This week’s Weekly Planning Hack, gets you to consider the question “If not now, WHEN”? Many of us have a list of items that sits there. While it is invaluable to get these ideas out of our head and onto a resting place, these lists can grow to be unmanageable and can create a sense of overwhelm in and of themselves. This week pull out any lists you have been creating and ask the question – If not now, WHEN? Some items may naturally fall into your calendar (Schedule them!), some may go back onto a new list to immediate To Dos, and others may gravitate to a new long-term list. In exploring this question, you may find yourself at the end of the process, with yet another long list. Two different frameworks you might apply then: 1. The 4 D Model. Going through that list and further refining it into: Do it – And give it a time frame. Dump it – Let go of it. Defer it – Put it off to another time. (And schedule this in your calendar/planning system.) Delegate it – Consider who to delegate it to, and when they will do it 2. Prioritization – Using the impact/likelihood matrix (see section 4 of PlanDoTrack or Coaching Business Builder), assign each (or most) of the items a priority. Schedule these in accordingly. Enjoy your prioritization! Best, Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Pick up a copy of any of her books at Amazon Book Jennifer for a coaching session to explore productivity, teamwork and business issues. Contact her by phone at (416)996-8326 Check out the new 19 Productivity Tips on-demand program. Explore this video based program at your own pace, and join Jennifer for bi-weekly calls as part of your course. Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram
0 Comments
Being able to create a micro-pause within your working context can help support focus, clarity and momentum. In our work as coaches, we often create a “micro-pause” with the organizations we work with. In my research around the value of group and team coaching, I continued to hear about the value of the “pause”, the fact that a coaching conversation would provide a pause for people to stop and think and look around. This is something we all can be doing in our work – stopping to see what is working well, and what’s not. What needs to be tweaked, and what needs to be overhauled. We often need to “Slow down, in order to speed up”. Here’s a great article for entrepreneurs who feel like they may need to always be “on” by Jules Schroeder entitled “The Slow Hustle: Why Every Entrepreneur Needs to Slow down In Order to Speed Up”. Questions to consider this week:
Best, Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) As I often write “we live in an era of digital distraction”. From bings and pings, quirks and quarks, digital distractions are everywhere. Digital distractions can include:
Wishing you the best, Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) Week 33 Focus – People Management 101 Focus Question: What makes your people exceptional? Description People are at the heart of any great business, or team. People management is a critical element for success. If you are a first-time team developer there’s lots to learn. It is often said that the move to first time supervisor or manager of people is the largest step you’ll ever undertake during your career. In PlanDoTrack, I explore core skills needed by both team leaders and team members. Given the autonomous nature of virtual and remote work, it can be beneficial and valuable to build these skills across an entire team – not just with the leader. As a leader of people, there are a variety of different conversations you will engage in. Here are several of them:
Activity Consider your skill base right now. What is one skill area you could become more effective in to boost your impact as a people leader? Connection to the Workbook and Planner Complete the Wheel of Virtual and Remote Work in PlanDoTrack and review the skills listed in Section 1 of PlanDoTrack. What do you notice? Where can you improve? Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Plan, Do and Track here. Best wishes, Jennifer Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Pick up a copy of any of her books at Amazon Book Jennifer for a coaching session to explore productivity, teamwork and business issues. Contact her by phone at (416)996-8326 Check out the new 19 Productivity Tips on-demand program. Explore this video based program at your own pace, and join Jennifer for bi-weekly calls as part of your course. Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram Scattered throughout some of the 28 different planning tools of PlanDoTrack and the Coaching Business builder is the question “what will wild success look like?”. I love asking this question to people I am coaching as it gets us to think about WHAT IS POSSIBLE, often without a lot of censure. There are several ways to reword this question:
The benefit of these questions is that it:
As you go about your planning for the next month or quarter, what can wild success look like for you around your most important goals? Best wishes, Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) In today’s Digitally Disrupted world, the skill set of discernment and focus are taking precedence. The ability to find “micro-pauses” where you can stop, assess and make decisions plays a critical role in productivity, teams and leadership. Here’s what I wrote bout the skill of discernment earlier this year here at the PlanDoTrack Blog in February: “Leveraging our time is as much about getting organized, as it is getting clear on what’s important. Against the backdrop of complexity, ongoing change and disruption, getting ruthless with our time management can be so important to many. As a business owner, or remote worker, this is especially true. We can’t get out time back. So, when we go down a rabbit hole (whether it’s doing too much research online, following a shiny red object or thinking we just need to learn “one more thing”), the costs can be tremendous. Not just in NOT getting things done, but in terms of our focus, our motivation and also our profit line! Discernment is about getting clear on what’s important and what’s not. It is about being clear of what’s going to provide impact now, later or never. As a remote worker or virtual business owner, we are quite control of our time. Our colleagues and/or superiors may be hundreds of miles away, or several time zones ahead. As remote workers, it’s not always about how we manage our time, but how we get our results. Those who feel the crunch in getting something over the finish line is usually only us (and those loved ones around us!). With this in mind, what is the cost of not being discerning around where your time goes, or how clear your projects are, or what is a more important priority than another? As we embark on new projects, or start a new week, it can be useful to be asking (ourselves, and our stakeholders):
