Leading Virtual Teams with Dr Maren Deepwell: Recent Episodes
Maren Deepwell
What is it like to manage a virtual team and to lead an organisation from home? How can you not only meet budget targets and KPIs but balance business needs with employee happiness and wellbeing? Join Dr Maren Deepwell, CEO and professional coach, in discovering creative and fun ways to work and build meaningful relationships in the hybrid workplace. The Leading Virtual Teams podcast accompanies the book of the same title and explores current practice in succeeding in a virtual workplace and questions what the future may hold.
Join me and the dogs for a walk as we look back at a year of re-inventing Mondays. This is a two part episode to celebrate my first year of running my own business and I share how things have been going, what's been joyful and what's been tough.
This episode was recorded on a dog walk and the audio quality is mixed.
Join me for a conversation with special guest Jim Groom as we talk about being a robot in a co-working space, teaching Slack to make jokes and building a blog studio in Trento, Italy!
If you, like me, are already a life-long fan of Jim's work, you are in for a special treat, and if you are just discovering the wonderful world of the bava, this is a perfect introduction.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Jim's blog bavatuesdays
- ds106 Digital Storytelling
- Reclaim Hosting
Jim Groom, formerly Executive Director of the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies at the University of Mary Washington, has been working towards the idea of Domain of One‘s Own as far back as 2008 and has been dreaming of this opportunity for years. In the Spring of 2011 he opened up a digital storytelling course called “ds106” for anyone to take openly online and hundreds of people participated and continue to give back to that community. In Spring of 2013 he joined a group of hackers and thinkers at MIT to think about how an online framework could allow people to seamlessly syndicate the work they do across the web in a space of their own both on an academic and personal level. In Fall of 2015 he went full time with Reclaim Hosting and has not looked back since. #4life
This interview is going to feature in my upcoming book. Get in touch with me if you'd like to join us for an episode and contribute to the book.
This month I am excited to join my former home institution for a lunchtime CPD session! I was really glad to be invited back and looking forward to working with the community of learning technology professionals for this free event.
During International Week of Happiness at Work, this webinar offers a session specifically designed for Learning Technologists looking to increase wellbeing at work. We’ll explore how increased use of digital technologies for communication and collaboration, alongside learning, teaching and assessment, impacts on our physical and mental wellbeing.
If issues such as tired eyes from long hours spent in front of screens, to digital overwhelm and lack of movement during days of meetings sound familiar to you, then this session will offer practical approaches to adopt healthier working habits for hybrid teams.
Using practical tools and interactive activities the session will support you in reflecting on your current practice and identifying what actions to take next in your wellbeing journey for the new academic year.
This workshop is a follow up to my first book, Leading Virtual Teams, which was published by ALT in 2022. Work is now underway in a second Open Access book, with a focus on long term hybrid working, how it impacts our senses and the relationship between human beings and technology, in the context of the radical shifts in the balance of power in the workplace (as in the classroom) with the advent of AI and surveillance technologies. This new book won’t be a solo project, but a wider collaboration with case studies and interviews with leaders and experts. If you are interested in contributing, get in touch.
- When: 25 Sep 2024 from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM
- Where: Online
- Price: Free
- Register: Via the ALT Website
In this episode I share some analogue activities I find helpful at the start of a busy academic year... plus there's stationary chat, updates about upcoming events and ideas for walking meetings.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Origami, walking and a lot of space to think
- What happens to our senses in the hybrid workplace?
- Hybrid Working & our senses: Part 2
Learn more about:
- Coaching with me
- My Healthy Hybrid Habits course
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
Join me for a conversation with special guest Anne-Marie Scott as we talk about working from home, hybrid and fully remote across different continents. Plus, there is cat, stationary and bicycle chat, too!
Anne-Marie was the Board Chair of the Apereo Foundation until recently, a member of the board of the Open Source Initiative, and a member of the Government of British Columbia's Digital Learning Advisory Committee. Anne-Marie is part of the leadership team of the completely awesome OpenETC in British Columbia, Canada, teaches as adjunct faculty at Royal Roads University (also Canada), thinks about edtech procurement far too much, and does pieces of consultancy work that are interesting or fun (either in Canada or the UK).
Anne-Marie was Deputy Provost of Athabasca University – Canada's open and online university – and prior to that, Anne-Marie was the Deputy Director of Learning, Teaching and Web Services at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and a Trustee of the Mansfield Traquair Trust. Find out more on Anne-Marie's blog.
This interview is going to feature in my upcoming book. Get in touch with me if you'd like to join us for an episode and contribute to the book.
Join on a wander reflecting on my first year of full-time coaching + consultancy.
In this episode I share a personal progress update, defining my coaching 'niche' and a preview of a new course, 'Healthy Hybrid Habits for Managers and Leaders', I am launching in October!
Join me for a conversation with special guest Steve Wheeler as we talk about his inspiring work with the Invisible Poets Group which has rapidly grown to 43,000 Members. Steve shares his unique perspective on what it takes to make community building and collaboration work on this scale, the 'secret sauce' of what makes online communities work and the Pirate spirit that motivates the team of dedicated moderators supporting it all!
Mentioned in this episode:
- Invisible Poets Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1178576906113839
- Wheelsong Books Website: https://wheelsong.co.uk/publications
- Wheelsong Poetry Blog: https://wheelsongbooks.blogspot.com/
This interview is going to feature in my upcoming book. Get in touch with me if you'd like to join us for an episode and contribute to the book.
I am super excited that we are now not even two weeks away from THE most highly anticipated event of the summer. Forget Paris, it’s all happening on the airwaves this August (and it definitely won’t be raining during summer camp on the radio!). Camp Leader in Chief, Jim Groom, has been blogging about what’s in store… featuring some very cool remixed artwork from Bryan Mathers (who I recently got chatting with on my podcast) – and so I want to jump in and share a preview of what’s in store come August 12th.
Mentioned in this episode:
- “So… what’s a radio conference?!”
- “So what’s on the schedule?”.
- simply register free and join in
Join me for a conversation with special guest Bryan Mathers as we talk about listening and thinking with pen and paper and working all across the spectrum from analogue to digital.
