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Proposed by: (optional)I propose to focus on ...Further comments/reasons/clarificationAction

Productivity in remote working environment


Effective collaboration (what it is and how to achieve it) remotely


How to achieve and sustain adequate levels of engagement (virtual teams) ("team energy")


Impact of remote working on our use of time, i.e. less time to commute - more time to have things done? 

Alan LewisHybrid teams - how to run them? The implications of hybrid ways of working

Hybrid working should be greater than the sum of its parts - i.e. local and remote work techniques and strategies. Effective Hybrid work is likely to require a re-designing of the team and work activity to be maximally effective and to address such issues as differential treatment, proximity bias and task allocation.

(Thank you, Alan) and to add to the reflections on the subject of Hybrid working - I have come across this very recent research (30,000 people in 31 countries) by the Learning and Performance Institute in UK.

View file
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Research has some interesting insights, e.g. "Comparing collaboration trends in Microsoft 365 between February 2020 and February 2021, the research shows that the average meeting is 10 minutes longer, increasing from 35 to 45 minutes, and that the average Teams user is sending 45% more chats per week and 42% more chats per person after hours. Workers are grappling with more information and more ad hoc communication, with 62% of calls and meetings unscheduled".

And "The research shows that younger workers are struggling more than older workers in various aspects of their work, including being able to bring new ideas to the table, getting a word in during conference calls and feeling engaged or excited about work. And pandemic isolation has shrunk work networks with workers becoming more siloed than they were before the pandemic.

On a more positive note, compared to one year ago, 39% of people say they’re more likely to be their full, authentic selves at work and 31% are less likely to feel embarrassed or ashamed when their home life shows up at work".

A new activity is under way to improve and evolve the product lifecycle management process. This will be supported by a distributed team, within in once he pandemic has waned some groups will be locally collocated. Design a workplan and approach for such a setting, taking account of issues with existing working practices and suggesting improvements.

Balancing work roles and responsibilities, i.e. "local" vs "external" (dual lines of reporting)

Alan LewisTrust - how, what? What is our experience has been so far? What do we know? What do we want to know?Trust is a fundamental baseline for effective collaboration. Personal contact helps to cement trust and in a distributed environment of project operational centres establishing trust can become more challenging and impact on working practices and individuals. In a hybrid setting with smaller localised groupings (down to the individual level) and less frequent contact this can be even more challenging. What is the best way to establish rust in a hybrid setting? What approaches can lead to maximising the effectiveness of the overall endeavor? How is trust best maintained in a hybrid setting? 

Initially summarise experiences so far within my current context.

There may be an opportunity to look at trust establishment when joining a new group already containing individuals familiar with both remote and localised working


Onboarding for virtual teams

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