Survey on use of Online Communication Tools

Do you ever work from home? Is your team distributed across geographical locations that prohibit you meeting face-to-face on a regular basis? If you answered Yes to any of these questions, can you please spare a few minutes of your time to help a Deborah Fern with her final assignment for the Postgraduate Certificate in Leadership Coaching from the University of Derby.

Her questionnaire looks at the use of online communication tools (MSN Messenger, Google Chat, Skype, web cams and even video conferencing) within business – in both the private and public sector. It also asks for feedback on what impact these tools have on your relationships with others. Is the development of rapport between you and your colleagues or clients affected when there is a layer of technology between you? Does it affect the way you work – especially when many of these tools display to your contacts when you are available online?

The questions are very pertinent to people who work from home. Hopefully Deborah will be able to share some of the results with us.

Ties that Bind

….or Strategies for Building a Successful Virtual Team

Are you in a virtual team? Yes? No? Maybe you’re not sure? Well, do you work with people who aren’t sat in the same room as you, whom you have to communicate with using the Internet and related communication technologies? I’m guessing that most people reading this blog are going to say yes to that one. I’ve already written quite a few posts that have touched on virtual teams but it is still an area in which we are finding our feet.

Ripley Daniels is a prolific blogger for Without the Stress. He enjoys sharing insights gained through years of travel, consulting and entrepreneurship and has written a guest blog post for us on strategies that we can implement to help us build a successful team. Ripley is an editor at Without The Stress, a passport, travel visa, and immigration advisory firm located in Los Angeles.

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Building a successful team and keeping it running smoothly is always a challenge. But this challenge is magnified enormously when the team members happen to be located several miles away from each other. Yet it is an undeniable fact that the virtual team is no longer a thing of the future—it is a thing of the present and in today’s high-tech world, very much a reality. In fact, it is a reality I am quite familiar with because I live it every day. You see, my company is completely remote. My “tough day at the office” happens all the time but it doesn’t take place in a physical office. My team is scattered in a physical sense, yet my continual challenge is to keep it unified in a virtual sense. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to pull off, but we have learned many valuable lessons and have come up with a few simple strategies to make it work. By using them, our team has not only able to survive the chaos of remote interaction, but over time has become a well-oiled machine that is fully functional, highly motivated, and very efficient. Here are a few of these effective strategies:

1. Don’t skimp on the IT: In a virtual environment, your primary substitute for physical interaction is electronic interaction. So don’t be stingy when it comes to equipping your team members with the tools they need to not only do their work effectively but also to reach out and touch one another whenever they need to. For any team to function well, communication is essential. But for remote teams, it is critical. Here are some of the real-time communication tools you should strongly consider for your virtual team members:
   • Laptops equipped with a set of standardized office production software and cameras

   • Internet connectivity with communication technologies (e.g., Skype)
   • Technology for conference calling
   • PDAs equipped with business apps
   • Instant messaging services (including mobile)
   • Use of social media
   • Video conferencing technology

2. Disseminate news regularly to team members: A weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly newsletter is a great idea. It should contain updates on important ongoing projects, the latest industry news, tips on how your team members can do their jobs more effectively, interesting articles, and postings of what’s happening in team members’ personal lives. Include photos and news about marriages, graduations, etc. And don’t forget upcoming birthdays! The newsletter can be supplemented with regular email communication within the team, especially to announce important developments or emergent breakthroughs.

3. Hold regular “team meetings”: Use an audio/video conferencing tool such as Skype to stay in touch and keep everyone on the same page. Allow team members to share project updates. Use the meetings as a means of disseminating general information of interest to the entire team as well as a means of facilitating social interaction among team members. Encourage team members to follow up with phone calls and/or email communication among each other.

