My week working from home

The first 2 days (more useful to you and me if I do bite size junks)

I made the decision to work from home this week.  Although, I first began working from home in the UK in 1994 when it was becoming a "thing". It took some 5 or 10 minutes to "dial up" the modem to connect enough time to put the kettle on and make a cup of tea - yep the hardship!! From time to time over the years I have either run companies from home or spent short periods working from home but never has the tools we have access to made it this easy. The question on my mind is "what ways of working do I need to regulate to feel connected"

Working the entire week, I happen to pick one where I had no face to face meetings.  It's also since we face the inevitability that New Zealand will also see cases rise, partly due to the unconscious and conscious acts of travelers and our behaviors. 

 ??First day

I set my laptop up on the dining table and started making plans and calls. I got to lunch time and realized I didn’t plan to eat at home, so didn’t have the $5 pizza, sushi or sandwich I normally eat. So my first learning is stock up on lunch items!!

Remote meetings are better with video. For some reason, we have a culture in some parts where we don’t do video. It is so much easier to meet and talk with video on. We look for visual clues to put us at ease. According to Yonder, advocates for redefining the workplace - there are 5 reasons why video is better and you won't be surprised -

1. Human Factor
2. Nonverbal Communication
3. Better Work-Life Balance
4. One less Tool
5. Requires Commitment

Please check out their website for lots of tips and tricks here . 

Otherwise it was a good day. Most of it was spent getting up to speed on the environment and strategic leadership thinking with my peers. I missed having a monitor, well 2 to be precise. I found out later that the company will allow you to take them home. Otherwise do invest in a monitor. The other trick we learned with both my Partner and myself working from home is be in separate rooms and door closed means "do not disturb" and door open is "come and say hi" because, lets face it we still need social contact. Also, build in walk around time and take a lunch break - go walk in the forest or wherever, just make sure you get refreshed

??Day Two

Slow start. I found it difficult to structure the day, perhaps because I had no plan! Also, our company had scheduled in back to back meetings 6 to be precise. So this is unusual but the whole company is getting used to working from home, our response to the situation and what can we do to service our members (front of mind) and ensure that we have a sustainable business model.

This got me thinking. We have Microsoft teams and we use Planner so making sure we incorporate our priorities, achievements and obstacles (i.e., a Stand up!!) on a weekly basis will be critical. It's viewable to everyone in the team. They can use it as their to do list. Putting some principles together of what I want to achieve has been important and doing this Day one would have been even better. They are;

1. Care and communications to our members - prepare for phone calls and email directly with key contacts asking what it is that they need - provide some information and get leadership buy-in
2. Revenue gap - put together a plan on how we might ride out this unique situation - provide value while keeping afloat. What goals can we set?
3. What obstacles will we face - map out what could stop us achieving our goals.

So I need to jump onto the next 2 x zoom meetings and let us see what we can get done in the rest of the week coming. What ideas do you have that have worked. Please feel free to leave in comments. Also what should I focus on tomorrow?!!!!