Fellow agilists.. In this weeks edition of #TopTipsTuesday - How to make time for personal interaction
We are all facing this pandemic together. Some of us may be juggling childcare, personal or medical issues. We no longer have the ability to easily support one another, exchange idle banter, to have coffee together face to face, to chat about the latest tv programme or sports news on the way to a meeting, or to gossip at the water cooler.
But, remote working / Asynchronous communication doesn't have to mean asocial.
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We need to make time for personal interaction. Humans have evolved to be social creatures. We need and crave it & now more than ever, it's important that we support one another by making time to engage in non work chat.
I recently began working with some new teams, as I'm all about making things fun and fostering personal connection, I often begin each session with an icebreaker question, something random and out there.
During one such session recently, I pulled on one of the props I have lying around on my desk and suggested others find a hat, or something they could wear on their head and tell a story about it. Something so simple resulted in laughter, discussion and learning about one another.
My Top tips for enabling personal interaction
Make the first 5 minutes of each meeting unfiltered, non work focused to allow teams to connect. Use random icebreakers and energisers. Let the team choose which question to ask and get them to nominate the next person to answer
Monday morning catch ups and Friday afternoon wrap ups - Have a regular standing meeting in the diary for people to dial in and chat with one another about non work stuff, this should be optional attendance. You could be chatting about the latest football scores, peoples weekend adventures, what they plan to do this weekend? Invite them to bring a beverage and decompress
The Walk-with-me experiment. Create a slack channel dedicated to arranging chats with one another, particularly those outside of your usual teams. Have a walk, get some fresh air away from the desk and connect with your colleagues
Virtual coffees / lunches - Put a time in the diary with your teams to have a coffee or lunch with one another to shoot the breeze
What tips do you have for enabling personal interactions with your teams? What was the result of doing so? I'm always keen to hear from fellow practitioners.
Don't stop believin folks!