4. Clarify roles and responsibilities: Maintaining the delicate balance between individual autonomy and team collaboration is not easy. The most important ingredient in this mix is complete clarity among team members as to each individual’s skill set, role, and responsibility within the team. It is important that every team member knows how his or her job affects the rest of the team, and vice-versa. It’s also important that team members know exactly which other team member(s) to contact for help or assistance in specific areas. Whenever changes or modifications to individual roles or to team structure are made over time, they need to be documented and clarified to all. Also, every employee needs to be aware at all times of his/her personal deliverables and associated deadlines.

5. Exercise strong leadership: When all is said and done, the success or failure of a team rests largely on the shoulders of its leadership. This is true for any team but it is especially true for a virtual team. When the team membership is remote, the leader needs to be accessible and responsive. He or she must be willing to make frequent contact with team members and to demonstrate a very high level of personal commitment to the smooth operation of the team. The leader also needs to have a prominent role in project planning and in providing constant focus on performance objectives, goals, and deliverables. He or she also needs to establish the parameters of an effective training program for new employees so that their integration into the virtual operational environment can be a smooth one.

Virtual organizations such as mine are now commonplace. In addition, many companies are setting up virtual teams to address specific business needs. But either way, it is important that any organization venturing into the virtual workplace knows what it is faced with and is prepared to deal with the unique challenges of running a remote team. The strategies for success work well. And if they are used correctly, transition to a remote work environment can become virtually seamless.

My Thoughts on running an Elluminate meeting

Way back in February I mentioned that I’d been tasked with organising an online meeting. Time just seems to have disappeared between then and now but on Wednesday I finally had the chance to run the much anticipated JISC Observatory Moot using Elluminate.

It all sounds very grand (‘moot’ has two relevant meanings here: “to present or introduce (any point, subject, project, etc.) for discussion” and “a gathering“) and it did end up being more than just an online meeting. In this post I’d like to share some of my thoughts on the meeting itself and lessons learnt.

JISC Observatory

First a little background – The JISC Observatory is a JISC-funded initiative to systematise the way in which the JISC anticipates and responds to projected future trends and scenarios in the context of the use of technology in Higher and Further Education, and Research in the UK. It is a collaboration between the two JISC Innovation Support Centres: CETIS and UKOLN. With JISC, UKOLN and CETIS that makes for quite a large virtual team. The moot was an opportunity to discuss possible topics for TechWatch reports. Our first on Augmented Reality for Smartphones has recently been released.

It was likely that there were going to be a fair number of people interested in this and so an online meeting seemed like a sensible option (to save costs, be greener etc.).

Here’s some of the steps I went through:

Choosing Elluminate

After looking at some different online meeting/conferencing services (Gotomeeting, JANET Videoconferencing Service (JVCS) ) I opted for Elluminate. The first reason being that I already have experience of using Elluminate, the second being that the University of Bath currently have an Elluminate pilot running
so licencing costs would be covered. I also felt that Elluminate would offer the functionality that we would require, and hopefully the scalability.

Getting a Team on Board

Although I’d used Elluminate a fair amount as a presenter and a participant this was to be my first stab at moderating and chairing a session. We have a really good e-learning team at the University of Bath and it seemed a shame not to use them. I asked Julian Prior from the Learning & Teaching Enhancement Office and Marie Salter (e-learning Developments Manager) if they could give me a hand. They were great support and did a lot of the ‘backroom’ stuff e.g. they set up the meeting, offered technical support, monitored audio levels etc. I also had support from my colleagues Paul Walk (UKOLN deputy director and responsible for UKOLN’s role in the JISC Observatory), Brian Kelly and Thom Bunting who all helped discuss ideas and test the set up.

Responsibilities

Prior to the meeting we made sure that we clearly define responsibilities. A possible list of responsibilities might include:

• Defining purpose and outcomes of session
• Preparing main ppt
• Preparing schedule
• Organising date
• Listing any web tours or urls needed
• Chairing session
• Sending out intro info on Elluminate
• Sending out guidelines and agenda for meeting
• Scheduling meeting room
• Ensuring all users are set up correctly
• Preparing and facilitating warm up session and Elluminate training
• Recording session
• Facilitating questions
• Supporting the whole session (monitoring hand raising, controlling use of microphone, managing text chat, managing poll and publishing results)
• Watching for technical problems
• Capturing feedback on session

For the meeting itself we needed an agenda and a team of ‘champions’ who would present TechWatch report topics. The topics and champions were agreed – they were each asked to prepare a 3 minute pitch and we would allow time for brief questions. After some consideration it was decided that for the meeting to be a success the key was strong moderation and chairing, in other words we wanted to retain control over the session.

