Remote Teams Course Modules

Time:
The exercise in this module can be complete within 45 minutes. In total, allowing for discussion, we recommend allowing 75 minutes to complete the module.

Aims:
• To identify specific actions that will enable groups to achieve a shared vision.
• To help individuals see how they will contribute to the achievement of a shared vision.

Group Size:
This module is suitable for use with most workshop/courses but is not recommended for use where the group has more than 25 participants (e.g., conferences).

Useful For:
Staff at all levels working in a team. It is particularly well suited to new teams formed for a fixed period to manage/implement a project.

You'll Need:
• Plenty of sheets of thin A4 card.
• A selection of coloured pens (felt tip pens are ideal).

Notes:
This module allows the group to share their ideas on how they intend to work together to achieve a shared vision. The group need to be clear about what their vision is.

If this isn’t the case, then you might wish to use the module, Creating a Shared Vision beforehand to achieve this.

If you are using the organisation, or team’s vision statement, you will need to pre-prepare a visual aid (PowerPoint or Flipchart) to display at the start of the exercise.

Remote/Virtual Delivery:
There is a Remote Delivery version of this module available in Trainers’ Library.

Time:
The exercise in this module can be completed in about 30 minutes. In total, allowing for discussion, we recommend allowing about 40 minutes for this module.

Aims:
• To help participants recognise how their behaviour/communication is experienced by others.
• To encourage participants to increase the positive acts of recognition they give to others, and to create a working atmosphere in which people feel accepted and recognised.

Group Size:
This module is suitable for use with groups of up to about 20 participants.

Useful For:
Staff at all levels. It can be particularly useful in management training and team building.

You'll Need:
• Post-it notes and flipchart paper.

Notes:
This module can be used alongside Land of the Nutritos in a diversity programme and as part of a programme on giving feedback or team working.

Remote/Virtual Delivery:
There is a Remote Delivery version of this module available in Trainers’ Library.

Time:
The exercise in this module can be complete within 90 minutes. In total, allowing for discussion, we recommend allowing 120 minutes to complete the module.

Aims:
• To agree what success looks like for everyone.
• To establish effective working relationships within groups or teams.
• To create a vision statement for the team.

Group Size:
This module is suitable for use with most workshop/courses but is not recommended for use where the group has more than 25 participants (e.g., conferences).

Useful For:
Staff at all levels working in a team. It is particularly well suited to new teams formed for a fixed period to manage/implement a project.

You'll Need:
• Plenty of post-it notes and flipchart paper.
• A selection of craft materials such as paints, brushes, glue, magazines, pieces of material. (You may prefer to restrict the materials available to coloured pens and paper, depending on the make up of the group you are working with.)

Notes:
This module allows the group to share ideas about what is important to them and to agree some communal aim, values and aspirations. As a result of this exercise the whole team will participate in the creation of a shared vision.

This activity can be used as a stand-alone activity or combined with others to form a longer event. The module Achieving a Shared Vision naturally leads on from this module.

Remote/Virtual Delivery:
There is a Remote Delivery version of this module available in Trainers’ Library.

Time:
The exercise in this module can be complete within 20 minutes. In total, allowing for discussion, we recommend allowing 90 minutes to complete the module.

Aims:
• To explore the differences between a team and work group.
• To help participants identify when a team or group is required.

Group Size:
This module is suitable for use with most workshop/courses but is not recommended for use where the group has more than 25 participants (e.g., conferences).

Useful For:
Teams, work groups and/or their leaders who wish to explore the current organisation and management of the group.

You'll Need:
Nothing other than the materials provided.

Notes:
This module can be usefully followed by the following modules:
• Creating a Shared Vision.
• Achieving a Shared Vision.

It can also be a useful inclusion in any training intervention around remote teams.

Remote/Virtual Delivery:
There is a Remote Delivery version of this module available in Trainers’ Library.

Time:
The exercise in this module can be completed in about 25 minutes. In total, allowing for discussion, we recommend allowing about 35 minutes for this module.

Aims:
• To enable participants to consider the value and difficulty caused by organisational politics and political games.
• To create an understanding that managers cannot avoid politics, so need to know the games in which they may – deliberately or inadvertently – be playing.

Group Size:
This module is suitable for use with larger groups of up to almost any size. It tends not to work well with very small groups.

Useful For:
All managers, but particularly those who are new to management and may not understand the political nature of organisations, including their own.

You'll Need:
• Post-it notes, flipchart paper, scribble paper, pens and marker pens for each team.

Notes:
This module works best if you set up the room ‘cabaret style’ – that is with table teams of between 4 and 8 people per table.

This is the first in a series of three modules examining power and politics. It can be used on its own as a short session or with the other two to form a complete half day programme.

