strategic Goal!
Happy Vacilitation to you!
Learn more on this subject will this webinar.
April 23, 2010, 2:30 PM ET, 11:30 AM PT, Sign-up Here
Vacilitation: Managing Your Team Strategically in a Virtual World, with Technology Association of Oregon
Here is my Calendar Link for a 20 Minute Strategy Chat to evaluate your situation.
Links to Top Articles / Ideas / Websites
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking
Senate approved $484 Billion expansion of the Paycheck Protection Program
How Managers can Support Remote Employees by Sabina Nawaz, Forbes Contributor
What Your Next Zoom Call Needs by Burt Helm, FBI
Professional Referral
If you are looking for a Board of Directors strategy expert, I highly recommend my friend Mark A Pfister. He has 27,000 followers from 70 different countries on his newsletter and he is the author of Across the Board. He has approximately 80 speaking engagements per year. His contact information link is here.
Order this book to learn more
Across the Board, Mark A. Pfister
Past Book Recommendations
The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz
What Your Do Is Who You Are, Ben Horowitz
Born to Win, Find Your Success, Zig Ziglar and Tom Ziglar
See You at the Top, 25th Anniversary, Zig Ziglar
Extreme Ownership, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Webinars
On March 19th, 2020 with the Technology Association of Oregon, I had the opportunity to lead their first virtual webinar on Managing Strategic Plan in Crisis.
On April 22nd, 2020, we co-host Crisis Strategy: Successfully Pivoting Your Personal Strategy in Times of Change, with Mark A Pfister, Author of Across the Board. Here is the recording from the unedited version.
Give this a few weeks to blend into your weekly routine. If you like it, copy the article link and share it on your social sites. Send me your comments, thoughts and suggestions to improve this to catch@40strategy.com. Sign-up here!
PS – If you did not get the pre-blog email, here is the Saddle Up beginning.
Volume 2020:5