An agenda was put together and all the slides were combined to avoid having to open up different sets of slides. It was agreed that only the moderators would have microphone privileges and that we would assign the use of the mic to other speakers when appropriate. This would avoid significant audio problems. Users of Elluminate will know that the most common audio problem is an echo caused by people leaving their microphone on when not speaking.

It was decided that I was to chair the questions and answers. I would do this by encouraging people to raise their hands and then inviting them to speak after assigning them the microphone. This worked well, though I probably should have asked people to introduce themselves just for clarity. In Elluminate the name of the person who is speaking is highlighted, this is fine as long as the speaker has picked an appropriate user name!

Functionality

Introducting Elluminate functionality

Before the moot we had quite a few discussions on use of chat, polls, video, break out rooms etc. It was agreed that as this was a first effort we should keep it simple. Chat was encouraged as a ‘back channel’ and was used very effectively during the session. Video was avoided, primarily to avoid bandwidth issues. The same went for break-out rooms, though I have seen these work really well (at the OU Online Conference last year). We decided to present a brief introduction to Elluminate and it’s functionality at the start of the session. This also gave us the opportunity to get people using the whiteboard and marking up where they were joining us from.

We also needed to have some form of voting system and would have liked to use the Elluminate polls. Unfortunately the polls only allow people to choose from up to 5 options (and we needed 8 ) and didn’t allow for any form of preferencing (or AV). The easiest option seemed to be having a timed private ballot where people clicked the green tick if they wanted to choose a topic. We also suggested to people that they try to limit themselves to 4 votes, primarily to avoid having a full-house of ticks for all the topics.

During the moot there was a little confusion initially and we ended up calling the first vote a trial run but after that people seemed to get the hang of things. I was concentrating on facilitating the votes and the other moderators were locking the votes and totting up the scored using the polling features. There is an option to publish the results to the whiteboard but as we’d carried out 8 votes it made more sense for them to rush into my room and hand me a piece of paper with the scores on. It made for a dramatic end to the session!

I’d have to say that we still have a fair amount to learn when it comes to using Elluminate’s polling and quiz facilities, maybe something to try out next time?

Encouraging participants to use the whiteboard

Conclusions

Overall I feel the session went really well. We had 27 participants and almost all were connected the whole time. There was a good deal of engagement and I think most people took the opportunity to ask a question or write something in the chat box. I’m sure that a lot of the panic (hopefully that was primarily in my head and not heard by the participants) will fade as I get more experienced at moderating sessions.

I made sure that I wrote some fairly comprehensive notes that I could read out during the session when explaining things. I also had a list of points that I needed to mention at various times, for example it was important to explain that the session was being recorded but would only be shared internally, and that the voting would be secret.

I hope that we’ll be able to run a similar online meeting sometime soon and we’ll be able to use our experience, and expand on it.

A few other things

While researching the moot I found the following JISC document very useful: Designing for participant engagement with Elluminate live’.

It has some excellent mind maps of how you can engage with your audience and make sure that the sessions are interactive. Interactivity is definitely the key to keeping your audience awake!

One of the TechWatch topic pitches

Escaping the Desk

Continuing the series of blog posts on workspace Hutch Morzaria has written a piece for us on getting away from our desks and the three technologies of the moment that make it so easy: smartphones, tablet PCs and laptops.

Hutch Morzaria writes on behalf of Mobile Phone Genie which is an independent advice and comparison website for mobile phones and smarthpones.