Bryan is head honcho at Visual Thinkery and I have been fortunate to collaborate with him across a range of projects for over a decade. As a creative technologist and social entrepreneur Bryan brings a wealth of experience to the conversation about the inner workings of home and hybrid working.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Visual Thinkery
- Meeting around a document
This interview is going to feature in my upcoming book. Get in touch with me if you'd like to join us for an episode and contribute to the book.
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
I often get asked about my own experience of having a coach by my coaching clients, especially as in the UK coaching is still a (largely unregulated and) relatively new profession. A lot of my coach training and credentialing process was designed to enhance the professionalism of coaching as a practice with lots of different applications, and I love hearing about what the contexts in which other coaches work: from health, fitness and nutrition coaching to student and career coaching to family and divorce coaching and so on. If you want to get from where you are to reach a new place, be that in your personal health, relationships, career or life generally, chances are that there is a coach out there to support you along the way.
The question most of my new clients ask to begin with, is whether coaching is right for them. Coaching can bring many benefits, and it’s a really powerful tool for self discovery, productivity, professional development and much more, but it isn’t the right fit for everyone or every situation. Over the past 15 years I have found coaching an invaluable support in a number of situations and I wanted to share some examples which may be useful if you are considering getting a coach yourself. Read the episode blog post.
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
Join me for a conversation with special guest Joyce Seitzinger as we talk about hybrid working, work/life balance, custom emoji and more!
Joyce is based at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne (previously RMIT Online) and has a wealth of experience when it comes to leading virtual teams.
Connect with Joyce on LinkedIn and Threats (@catspyjamas).
Mentioned in this episode:
- Miro www.miro.com
- User Story Mapping by Jeff Patton book https://www.thenile.com.au/books/jeff-patton/user-story-mapping
This interview is going to feature in my upcoming book. Get in touch with me if you'd like to join us for an episode and contribute to the book.
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
Kicking of a series of interviews with special guests is Martin Weller. On this episode we are talking about work transitions and our desire for a kind of 'digital removals' service that helps you move your digital identity and estate when you are going through big transitions at work or in life.
Mentioned in this episode:
- new book project Martin and I are working on
- Martin's blog post about moving work
Get in touch with me if you'd like to join us for an episode and interview for the book.
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
This month I am taking a proper break from work for the first time since I started working on a self-employed basis full-time. I love running my own micro-business, but when it comes to taking holidays it’s not yet working for me. I find myself fretting about work and checking emails or committing to things because of my clients’ schedules and as a result taking a complete break from work hasn’t happened so far. Now that a long-awaited break is upon me, I want to finally get that complete break and I am preparing for two weeks without work, two weeks filled with the joy of not working. In this episode I share practical tips for winding down from work and how it worked out for me.
Read the episode blog post.
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
This past academic year I have worked on a number of different projects all connected by the theme digital wellbeing. This episode brings these different strands of work together and offers some key take aways.
Mentioned in this episode: A year of teaching Digital Wellbeing.
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
This episodes provides a summery of a short talk about podcasting I gave at the University of Oxford. The talk is called 5 ways to get started with podcasting, and explores 5 ways to develop your own professional practice in podcasting and explore ways of connecting with audiences beyond social media.
Mentioned in this episode
- Short talk about podcasting
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
In this episode I recap some of my adventures in May, and... announce a new book project!
Mentioned in this episode
- New book
- Leadership talk at WiAL
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
In this series I explore what happens to our senses when we work in a hybrid or fully remote setting for long periods. How does our embodied experience of work change as we spend more time in front of screens, alone in our studies or on kitchen chairs? And also, how does our perception of work shift as our senses of sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing adjust to hybrid working?
The short course in digital wellbeing I run for the University of Oxford explores some of these issues and it’s helped me appreciate even more how important these aspects of hybrid and remote working really are. In the course we only have limited time to dive into each of these, so this series of blog posts builds on some of my thinking from the course design, and expands these further. If you’re new to this series, you might find it helpful to first read Part 1 focused on our sense of sight, Zoom fatigue and healthy habits for stepping away from our screens.
The episode blog post has further information and a guide to create a healthy habit: daily quiet time.
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
‘Digital Skills for Emerging Leaders’ is a new micro-credential course from the Digital Learning Institute that I am working on together with the amazing Lynne Taylerson. It’s a super project to be involved in, and it’s extra special for me as I get a change to collaborate with Lynne outside of our other favourite project: AmplifyFE.
In this episode and the accompanying blog post I share a glimpse behind the scenes of this new project.
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
When I first started coach training, I set myself the goal to offer walking sessions for my clients. My thinking is that pretty much all of my favourite coaching and mentoring conversations happened when walking, either outdoors or pacing up and down in my office.
In this episode I share more about this new offering and you can also learn more in the episode blog post.
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
Recently, I have done much work in leadership development. Both in the workplace and when I coach clients, I come across emerging and established leaders who have developed strengths and skills gradually over time, whether through informal learning or through practice or also outside of work. Especially where skills have come easily, grown over a period of time or when we have learnt something just for fun, these are often overlooked in favour of those skills we find hard to acquire or that are formally accredited by others. These strengths and skills often serve us well, but don’t get recognised. I am curious how we identify and appreciate such strengths or skills, and how we can move from seeing them as something we can simply do, to something we’re good at.
Recognising and celebrating our ‘unsung hero’ skills is a powerful habit to cultivate in order to build confidence and develop as a leader. In this episode share an example of my own unsung hero skills and share tips for identifying your own.
Read the episode blog post.
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
In this final episode of the season I share highlights and insights from the past six months of re-inventing Mondays. You
The story in blog posts:
- Celebrating a month of free-lance life
- Re-inventing Mondays… 2 months in
- Sunrise blogging – career transition 3 months in
- 4 months into re-inventing Mondays
- 5 months into re-inventing Mondays
- Six months of gold dust
Podcast episodes about my fresh start:
- S03E31 – 5 months into re-inventing Mondays
- S03E28 - 4 months into re-inventing Mondays
- S03E23 – Career transition reflection – 3 months in
- S03E20 – Beach/life balance
- S03E17 – Checking in with Re-inventing Mondays
- S03E14 – Celebrating a month of free-lance life
- S03E10 – Bonus Episode: Gold dust and debris
- S03E06 – Re-inventing Mondays
Special guest: Martin Weller
Join us as we discuss our presentation at OER24, a conference all about Open Education, 27-28 March 2024, Cork, Ireland.
