Month: April 2020

We are now a few weeks into the new normal of working at home. Some people may be thriving in this new environment. For others, they may be missing colleagues and a formal office space. Maybe by now the shine of being at home has worn away. Yet work continues and needs to be completed. How do you stay engaged and motivated while being away from your usual workplace routine?

Here are our top 5 tips for keeping motivated and engaged while working from home:

1. Keep all meetings to 30mins or less

We encourage you to over communicate so you feel more connected with your colleagues. But don’t let your meetings drag on. Adjust your agenda to have shorter, sharper meetings. This will boost engagement as the pace picks up and conversations become clearer and more concise.

2. Nominate a social champion

If you naturally have social people in your team, utilise them! Get them to lead social initiatives to encourage connection – such as starting each meeting with a fun fact or sending a question to engage everyone to answer. If you would prefer something more subtle why not create themes for virtual meetings. For example, everyone wears something on their head, or chose a colour a day to coordinate clothes choices for something fun.

3. Create a channel for fun

Engagement stems from being naturally driven to pay attention and get involved. Encourage this by setting up channels for fun topics on your collaborative tool like MS Teams. It could be as simple as sharing new background images for everyone to use on your virtual meetings, sharing funny photos of your pets, or maybe sharing your home cooking disasters and delights. Either way, the more we share the less isolated we will feel

4. Change up your workspace

If you have the ability to, take your laptop outside to work. If you don’t have that option, look at rearranging your current workspace. Maybe de-cluttering is a good option after a few weeks of working. Only have what you need around you and put away everything else. Consider introducing some plants or moving your desk more towards natural light.  Small changes can make a massive difference to your state of mind. If you’re comfortable at your desk, you’re more likely to enjoy working there.

5. Learn something new

Now is a great time to develop your skills. Maybe take up a new hobby, read a self-empowerment book in your downtime or formally advance your professional skills. When we learn something new we usually want to share it with those we are connected to. This is a great way to communicate knowledge and increase motivation at the same time. When we are motivated our energy resonates to others, leading to increased connection and engagement for new shared understanding.

Implementing these tips can help foster engagement and connection among team members. This in turn is motivation to achieve more, resulting in strong successful teams.

We at ATI-Mirage can help with tangible tools and support to make working from home easier:

Productivity in times of change – Virtual Class

Organise and simplify home and offices – Virtual Class

MS Teams – Virtual Class

Manage Stress Build Resilience – Virtual Class

Communication & Interpersonal Skills (with DiSC) – Virtual Class

And please let us know if you need assistance with the transition to remote working as well as help overcoming the challenges. Call us on 9218 9059 or email us hello@ati-mirage.com.au

In this changing world, we are all adjusting to the new normal. For some of us we are converting our living rooms into home offices. Many of us may feel disconnected from the visibility a corporate office environment provides. How do we stay connected and continue to collaborate while away from the office?

Here are some points to help boost your communication for remote working:

1. Become comfortable with being vocal:

Seeming like you’re drawing attention to yourself can feel uncomfortable to start with, particularly if you are more introverted by nature. Letting others know what your working on helps to provide more visibility to others. This allows greater opportunity for teamwork and collaboration. Use emails and chat platforms to keep conversations going.

2. Provide meaningful context to your peers:

Communicate to colleagues about topics that matter to them. Don’t just share your own news, talk to others about topics they are interested in. Maybe ask how their project going? If you want to share your own work try linking it back to a piece of work they did so you can celebrate success together. Without meaningful context you may come across to others as self-promoting rather than a team player.

3. Consistency:

Approach communication in a consistent manner. This means creating a routine for when and how you connect with your colleagues. For some people this could be a group web chat every day at 9am over a coffee. Or others might enjoy a casual “huddle” every afternoon at 2pm. These communication opportunities are above and beyond the standard work meetings.

4. Ask Questions:

Quality questions provide quality answers to gain clarity. Don’t be shy when it comes to clarifying your key work priorities. What you think is important may differ for others. Without being in the same room as your colleagues you may miss out on small bits of information. Asking questions to your colleagues can help to steer away from your own assumptions and keep you on track.

5. Collaborate:

Find ways to complete your work to involve other people. Working remotely for long periods of time can be isolating. On top of all the social distancing, we have to do working alone can compound things. Look at your daily tasks and break them down, so they can be shared. Even if it’s just sharing an idea with a colleague, or drafting an email for them to proof read for a second opinion.

Creating a culture of over-communication allows colleagues to feel more connected and in-sync with each other. This will be even more rewarding once offices re-open and life goes back to a sense of normal again.

We at ATI-Mirage can help with tangible tools and support to make working from home easier:

Communication & Interpersonal Skills (with DiSC) – Virtual Class

Leading Virtual and Remote Teams – Virtual Class

MS Teams – Virtual Class

Collaborate with Office 365 – Virtual Class

And please let us know if you need assistance with the transition to remote working as well as help overcoming the challenges. Call us on 9218 9059 or email us hello@ati-mirage.com.au