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Having access to your workplace and the ability to “work from home” without the worries of a daily commute is a nirvana that is quickly becoming reality for many people. However while Virtual Private Networks, Dedicated Phone lines and extra Monitors on your desktop are somewhat commonplace now, the true allure of working remote is the ability to work while not being tied to a desk at all! This is a slightly more difficult challenge, but one that is not in any way insurmountable!

To get online on the go you will need to get access to a Mobile Broadband network. Available from all of the major phone carriers, these next generation networks provide voice and data services to millions around the world and are commonly known as 3G Networks. Choosing the right device to use when accessing these networks however is another question altogether and does very much depend upon the level of interactivity and access that you need to your work computer and network.

Smartphones – while in some ways the Blackberry was the precursor of all other smartphones, in the personal sphere it has never done as well as in the business world. Its use of push email technology along with a very secure and well integrated software suite however does make it a very good choice for business people requiring a solid and secure platform on which to do their work. In addition, as most blackberry devices include a QWERTY keyboard typing speeds are generally superior to those having devices with touch screens only. However that being said, the new Apple iPhone and Android devices – HTC Desire for example – are worthy competitors and while both are currently less “corporate” than the Blackberry, this will change as they continue to explore new markets and bring out new applications to support ever more customers.

All smartphones are however restricted in the amount of physical real-estate that you can use and utilize. A 3” to 5” screen will simply not give you the same ability as a full sized computer monitor, so while they are ideal for email and perhaps some simple documentation tasks, a Smartphone in itself is probably not the best option for working remote.

Tablet PC – the newest kid on the block, the iPad, kicked off a whole new industry in and of itself. With competing products from Google (Galaxy Tab and others) and rumours in the works of Blackberry also launching a Tablet PC product in the future, this type of device is something that will be with us for a while. Tablet PCs generally fill the gap between Laptops and Smartphones and their screen sizes vary from 5” to 11”. Again, the smaller ones while easy to carry are probably not the best option for accessing your work network, however some of the ones with 10” + screens should definitely be considered.

While Tablet PCs cannot natively access the 3G networks, by purchasing a monthly Mobile Broadband contract and installing the supplied micro-SD card this all changes! With a significantly larger screen size, faster processors and a larger amount of storage, Tablet PCs can access office networks in a secure manner through VPN similar to their larger cousins and while the screen is larger it in no way restricts your mobility.

Laptop and Notebook Computers – more of a traditional solution that that of the Tablet PC is the Laptop Computer. For those requiring an improved processing ability and full QWERTY keyboard this is still the preferred option. Heavier than a Tablet and due to its capabilities having a much shorter battery life, Laptops and Netbooks require assistance to access the Mobile Broadband network also. In their case, they gain access through the use of a USB dongle. This simple little device plugs into the USB port on a computer and with all the required software already installed on the unit itself enables full access to Internet through either a monthly contract or Pay As You Go (PAYG).

Laptops vary in screen size from 10” up to 17” although the 17” units are generally considered desktop replacements and are not suitable for extended use on the go, simply due to the weight of the device in itself. However those units at the 13” to 15” level are extremely suitable and as mentioned earlier, the improved processing power, as well as large hard disc drives make these an ideal solution despite the weight issues. Laptops are able to use and support all of the same applications and tools that you are used to on your desktop computer ensuring that there are no cross compatibility issues either.

How do you move a remote worker office?

I’m moving house tomorrow.

Normally this wouldn’t be relevant to a work blog, but when your office is in your house then then unfortunately it is. In the past moving has been a fairly positive thing for me: travelling the world, exciting new areas, a bigger house, nearer to x, y & z. However here are two issues that aren’t making it so great this time. 1) I’m now a real adult with a real family in tow. 2) Unfortunately we have sold our house (I shouldn’t be complaining about that in this property market) and we haven’t found anywhere to go – mainly because my husband’s newish job sits right in the middle of one of the priciest areas in the country! So we’re moving to a rental property, a perfectly nice but much smaller rental property. When I say small what I mean is tiny. Not necessarily tiny for everyone but tiny for us: a 5 person family who find it hard to throw stuff away. I mean you never know when stuff might come in handy!? I keep having nightmares about us not being able to shut the front door. Anyway that’s all irrelevant here, the main question for this blog is How do you move a remote worker office?