Presentation slides (incl. references)
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
In this episode I explore some aspects of how our embodied experience of hybrid working may influence of sense of wellbeing and share a healthy habit to avoid Zoom fatigue. You can find out more in the episode blog post.
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
In this episode I share an update on my new career chapter five months in. You can find out more in the episode blog post.
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
In this episode I celebrate a big milestone moment on my coaching journey. After two years of training and 100+ hours of coaching with over 20 clients I am set to formally complete the ACC credential of the International Coaching Federation (ICF).
Read the episode blog post.
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
This month I am running a short course on Digital Wellbeing and Hybrid Working. Working with the wonderful team at the University of Oxford IT Learning Centre is a rewarding experience, and with the support of Emma Procter-Legg, their Digital Skills Service Manager, the whole process has been seamless from start to finish 🙂
It’s been a welcome creative challenge to translate insights from leading virtual teams and hybrid working into the context of digital wellbeing, and in particular into a course format. Now that the course dates are coming closer, here is a bit of a preview of what the course is all about, and my hopes for what participants will get out of it.
Read more .
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
Time has flown by. It feels like only a moment ago that I was blogging about being 3 months into my career transition… and here we are, having passed the four month mark. Looking back at my previous posts on this topic has inspired me to share some updates about how things are going, how much my efforts to re-invent Mondays are bearing fruit and how free-lance life is treating me. In case you missed them, here are quick links to previous posts on this topic:
- Celebrating a month of free-lance life
- Re-inventing Mondays… 2 months in
- Sunrise blogging – career transition 3 months in
- Re-inventing Mondays... 4 months in
Podcast episodes about my fresh start:
- S03E23 – Career transition reflection – 3 months in
- S03E20 – Beach/life balance
- S03E17 – Checking in with Re-inventing Mondays
- S03E14 – Celebrating a month of free-lance life
- S03E10 – Bonus Episode: Gold dust and debris
- S03E06 – Re-inventing Mondays
In this episode I share resources for leaders looking to develop their skills in leading difficult conversations. Whether you are based at home full-time or seeing colleagues a few days a week, making the right time and space can be challenging in a busy hybrid team, particularly when you are managing performance or personal issues.
Find the books I mention in this blog post.
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
I made a fun discovery this week: It’s now been over ten years since I started this list of things I have done. Wow! I had no idea it had been that long, and seeing those entries from 2013 made me pause and reflect on the habit of keeping the list, a decade in the making. On this episode I share why I started tracking my progress in this way, why it's useful for me and tips for starting your own list.
Read the episode blog post.
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
It’s been great fun this week to head up to Edinburgh to facilitate an away day for a senior leadership team at the university. In this episode I share a few snippets of what made the day really memorable for me. The focus for the day was all about hybrid working and leading people and projects in a continually changing context, managing the enduring impact of lockdown working alongside emerging policies and priorities.
Over the past year I have run my hybrid working leadership course, inspired by my book on leading virtual teams and coaching tools I have developed to support these offerings and it was great to see a lot of elements from these activities come together into one packed day of leadership development.
I had quite a few requests from folk elsewhere who are interested in hosting a day like this at their institution or take part in an online version. If you’d like to be added to the waiting list for that, get in touch.
Read the episode blog post.
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
Mentioned in this episode:
- Episode Blog post
- Non-fiction reading for January 2024
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
Mentioned in this episode:
- Non-fiction reading for January 2024
- Hi 2024! There’s a new vinylcast in the making
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter
- Download the Leading Virtual Teams book
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
A festive special and the final episode of 2023 with special guest Martin Weller in which we talk about blogging (about blogging).
Mentioned in this episode:
- Martin's keynote Social Media as festive metaphors
- Martin's social media as festive metaphor generator
- Maren's 2023 blog post about blogging
According to Spotify Wrapped, the most popular episode of my podcast for the year is this one, about the Hybrid Working Wheel. If you haven't come across this before, have a quick look at this blog post from last yearn which provides a bit of background. Simply put, I adapted a popular coaching tool for reflection, the Wheel of Life, for hybrid working.
- Download PDF
- Access Google slides version
The purpose of the tool is to help you reflect on different aspects of how you work, including your working environment at home, at the office or on campus, communication & collaboration as well as social interaction and wellbeing.
One of the questions I get asked the most is how to reflect in practice. Many of us find it difficult to sit down with a blank piece of paper and jump straight into focused reflection.
Hence, in this podcast episode, I offer you the opportunity to see how the tool is used in practice and to reflect along with me as we progress through the episode. Let's have a bit of fun at the end of the year, and try out something a little different. Use this episode to "reflect along" with me as part of your run up to the holidays (and hopefully a well deserved break!) or as you prepare to begin the new year.
I have made an updated template especially for this reflect-along episode, and you are welcome to use this if you'd like to jot down your own scores and notes.
Download the template.
In this bonus episode I share an update on my efforts to re-invent my working life, 2 months in.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Episode blog post
- Working Identity - Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing your Career by Herminia Ibarra
A year ago my book Leading Virtual Teams was published, and I can very clearly remember all the wonderful excitement that led up to the launch, and am still grateful for all the encouragement for this Open Access publication.
A year on, and the book, which was initially inspired by the work Martin Hawksey and I did at ALT, has turned into a whole host of resources, two free courses and a podcast which informs my wider work on hybrid working leadership development and coaching.
To celebrate the milestone, this episode gives a quick overview over what’s happened in 2023 and if you are just discovering the book or my work, this is a great place to start.
Read the episode blog post.