Politics is often seen as a ‘dirty word’ by many people, or as one in which they have no interest. The purpose of this module is for the participants to recognise that divorcing themselves from politics is a decision that could affect them adversely – and is, in itself, a political act. To influence the direction an organisation is taking means people taking part in politics.

Remote/Virtual Delivery:
There is a Remote Delivery version of this module available in Trainers’ Library.

Time:
The exercise in this module can be completed in about 40 minutes. In total, allowing for discussion, we recommend allowing at least 50 minutes for this module.

Aims:
• To help participants to consider how it feels to be different from the majority.
• To encourage understanding of the sources of prejudicial feelings and ways of behaving that can make others feel uncomfortable.

Group Size:
This module is suitable for use with groups of up to about 15 participants with enough to encourage discussion.

Useful For:
Staff at all levels.

You'll Need:
• To practise reading the scenario through several times to familiarise yourself before the session. (If your level of membership allows, there is an audio recording of the scenario in Trainers’ Library that you can use if you prefer not to read it aloud yourself.)

Notes:
This exercise uses an imaginative method for raising awareness of prejudice and really gets participants thinking.

It is important to use this activity within a diversity course in which ground rules of showing respect for individual opinions and experiences have been established. The content is potentially sensitive and it is important that the trainer monitors conversations during the group work to pick up on any intrusive questioning of minorities within the group, which could mirror the unhelpful behaviour described in the imaginary scenario.

The module consists of four activities:

Part 1:
1) Reading/Playing the scenario.
2) Discussion of the experience of imagining yourself into the scenario.
3) Input on where the attitudes and feelings may come from and the unhelpful behaviours that may follow.

Part 2:
4) Discussion in groups of what the two sets of people in the scenario could do to encourage acceptance and integration.

Remote/Virtual Delivery:
There is a Remote Delivery version of this module available in Trainers’ Library.

Time:
The exercises in this module will take about 75 minutes to complete. In total, allowing for discussion, we recommend allowing 90 minutes to complete this module.

Aims:
• To explore the way underlying beliefs can drive behaviour.
• To help participants to identify beliefs that they share even where the observable behaviours seem unusual.

Group Size:
This module is suitable for use with groups of up to 15 participants. The exercises work best with groups of 8 to 15. It can be used with smaller groups, but participants may be more reflective as they will have to explore their own beliefs and assumptions more.

Useful For:
Teams, work groups and/or their leaders who wish to explore cultural differences between nationalities, age groups, or departments and organisations.

You'll Need:
In addition to the Belief Cards and Team Brief, provided, you’ll need:
• A pre-prepared sheet of flipchart paper with a rough diagram of an iceberg.
• Sheets of coloured sticky dots for all participants.
• A small pile of Post-it notes for each participant.
• Five blank flipchart sheets, which should be fixed to the walls at various points around the room.

Notes:
This module can be used as an introduction to diversity training as well as a team-building exercise. The activities explore different behaviours and beliefs without judgement so is ideal for organisations with cross-functional teams or cross-cultural business units.

Time:
The exercises in this module take about 30 minutes to complete. In total, allowing for discussion, we recommend allowing 50 minutes to complete this module.

Aims:
• To explore the background issues that affect remote teams.
• To help participants recognise the challenge of working collaboratively when geographically separated.
• To show the importance of establishing clear guidelines at the start of any project to ensure success.

Group Size:
This module is suitable for use with groups of up to 25 participants. We do not recommend it for very large groups.

Useful For:
Those responsible for managing Remote Teams and those who currently work in Remote Teams. It is also particularly well suited to those that are about to start working remotely.

You'll Need:
• At least one set of the Rules for Remote Teams cards (larger groups will need multiple sets of these cards). You might like to laminate these so that they can be used again.

Notes:
This module is an excellent follow on to Working in Remote Teams.

Remote/Virtual Delivery:
There is a Remote Delivery version of this module available in Trainers’ Library.

Time:
The exercise in this module can be completed in about 50 minutes. In total, allowing for discussion, we recommend allowing at least 70 minutes for this module.

Aims:
• To help first time managers to recognise and discuss some of the things that they need to do to build awareness of the team and monitor its performance.
• To help first time managers understand the importance of spotting potential problems quickly and taking appropriate action to help the team overcome these.

Group Size:
This module is suitable for use with groups of up to about 18.

Useful For:
Teams, work groups and/or their leaders (especially first time managers) who wish to understand the elements of monitoring a team.

You'll Need:
Nothing other than the materials provided.

Notes:
This module can be usefully followed by any of the First Time Manager modules.

It can also be a useful inclusion in any training intervention around coaching teams.

Remote/Virtual Delivery:
There is a Remote Delivery version of this module available in Trainers’ Library.