Time

The first issue that becomes apparent is on whose time do I do it? Moving office would normally take place in work time but my office is in my home, and not all the contents are work related. I don’t have the answer to this but my current estimations are that I’m doing this 75% in my own time (after hours and lunch breaks) and 25% in work time – not sure if this blog post counts.

One of the problems with not doing it in work time is that sorting out piles of papers invariably leads to me doing work. I tend to have the PC on while I’m sorting (usually so I can listen to the radio) and what happens is I file something which then leads to me writing some notes or sending an email, which then leads to me doing some work. I’m getting distracted by work!

Cost

Naturally I am paying for the cost of moving but there are still a few fuzzy areas. What about changing broadband provider? what about any line connection costs? I’m sure there are more that will come up.

There is also the issue of broadband. What if we end up in a notspot rather than a hotspot. The more rural we go the more likely this is to happen. Our rental property is on the outskirts of the town we live in and BT have told us that broadband is likely to be 4 Mbps rather than the 6-8 Mbps we are currently used to.

Work

Can I just carry on as normal while we move? I work part-time so am off the day of the move but I intend to work the day after. Some messing up by BT (them, not us, honest!!) means we won’t have broadband till the saturday (fingers crossed on that one!) so I’m Internet connectionless for a day. I’m planning to work at my parents house for the day, but a lot of people won’t have this option. It’s also going to take me time to set up my PC and find all my bits and pieces. I know I’ll be saying “where did I put that *** again?” for weeks.

As I mentioned earlier we are going to have a serious space issue at our rental property. This is making me pretty ruthless with ‘stuff’. I have spent weeks freecycling half of our belongings and I am being equally merciless on paper copies of work materials. I keep wondering if there are there some preservation issues here? Is it all available online? Will work need any of it back? What about equipment? I’ll probably just bung all that in a big box because I haven’t really got the time to sort it all out.

Conclusions

It’s back to those blurred boundaries again, and as is the case with many remote worker issues you just have to get on with it as there are no guidelines out there for you. I’ll let you know how the move went once we are settled in our rental place. I’m not too sure what my new office will be like, it may well be just a lap top on the kitchen table!

One last thing, I can honestly say that I never want to move again, though we are likely to be doing it again in the next 6 months when we find somewhere to buy (fingers crossed). Once I’m in my final destination I intend to hoard so much stuff that it makes it impossible for us to even contemplate such a thing. Hmmm, I have a feeling I said this last time….

Measuring your Virtual Team Mood

So how are you feeling today? Is everything going OK or are you panicking or concerned with something you’re working on? How’s the rest of your team feeling? What about if you’re a distributed team, how can you make sure you feel the team vibe?

Philip Gordon is a final year Product Design student about to graduate from The University of Dundee. He has designed a new product called LightSync that helps you understand how your virtual team is feeling and allows a permanent connection between them. It considers the team mood rather an individual’s mood.

The YouTube video embedded below shows how it works.

To quote the site:

LightSync is a product that aims to forge a subtle permanent connection between distributed team members by using colour as an indicator of morale. Each member of a remote team has a LightSync device in their workplace and is periodically prompted to set the colour by rolling the device left or right, this colour is broadcasted to the other team members’ LightSync devices at the push of a button.

When working in a remote team regular communication is essential, but constant phone calls and emails are time consuming and can often be of little benefit. The ambiguous nature of LightSync gives a general connection to the team rather than an individual, this can improve team confidence when all is well or prompt further communication to quickly solve problems when problems arise.

LightSync is a project by designer maker Philip Gordon, each device is cast from polyurethane resin with a cast silicone rubber base and laser cut details, they’re powered by an Arduino Mini microcontroller using an accelerometer to control the output of a high power RGB LED, with a wireless connection provided by a cellular GSM/GPRS cellular module.