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Sign up to my free monthly newsletter
- My Open Access book, Leading Virtual Teams
This week I am joining the university in Oxford online for a lunchtime digital skills development session. The talk is structured as a pick and mix offering, in which I share different strategies, resources and tips about hybrid working. I have included ideas for individuals to check in with their personal set up, starting with their workspace. I also include activities teams or groups could try out and share some experiences of how these work in practice and why they are valuable. To prompt deeper reflection, the session also has a some elements that support you to think through your relationship with the way you work, technology and what work means to you.
I have recorded this special podcast episode in which I deliver parts of the talk and you can also look at the slides which include all the links and references on the final page.
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Sign up to my free monthly newsletter
- My Open Access book, Leading Virtual Teams
In this bonus episode I share a progress update, showing you how I am getting on with re-inventing Mondays, what has de-railed my efforts at times and how I stay on track.
Mentioned in this episode
- Re-inventing Mondays blog post
- Hybrid working course
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Sign up to my free monthly newsletter
- My Open Access book, Leading Virtual Teams
This week we are going back to the origins of Leading Virtual Teams! Join us, Maren Deepwell and Martin Hawksey, for a special podcast episode where we revisit our long term project blogging about leading virtual teams.
If you'd like to learn more about the topics in this episode, have a look at the dedicated blog post.
Also mentioned in this episode:
- NVIDIA Broadcast 1.4 Adds Eye Contact and Vignette Effects
- Maren's hybrid working course
- The Open Access book, Leading Virtual Teams
This is part 4 of my free course all about Hybrid Working Habits.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Resources and reading for this topic
- Course information
This is the final part of the course, so well done if you've made it to this stage :) I hope that along the way you found things to inspire you as well as some practical help.
To conclude the course, this topic is about how to communicate more effectively in ways that works for you and reduce digital overwhelm. Whether you are feeling distracted by constant notifications or unable to find time to focus because of an overflowing inbox, this topic tackles tech overload with a digital detox kit.
We find ways to have screen free time, including meal times and breaks without a phone in hand. We explore how to communicate less often, but more effectively. We also look at how to reduce digital overwhelm whilst being present and (re)gaining control over the tools we use to connect.
This bonus episode celebrates my first month in my new free-lance role.
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Sign up to my free monthly newsletter
- Register for the next course on hybrid working
- My Open Access book, Leading Virtual Teams
This is part 3 of my free course all about Hybrid Working Habits.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Resources and reading for this topic
- Course information
For many of us the default mode of collaborating virtually is a video call. In my experience very few people have the know-how to make these truly work as collaboration spaces, no matter how good the technology is or how many hours of synchronously working online you cram into your day.
This topic explores how we can increase productivity away from the screen. What would your day or week look like with much fewer meetings but more time to work together? This topic is packed with strategies for communicating and collaborating outside of meetings. And… for those of us that can’t avoid them all together, there are also tips to make collaboration work in video calls. But really, there are much better ways to get things done 🙂
Taking things at your own pace? The course is designed so that you can dip in and out of topics. Go back to topic 1 and topic 2 any time.
This is a Spooky Special cross-over episode with Martin Weller and his podcast, Metaphors of EdTech.
Mentioned in this episode
- Re-inventing Mondays blog post
- Hybrid working course
- 25 Years of Ed Tech book
- 25 Years of Ed Tech audiobook project
- Social media diaspora post
- Social media as disco tracks choice post
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Sign up to my free monthly newsletter
- Register for the next course on hybrid working
- My Open Access book, Leading Virtual Teams
This is part 2 of my free course all about Hybrid Working Habits.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Resources and reading for this topic
- Course information
For many of us, hybrid working offers much needed flexibility. It also comes with less impetus to leave your desk and switch off. Less commuting often means less movement and less time outside. Walking down the stairs or into the next room offers no time to mentally transition from work mode to being at home. Being more present at home meanwhile means that anyone from pets to parents blur work/life boundaries.
For this topic, we’ll focus on how to set boundaries for a better life/work balance. We’ll be exploring practical approaches to help you set boundaries and to stick to them, even when things get very busy or the demands of life get louder.
For this topic, I'd encourage you to find a quiet space to listen or to go for a walk. Try to step away from distractions for half an hour.
This bonus episode tells the story of my third week in my new free-lance role.
Mentioned in this episode
- Re-inventing Mondays blog post
- Hybrid working course
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Sign up to my free monthly newsletter
- Register for the next course on hybrid working
- My Open Access book, Leading Virtual Teams
This is part 1 of my free course all about Hybrid Working Habits.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Resources and reading for this topic
- Course information
When it comes to working from home, hybrid or fully virtual working the reality is different for everyone. What works for you depends a lot on your individual circumstances at home or at the office, what other commitments you are juggling and your relationship with technology, too. Some of us love the buzz of being constantly connected and others prefer time to focus without interruptions or a mix of both.
In the first part of the course, we'll focus on how to Audit your hybrid working habits. We'll be using different tools to find out your current habits help or hinder your progress and productivity and identify what you want more of in your working life: more collaboration, more quiet time to really focus, more movement or something else.
Part of this season's special, this bonus episode tells the story of my second week in my new free-lance role.
Mentioned in this episode
- Re-inventing Mondays blog post
- Hybrid working blog post
- Hybrid working course
Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Sign up to my free monthly newsletter
- Register for the next course on hybrid working
- My Open Access book, Leading Virtual Teams
In this episode I debrief from my first week re-inventing my schedule without returning to the office.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Re-inventing Mondays blog post
- Hybrid working blog post
- Hybrid working course
Enjoyed the episode? Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Sign up to my free monthly newsletter
- Register for the next course on hybrid working
- My Open Access book, Leading Virtual Teams
Today is an exciting day. It’s the first Monday of the first week in which I am full-time in my new business. Maren Deepwell Coaching & Consultancy is now fully underway. Woohooo! Here is what I got up to, and some tips for starting a new chapter, too.
Find out more in the episode's blog post.
Enjoyed the episode? Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Sign up to my free monthly newsletter
- Register for the next course on hybrid working
- My Open Access book, Leading Virtual Teams
It's been two years since I first enrolled in Katie Linder's fabulous Higher Ed Coach Training programme. In this episode I reflect on the journey so far, what I loved about it, what I learnt along the way and how it's improved my work as a coach.
