Stepping Back before Moving Forward

At our recent Supporting Successful Collaborations Session, one of the topics of discussion was effectively replicating face-to-face interactions in a virtual environment.  How can we take the personal interactions our users and clients enjoyed, such as networking and brainstorming sessions, hands-on support, and product demonstrations, and move these experiences online?  

Image Description: Laptop drawn on notepad, with coffee mug

A session participant talked about how effective and fun her face-to-face interactions with her users had always been.  She typically worked with multiple users at one time in the same setting, hopping from user to user as they needed support, with easy access to whiteboards and other tools.  Moving her services online has meant a significant increase in interactions, with individual Zoom conferences and email and text exchanges added to group meetings.  Trying to replicate her face-to-face interactions has been draining her time and her energy.  And would this approach of increased interaction work as well with new users, who hadn’t already had the experience of working together face-to-face?

Over many conversations and in presentations, I’ve encouraged leaders to step back and consider their goals before moving forward with a transition to online services and tools.  While virtual environments are rapidly improving and increasingly seeking to mimic in-person interactions (Remo, LunchPool, and Zoom’s Breakout Room feature come to mind), adopting these technologies may have unintended impacts on staff time and might be out of reach for some organization’s budgets.  Rather than merely selecting tools to imitate in-person experiences, go back to the purpose and desired outcomes of the service or interaction and consider how those goals can be best served in a virtual environment.  You may find that a different type of interaction or access to content using tools you already have (and with which your users are already comfortable) will also support your goals.

How has your organization managed the transition to virtual?  Are you trying to replicate face-to-face interactions, or have you moved in a different direction? I’d love to chat with you and hear about your successes and challenges!

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COVID-19 Continuity Support

To help sustain and support our community during COVID-19, it’s my pleasure to donate time to provide continuity consulting to small businesses and nonprofits.  I’d be happy to talk with small businesses, nonprofits, and their employees about ways they can successfully navigate the transition to remote work and practically implement technology to offer (at least some) services online.  If you are overwhelmed with options and unsure of which technologies and approaches might work best for your environment, I can talk through those options with you and offer some advice.

Small businesses, nonprofits and their employees can schedule a time to talk with me over the next 3 weeks at https://calendly.com/yazdaniconsulting/covidtech  (Update: We’ve extended this offer through May 1st)

I’m also opening a Slack channel to help folks share strategies.  Please email me to be invited to the channel.

What to expect:  Once you schedule a call, you will be asked to complete a short Information Form that will help me prepare for our discussion.  Each call is scheduled for 45 minutes and you will receive a call from me at the scheduled time. In 45 minutes, I can hope to learn about the challenges you are facing in responding to COVID-19 and offer some suggestions for technology and approaches you can use.  I won’t be able to walk you through the steps of a technology implementation, but I hope to be able to point you in a direction to help you move forward on your own or to find support. I’m not able to provide legal, tax or financial advice, but I can suggest how and when to implement technology tools.

Also, this isn’t a sales pitch for my services.  I won’t use our 45 minutes to talk about Yazdani Consulting and Facilitation and I won’t suggest you hire me to help you fully implement a technology we discuss.  If folks are interested in learning about my services, they should schedule a different time to talk.  I’m donating my time because I think I have some experience and expertise to offer and this seemed like one way I can help.  And (selfishly), as small businesses and nonprofits are among my targeted clients, I’d like to ensure their sustainability during COVID-19 so that they are still around to do business with once things return to (a new?) normal.

Stay safe,

Jami Yazdani

Founder and Chief Strategist, Yazdani Consulting and Facilitation