More information about the development of LightSync can be found on the designers website http://mrphilipgordon.com

It’s an interesting idea. I tend to work alone or with one other individual so gauging mood is easy but if I was in a more organised virtual team something like this might help. What do people think?

What are your Desk Options?

Just before Easter Mariana Ashley made some suggestions on How to Create the Perfect Remote Workspace. Not all of us have a perfect space at home and there are occasions when looking elsewhere might be a better option. Hot desks and instant offices (or remote offices) are a couple of possible scenarios. I have touched on some of the options in a previous post on The Office of the Future.

Simon Crisp works for Office Genie, the UK’s first proper online marketplace for desk space and shared office space and has written a post for us on why many remote workers are looking at different desk space options and what these options could be.

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It’s a fact of life that remote workers face a multitude of distractions when trying to work from home, from daytime TV to that bowl of washing up which needs doing.

And all of this can eat into your working day – which is one of the reasons an increasing number of remote workers and freelancers are choosing to rent office or desk space where they can work from.

In this post I’d like to take a look at why more and more remote workers are choosing to rent professional desk space, the benefits that doing so can provide and the different options out there.

Moveable Pod, Northern Lights, University of Central Lancashire, photo by JISC InfoNet

Photo above: These portable business incubation pods have everything that a young start-up business needs – they’re self-contained with a PC. phone and storage space, and offering some privacy. Northern Lights offers 24/7 access to PC and telephones in a self-contained unit are available on a hot-desk basis for free then additional desks are available for a monthly fee. The pods are hinged and can be closed and moved around easily providing a space-saving solution.

JISC Info Net have created a Flickr collection of photos of innovative working spaces.

Why rent desk space?

Increased productivity – Almost all remote workers and freelancers start off their career by telling themselves that they’ll be just as productive at home as they ever were in a traditional office.

Unfortunately, many find that’s not the case and they’re simply not able to get as much done at home as they would have liked. Renting desk space, which feels more like a traditional work environment, can give their productivity a boost.

Professionalism – Freelancers, by their nature, often have to meet a variety of clients and discussing work over the kitchen table doesn’t normally go down too well.

Many desk space rentals also come with access to shared meeting rooms and other services (post, IT support and receptionists) which can make your freelancing business more professional.

Improved working environment – In the same way as some remote workers say they are able to get more done when sitting at a desk in a traditional work environment, many people say they are unable to do their best work unless then are in similar setting.

Networking – Renting office or desk space also brings you into contact with like-minded people who are often in a similar situation or profession, this can be a great advantage.

Not only does it mean you can replicate the classic office chit-chat and banter (if you want to) but also learn from each other and even develop your businesses and gain clients.

What are the different types of desk space rental?

Desk rental – Many organisations now rent out serviced desk space to start-up businesses and freelancers, it’s a cost-effective solution and allows you to have a permanent and professional base from where to run your business.

You normally pay a monthly fee and for this you get not only your desk space, but also access to professional services which can include receptionists, IT support and postal services along with the latest office equipment.

Co-working – There are more and more co-working spaces cropping up across the UK, these are shared office space buildings with where desk space is rented out to a community of freelancers and remote workers.

There are normally plenty of shared facilities which can be used by renters, usually including things such as conference rooms, broadband Internet services, projectors, IT support and even a kitchen.

However, one of the biggest advantaged of co-working is probably the social and networking events. Co-working centres often have a strong work community which can be a great benefit to any freelancer.

Hot desking – Hot desking is one of the newer ways of renting office or desk space and involves workers using shared office facilities in much the same way you would exercise equipment at a gym.

After paying either a monthly fee (or sometimes a daily/hourly pay as you go rate) you are given access to the hot desking office and all of the services therein – in some cases you will be assigned a cubicle with storage space, in others it is a more open plan set-up.

As with the other forms of desk space rental, hot desk options frequently include full access to telecoms, computer services and printers – meaning there are considerable savings in not having to fork out for this yourself.