Find out more about Katie's work & training programme.
Enjoyed the episode? Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Sign up to my free monthly newsletter
- Register for the next course on hybrid working
- My Open Access book, Leading Virtual Teams
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
In this episode I share the story of how I came to develop courses about hybrid working, specifically my upcoming course all about how to Change your Hybrid Working Habits. From Germany to London in my art school years, and from Athens to Oxford as my work moved from Art to Anthropology and then Education, this episode sets out what I think is interesting about hybrid and virtual working, why it's important and why now is the time to really find ways of working that work for you.
Find more information about this episode:
- Change your Hybrid Working Habits
What are your hybrid working conundrums? Leave a comment or email me with you questions and problems when it comes to hybrid working, and I'll pick these up in the upcoming episodes.
Enjoyed the episode? Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Sign up to my free monthly newsletter
- Register for the next course on hybrid working
- My Open Access book, Leading Virtual Teams
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
I've previously published leadership lessons from office plants and in the same spirit this episode is all about houseplant inspired tips for managing a period of change or transition. It's inspired by my own experience of moving between jobs this month and my adventures in caring for a growing collecting of plants in my home and home office. It's the first time in a long while that I am changing jobs, but the last few years have brought so much uncertainty with them that I feel I have quite a lot of practice of coping with the unexpected. What the last few years have also highlighted for me is how important it is for us to have strategies for periods of transition - and like many I found solace and inspiration in bringing a bit of green indoors.
Read the Plant Pace blog post
Enjoyed the episode? Learn more about:
- 1:1 coaching with me
- Sign up to my free monthly newsletter
- Register for the next course on hybrid working
- My Open Access book, Leading Virtual Teams
If you have ideas for future episodes or feedback about the show, get in touch and rate or review the show. Thanks for listening!
The questions I get asked most often by new clients or those considering giving coaching a go, are… ‘What is a coaching session like?’, ‘What should I expect from the first session?’, ‘How should I prepare?’ and also ‘How can I make the most of it?’.
In this episode, I have brought together answers and examples to give you a sense of coaching with me, to explain what’s involved and what to expect.
Read the episode blog post.
Find out more:
- Get my free monthly newsletter
- Virtual Teams Book
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
This episode celebrates the start of September, and the new season or start of term for many of us. I have recently tried out a new gratitude journal share ideas for how to find bright spots in a busy time of year. I also give you a preview of what's in store for season 3 and the upcoming run of the Leading Virtual Teams course in October.
Find out more:
- Get my free monthly newsletter
- Virtual Teams Book
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
Since the start of the year and thus the beginning of our second season, many new listeners have started joining and our listening numbers have tripled! A huge thank you for everyone who's listened in, subscribed to the newsletter or read the blog.
In this episode I bring together the best bits of the season before taking a break over the summer ... and the launch of Season 3 this autumn.
In this episode I talk about:
- Top 5 listens on the Leading Virtual Teams podcasts
- The year in blog posts… so far
- Summer coaching inspiration
Season 3 is coming up! Let me know what topics you'd like to see in that season via voice message .
Find out more about:
- Get my free monthly newsletter
- Virtual Teams Book
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
Following on from the previous episode A party without a cake is just a meeting… I share a moment of celebration and reflection. As I look back at the last year I reflect on what I have enjoyed, milestones I have achieved and look back at the past 12 months through photos, reflective prompts and journalling. I also share how I set an intention for the year ahead.
In this episode I share a moment of celebration. Read the blog post https://marendeepwell.com/?p=4108.
If you have missed the previous episode on celebration, head over to the episode blog post.
Find out more about:
- Virtual Teams Book
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
During the recent Mental Health Awareness Week, I looked for new tips and ideas for virtual and hybrid teams keen to embed mindfulness and meditation into their ethos. In this episode I share ideas and practical approaches. You can find more information in the episode blog post
Find out more about:
- Virtual Teams Book
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
June is my birthday month and inspired by my upcoming celebrations, I thought I’d share some ideas about celebrating occasions like birthdays or milestones at the home office. You may prefer to ignore these all together or not celebrate with work colleagues, and I share some of the reluctance. However, during the pandemic especially, celebrating birthdays became a welcome focus for our virtual team, an excuse to spend an hour or two doing something other than fire fighting. And so, I came to enjoy and value moments of connecting with colleagues and spending time having a few laughs more and more.
Like many people I prefer not to work on my actual birthday, and take a bit of time off. Alongside the time away from work, I make it a point to have some celebration at work, and to share something that I am comfortable to with colleagues as a way to get to know each other a bit better.
In 2020, when I turned 40 having moved to a new city just months before, at the start of lockdown here in the UK, my colleagues organised a surprise birthday party, dropped off by a safely socially distanced colleague who lived close enough to make it both legal and practical to visit me in my garden. We ate cake, with other colleagues joining via video call, and I received lots of small, thoughtful gifts and cards that brought a huge amount of cheer to me during a dark time.
As a manager or a leader it’s especially important I find to spend some time with colleagues informally, and when you are based at home or a hybrid worker, then those opportunities can be few and far between. More often than not, team days or long planned meet ups don’t happen with everyone involved, and although interacting online can feel less connected, it is often more achievable.
In this episode I share some ideas to help make that moment of celebration stand out a little, and create memories. Read the episode blog post.
Find out more about:
- Virtual Teams Book
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
This episode is part of my free and flexible course: How to Lead Virtual Teams. Each course topic includes a podcast to listen to, prompts to help you reflect on your practice and inspiration to explore the topic further.
Topic: Course reflection – Setting intentions for your practice
- Listen + reflect: This week, the podcast includes a guided reflective exercise to help you reflect on what you have learnt and how to translate that into practice. You can listen to the episode as usual, or take a more structured approach and bring a notebook and pen to note down your reflections as we go along.
- Explore: Head over to the course page for the dedicated post for this topic which includes links to further reading, tools and resources to explore.