What questions do you want to consider asking as you decide one priority to another?” How can discernment help you in your work and focus right now? Let us know! Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) The mantra for today is for many “Bigger is better” but when it comes to goals in fact it may be that “Less is more”. With workplaces ripe with ever-changing priorities it can lead to a lack of engagement and clarity on the part of employees. When we are pulled into meetings last minute and not able to focus on some of the core tasks we had planned, it can feel disruptive and disempowering. While we may never be able to focus on all the tasks we have planned, being able to focus, and take action on, our top 3-5 goals in a day or a week, can help employees feel as if they have some control. As you will note with the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack, many of the planning templates have space for you to note your Top 3 – 5 goals each week or month. These can serve as anchors in what sometimes feels like a sea of change! Do you already ask yourself every day or regularly, “What are my top 3-5 goals?”? If not, now many be the time to experiment with this practice. See what you notice. Let us know how you are using the different planning resources in PlanDoTrack or Coaching Business Builder in the comments here, or jump into the discussion over at the Conversation Sparker Zone. Enjoy the conversation! Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each week here. Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) Welcome back to another Wednesday Weekly Planning Hack. This is #24 in the series. This week’s WPH is about a great prioritization tool using post its. It builds onto last week’s focus of using post its in planning, and in ensuring all voices in a team are represented. In this week’s blog post let us explore another very visual way to prioritize – this time using post its. Here’s what I wrote about the Planning Matrix in PlanDoTrack and the Coaching Business Builder: “The prioritization matrix is a quick visual tool where all you will need is some post-it notes or a white board. First, identify all of the priorities you have, writing each one down on a separate post-it. Then rate them according to their impact and likelihood of getting them done (or other criterion). Place them along the matrix of impact and likelihood. This activity is very visual, and stimulates dialogue amongst the team members themselves. An important part of the prioritization process for teams is about sharing information, and also busting assumptions that might be held. This seems to have the potential to be a great structure for facilitating that conversation.” (Source: Coaching Business Builder, Jennifer Britton, 2018) What ways can you incorporate post its, teamwork and planning? Best, Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) This week’s Weekly Planning Hack focuses on the Power of a Post It. From being an important visual reminder, to helping teams focus on what’s important, the power of a post-it can become a colorful way to prioritize and focus. Here are a couple of ways you might consider using post its to help you with your productivity:
Here’s what I wrote in a 2008 blog posts on post its called A Facilitator’s Ally: Post Its and Index Cards: I love post it notes and index cards! Many of you will know that it made my top 10 list of most useful tips and tools for 2007. Today's post, builds on a much older post of mine from last year, about how post it notes and index cards can be a really valuable tool in your toolbox. Here are some ideas on how you can use post-its and/or index cards: 1. For program development. Using a new post it or index card, brain storm all the ideas you have about upcoming programs. Lay them out on a table or floor to start sorting/grouping. 2. To get quick feedback from all participants during a program. As an evaluation tool, have participants write out their responses to your evaluation questions (1 question/answer per card), and have them post them on the wall. 3. For business planning or strategic planning sessions. The photo above is from a recent team planning session I facilitated late last year. There is nothing like getting people up and moving to boost engagement, excitement and ownership of their work! 4. As a quick poll of the group regarding what questions are popping for the group. 5. To ensure that all voices of the group are being heard. It is quite common for groups to be dominated by certain members. As a facilitator it's important to ensure that all voices are heard. Having participants write out their questions or responses, and then post them, or share them, can provide participants who introverts are, shyer or those who require more time to process questions, the opportunity to participate and "be heard". 6. As a "vote" regarding where to go. Have participants show their support for a discussion item by putting up a post it note. (Different colours can represent different categories.) 7. As a brainstorming tool. You can bring post-its/index cards into exercises where participants want to/need to brainstorm. For example,
Here’s a link to that original post. Enjoy your use of post its! Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) Many professionals today operate in an environment of distraction and rapidly changing sands. While this may be our context, having concrete action steps to keep focusing on can mean the difference between satisfaction in getting the important things done, and feeling like we have “whiplash” when buffeted by ongoing change. One of the sections you’ll see in some of the 28 different planning tools included in the PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder are an invite to share your Top 3 to 5 goals. In offering different learning options and presentations I will also ask “what are your three action steps?”. What are the action steps you want to take this week? What are you going to do to keep that visible to yourself? (Note last week’s different suggestions in Weekly Planning Hack 21 on Making It Visual.) What are the three action steps you want to take this week? Best wishes, Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) |
AuthorJennifer Britton is the blogger behind the popular Teams365 blog, a daily,blog for team leaders and members since 2014. Her latest publication is the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner. Pick up a copy at Amazon. Pick Up a CopyUpcoming Programs
Join us for the 21 For 21 Virtual Co-working Sprints - $21 US. Want to access the recordings and bonus worksheets? Join us at the Booster Pack $79 US early bird rate. Sign up at 21for21 Virtual Co-working - STAND OUT VIRTUALLY! Stand Out Virtually - Incubator - Running an online, virtual or digital business and want to get the word out to organizations? Join us for the 8 week Stand Out Virtually Incubator. Next group starts April 2021. Build out your brand, offers and proposals. Virtual Facilitation Essentials (8.5 CCEs)- Expand your toolkit for better remote and virtual conversations. This is a virtual train-the-trainer - 5 weeks: Fall 2021 programming starts in October $495 US Learn more and register. Coaches! Register for the 60 Day Coaching Business Builder Accelerator. Join us for 60 Days support and ACTION for coaches wanting to grow their businesses. On-Demand Course. PlanDoTrack Facilitator Training Program (24 CCEs) - Starts again in October. Contact Jennifer to discuss. Month-End/Quarterly Planning Session: Thursday September 30th - 8 -9 am ET Archives
January 2021
Categories
All
|