Download the course companion book, Leading Virtual Teams. The book is free to download in different formats and we will use individual chapters from the book throughout the course. For each topic, individual chapters are sign-posted, so you can explore issues particularly relevant to your practice further.
Find out more on the course homepage or head over to my coaching offers for individuals and teams if you are interested in working with me.
This episode is part of my free and flexible course: How to Lead Virtual Teams. Each course topic includes a podcast to listen to, prompts to help you reflect on your practice and inspiration to explore the topic further.
Topic: Leading Team Activities
- Listen: In this episode we focus on practical activities to foster a positive culture for hybrid and virtual teams. We'll explore a number of examples of online and blended activities and 'hacks' and consider how to meaningfully reward and motivate your team. For this topic, we'll be referring to examples from Chapter 2 and 3 of Leading Virtual Teams.
- Reflect: Setting aside some time to reflect will help you develop your critical, analytical and reflective skills as a leader or manager. For this topic, the prompts are: What would work for your team? Why would it work? What barriers do you have to work within (such as cost, institutional protocol, technical limitations etc). What would you want to achieve?
- Explore: Head over to the course page for the dedicated post for this topic which includes links to further reading, tools and resources to explore.
Download the course companion book, Leading Virtual Teams. The book is free to download in different formats and we will use individual chapters from the book throughout the course. For each topic, individual chapters are sign-posted, so you can explore issues particularly relevant to your practice further.
Find out more on the course homepage or head over to my coaching offers for individuals and teams if you are interested in working with me.
This episode is part of my free and flexible course: How to Lead Virtual Teams. Each course topic includes a podcast to listen to, prompts to help you reflect on your practice and inspiration to explore the topic further.
Topic: Fostering a shared team culture
- Listen: Working in innovative ways, as virtual and hybrid teams, offers us the opportunity to re-imagine how work and what our day to day feels like. In this episode, I’ll be discussing ways of fostering a shared team culture. Simply put, we’ll be exploring the question ‘What do you want your team or organisation feel like on a day to day basis?’ and how do you achieve that. For this topic, we’ll be referring mainly to examples from Chapter 2 of Leading Virtual Teams.
- Reflect: Setting aside some time to reflect will help you develop your critical, analytical and reflective skills as a leader or manager. For this topic, the prompts are: How would you describe the team culture? Are there any existing problems or ways of working you are seeking to change? What would you like to see happen? What are the barriers that are stopping you? What experience and skills will help you achieve yours aims?
- Explore: Head over to the course page for the dedicated post for this topic which includes links to further reading, tools and resources to explore.
Download the course companion book, Leading Virtual Teams. The book is free to download in different formats and we will use individual chapters from the book throughout the course. For each topic, individual chapters are sign-posted, so you can explore issues particularly relevant to your practice further.
Find out more on the course homepage or head over to my coaching offers for individuals and teams if you are interested in working with me.
This episode is part of my free and flexible course: How to Lead Virtual Teams. Each course topic includes a podcast to listen to, prompts to help you reflect on your practice and inspiration to explore the topic further.
Topic: Setting shared expectations
- Listen: in this episode we examine how we can set shared expectations with and for the people we work with and how we communicate those expectations. We are going to examine the difference between expectations and lived experience when it comes to work life balance and in the context of collaborating or meeting online. For this topic, we'll be referring to examples from Chapter 1 and 2 of Leading Virtual Teams.
- Reflect: These prompts are designed to help you identify blind spots and open up new ways to think about the way you work. Setting aside some time to reflect helps you develop your critical, analytical and reflective skills as a leader or manager: How do you communicate your expectations to your team?What do you communicate by example? How does your approach affirm or contradict your expectations? How do your expectations differ for yourself and others?
- Explore: Head over to the course page for the dedicated post for this topic which includes links to further reading, tools and resources to explore.
Download the course companion book, Leading Virtual Teams. The book is free to download in different formats and we will use individual chapters from the book throughout the course. For each topic, individual chapters are sign-posted, so you can explore issues particularly relevant to your practice further.
Find out more on the course homepage or head over to my coaching offers for individuals and teams if you are interested in working with me.
This episode is part of my free and flexible course: How to Lead Virtual Teams. Each course topic includes a podcast to listen to, prompts to help you reflect on your practice and inspiration to explore the topic further.
Topic: How we work and onboard new colleagues
- Listen: In this second course podcast, we discuss definitions of different ways of working and why it matters to be clear when it comes to the language we use when we talk about how we work. We will also explore how this relates to recruiting staff and onboarding new colleagues. For this topic, we'll be referring on Chapter 1 of Leading Virtual Teams.
- Reflect: Reflecting on what’s important to you is a key skill for leading virtual teams. For this topic, use these definitions of different Modes of Working to reflect on your practice. Again, there is no wrong way of doing this. You can choose to write your thoughts down or you might prefer to simply think about things: What term(s) best describe your mode of working? How would you describe it to someone else? To what degree do the policies in your organisation reflect this practice? What may new colleagues not easily understand about the way you work? What else? What might be difficult for new colleagues to get used to? Why?
- Explore: Head over to the course page for the dedicated post for this topic which includes links to further reading, tools and resources to explore.
Download the course companion book, Leading Virtual Teams. The book is free to download in different formats and we will use individual chapters from the book throughout the course. For each topic, individual chapters are sign-posted, so you can explore issues particularly relevant to your practice further.
Find out more on the course homepage or head over to my coaching offers for individuals and teams if you are interested in working with me.
This episode is part of my free and flexible course: How to Lead Virtual Teams. Each course topic includes a podcast to listen to, prompts to help you reflect on your practice and inspiration to explore the topic further.
Topic: Course Orientation
- Listen: In the first course podcast, I introduce the topics of the course and show you how to take part. For the orientation session, we'll be focusing on the introduction chapter of Leading Virtual Teams.
- Reflect: focus on setting an intention for what you want out of this course. There is not wrong way of doing this. You can choose to write your thoughts down or you might prefer to simply think about things. Get started with these prompts: What form of reflection feels easiest to you? What practical constraints do you have? What do you most want from taking part in the course? What is the biggest obstacle to getting that?
- Explore: Head over to the course page for the dedicated post for this topic which includes links to further reading, tools and resources to explore.
Download the course companion book, Leading Virtual Teams. The book is free to download in different formats and we will use individual chapters from the book throughout the course. For each topic, individual chapters are sign-posted, so you can explore issues particularly relevant to your practice further.
Find out more on the course homepage or head over to my coaching offers for individuals and teams if you are interested in working with me.
At the moment, a lot of my work is focused on the upcoming OER23 Conference. OER23 is the 14th annual conference for Open Education research, practice and policy is organised by ALT, the Association for Learning Technology, in partnership with UHI, the University of the Highlands and Islands. OER23 will bring together the strong Scottish Open Education movement and international participants to leverage our shared expertise for change in policy and practice. The conference will be co-chaired in partnership with the GO-GN Global OER Graduate Network, connecting emerging researchers and a global perspective with local and national knowledge.
Suffice to say, I am super excited about this event which I have been fortunate enough to help organise since 2015 and which is always a great highlight of my year. This year, I am especially looking forward to heading up to the conference, partly because it’s in one of my favourite parts of the world, the Scottish Highlands, and partly because it will give me a chance to catch up with many friends and colleagues I haven’t seen in a while, including long-time collaborator, Lauren Hanks.
Lauren and I have been talking about hybrid working and leading virtual teams for the past few years, and at least year’s OER Conference we even ran a session together: As leaders of virtual teams, we critically examined what lessons we can learn from open approaches to learning and teaching and how we can use that knowledge in an increasingly virtual workplace. Since then, I have been thinking a lot about why open practice is so important for knowledge workers, and particularly managers and leaders who work in hybrid, distributed or fully virtual team: Read the blog post.
Find out more about:
- Virtual Teams Book
- Free online course starting Spring '23
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
I read a lot and going to my local library has been a big part of my life as a child, throughout my school and student years. I was lucky to have access to wonderful libraries first in London and later in Oxford, where I sat in the Radcliffe Camera as I finished writing my PhD.
In this episode I talk about libraries, reading and generally geek out about the joy of books!
Read the first post about this episode... and the second post.
Find out more about:
- Virtual Teams Book
- Free online course starting Spring '23
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
Recently I talked about about Laura Vanderkam’s Tranquillity by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters. Now that I have finished the book, and tried out some of the rules for time management, here is a follow up sharing how things went.
- Read the episode blog post.
Find out more about:
- Virtual Teams Book
- Free online course starting Spring '23
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
Free taster course: Leading Virtual Teams
If you are looking to develop strategies for managing people and projects in this complex, shifting landscape then this course is for you. This course is designed for emerging and established leaders and managers working in a hybrid or fully virtual setting in education and the not-for-profit sector. We will focus on how to develop effective home/hybrid working strategies for yourself into approaches for managing and leading virtual teams. Whether you are collaborating online on a project, organising distributed volunteers or managing a whole hybrid working department, this course will offer you a unique opportunity to reflect and explore.
Find out more and sign up
Find out more about:
- Virtual Teams Book
- Free online course starting Spring '23
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
I am always on the look out for new tools or resources for coaching, and I want to share this one I recently came across in a blog post by Laura Vanderkam: It’s called a ‘List of 100 Dreams’.
- Read the episode blog post
Find out more about:
- Virtual Teams Book
- Free online course starting Spring '23
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
At this time of year, it’s easy to focus on ever busy work schedules instead of activities that help with balance. Here in Cardiff the weather is dreary and grey, and not particularly inspiring even in the lightest hours of the day. Leaving my desk and screens in favour for a proper break feels much easier on sunny days.When I came across a book called Gone for Lunch: 52 Things to do in your lunch break (by Laura Archer), in the library recently it felt like a great opportunity to find some inspiration.In this episode I share 10 favourite ideas for lunch break activities, inspired by the book but specifically adapted to the needs of hybrid workers. Read the episode's blog postFind out more about: Virtual Teams Book Free online course starting Spring '23 Coaching with me Resources and blog posts
I’ve really enjoyed reading Laura Vanderkam’s Tranquillity by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters. From an anthropological perspective, it’s interesting to read a book rooted in the experiences of a group of people putting the productivity and time management ideas into practice and I especially enjoyed reading why things did and didn’t work for particular individuals.
Being on a journey of trying to work less hard and find more balance made this book appeal to me more with a central focus on calm and wellbeing alongside more traditional productivity techniques. The first ‘rule’ that I put to the test for me is Rule Two: Plan on Fridays.
In this episode I share what happened in the first few weeks of the experiment and what I learnt along the way. Here's the blog post with all the details if you are curious to try this out for yourself.
Find out more about:
- Virtual Teams Book
- Free online course starting Spring '23
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
It’s long been my practice to regularly record what I am up to, and I update my personal archive with links to talks and podcasts and resources that I have contributed to or published elsewhere.
I find it useful to have a list that covers most of what I do for reflection, the annual appraisal process and professional development. It’s also a great short-cut for compiling my monthly newsletter, which in itself provides an opportunity to reflect on my practice.
In this episode I share two different strategies I use for reviewing my progress regularly: compiling a monthly newsletter and using my personal dashbaord in Asana.
Find out more about:
- Virtual Teams Book
- Free online course starting Spring '23
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
In this episode I share more about the development of the leading virtual teams course which is launching in spring 2023. This course translates key parts of my book into practice:
- Onboarding and setting expectations
- Fostering a shared team culture
- Managing people and processes
- Strategies for succeeding in hybrid workplaces in the long term
I am working hard to design a course that offers a unique blend of inspiration, practical support and resources. Through this course you will explore ways of working in the hybrid workplace that are aligned to your goals and values and how to lead with agency and authenticity.
Find out more about:
- Virtual Teams Book
- Free online course starting Spring '23
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
Do you travel or commute for work? Beyond the obvious, how does that shape your professional practice and your skills?In this episode I share my perspective on some of the things I value about travel as a hybrid worker, and what I find challenging. Read the postFind out more about: Virtual Teams Book Free online course starting Spring '23 Coaching with me Resources and blog posts
I recently blogged about blogging (always a good idea). Writing the post made me reflect on how important a part blogging of my professional practice. It also made me think about how hard it can be at time to get started and keep going. Even if you are writing, where do you write? For whom? In this episodes I share some of my strategies for blogging and how to make it work for you.
- Read the blog post about private and public posts
Find out more about:
- Virtual Teams Book
- Free online course starting Spring '23
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
In this episode I focus on the benefits of really having a break and the strategies I used to take a step back from a busy schedule.
- Read more about taking a break
Find out more about:
- Virtual Teams Book
- Free online course starting Spring '23
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
When I look back at what I wrote this time last year, I can’t quite grasp how much has changed and how much has been achieved in the past twelve months. It’s mind boggling. In a good way.
At the same time, it’s been a mixed year for me personally. Great happiness and joy at home were overshadowed by a serious injury that required trips to the hospital for me, as well as much family upheaval and emergencies.
This is why it is especially important to me not to move on from this year without making space to celebrate the milestones of the past year, and to express my gratitude for inspiring and supportive colleagues, collaborators and friends.
- Read the blog post: My year in 10 Milestones
Find out more about:
- Virtual Teams Book
- Free online course starting Spring '23
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
In this episode I am talking to special guest, Lauren Hanks, Director of Operations at Reclaim Hosting. Lauren invited me to collaborate on a project, the Hacks for Hybrid Working flex course, which we successfully completed last month.
We are debriefing about the course and hybrid working and what we learnt along the way as well as the reality of leading virtual teams and our intentions for hybrid working in 2023.
- Flex Course: Hacks for Hybrid Working with Dr. Maren Deepwell
- Lauren's blog
- Reclaim Hosting
Find out more about:
- Virtual Teams Book
- Free online course starting Spring '23
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
It’s December and for me, the quietest time of the year. That doesn’t really mean that things aren’t busy, but some of my biggest deadlines are currently a few months into the future, and there is no more major travel planned between now and January, so this is as ‘quiet’ as it gets. And I am keen to capitalise on that.
As someone who actively tries to become less efficient and work less hard (looking for more sustainable, balanced productivity instead) this time of the year offers a much needed chance to spend some time tidying up. Here is what I intend to do in the run up to the holidays.
In this episode I share some of the things I do to get my hybrid working space ready for the holidays.
Find out more about:
- Virtual Teams Book
- Free online course starting Spring '23
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
In this episode I show you how to use a pie chart diary. Recently I have been working with a number of clients who are finding hybrid working habits hard to change. Busy days blend into each other, and at the end of a week or even a month, routine tasks like answering emails or attending meetings have taken up all the time and other priorities or more creative work have had to take a back seat.
Setting abstract targets like “make more time for…” or “be more research-focused” can feel unachievable. So where do you start? One place to start is to get a new perspective on how you spend your time, so that you can pick a good moment to change your habits.
Pie Chart Diary template
Find out more about:
- Virtual Teams Book
- Free online course starting Spring '23
- Coaching with me
- Resources and blog posts
In this episode I welcome a special guest, Martin Weller, as we talk about writing books, virtual learning and virtual working and what we are learning along the way.
- Leading Virtual Teams - the book
- Metaphors of EdTech
- Martin's blog
From 1 December you can read and download a free digital edition, published as an Open Access publication by ALT in partnership with Open Academia. The Open Access print edition, published by Lulu.com, will also be available to purchase.
If you'd like to learn more about leading virtual teams, join my free course starting in spring 2023. This course translates key parts of the book into practice:
- Onboarding and setting expectations
- Fostering a shared team culture
- Managing people and processes
- Strategies for succeeding in hybrid workplaces in the long term
This course offers a unique blend of inspiration, practical support and resources. Join us to explore ways of working in the hybrid workplace that are aligned to your goals and values and how to lead with agency and authenticity.
Recently, I reflected on feeling frustrated with a sense of never achieving enough. In order to change my perspective, I embarked on a month of celebrating daily success: every day I noted a success and shared it publicly to help hold myself accountable. In this episode I share some of the strategies I use and how it works in practice.
- Read the blog post
- My bright spot this week: the launch of my first book.
In this episode, I talk about how to make working from home 1% more comfortable… and improve your work wellbeing in the process.
If you'd like to try out any of the ideas for yourself, have a look at the list below:
- 25 ideas for home/hybrid working
In this episode, we explore what different terms we use to describe working away from the office mean, and why that's important. We also use a tool, the Hybrid Working Wheel, as a strategy for reflecting on what works and how you might look to change your own practice.
- Different Modes of Working
- Hybrid Working Wheel
- Read the blog post
In this episode I read an extract from the introduction of my book, Leading Virtual Teams.
- Download your free digital edition
Leading Virtual Teams – Field Notes from a CEO by Dr Maren Deepwell, will be published 1 December 2022 as an open access publication by the Association for Learning Technology, UK.
What is it like to manage a virtual team and to lead an organisation from home? How can you not only meet budget targets and KPIs but balance business needs with employee happiness and wellbeing?
Leading Virtual Teams explores current practice in succeeding in a virtual workplace and questions what the future may hold.
In 2017 I set out to find creative and fun ways to work and build meaningful relationships in a virtual team. To find ethical ways to work online, respecting employee privacy and building trust between the organisation and its staff.
This book provides practical advice and case studies as a source of inspiration and a prompt for reflection for virtual teams and their leaders. From recruitment and induction to establishing effective and sustainable ways of working in the virtual workplace for small and medium sized organisations, Through case studies and practical advice this book explores the highs and lows of what it means to work from home long-term and sets out a new kind of professionalism for virtual teams.
Welcome to my podcast, Leading Virtual Teams. I'm Dr Maren Deepwell. I am a CEO in the not for profit sector and professional coach.
Each week, I'll be sharing ideas and strategies for creative and fun approaches to help you succeed and lead in the hybrid workplace.
In this episode:
- Leading Virtual Teams - introduction to the book
- Book launch, 1 December 2022
- Hacks for Hybrid Working with Lauren Hanks, Reclaim Hosting