Managing Distance Working - How to work effectively in teams with remote and flexible working arrangements

Working as an effective team can be tricky enough even when everyone works in the same office for pretty much the same time each day. But if some of the team are based in London, some in Newcastle, there''s no single day of the week when everyone is at their desks. And then there''s that person on a fixed-term contract who works from home in Plymouth. Working in such a team becomes a much more challenging task. With 48% of all employees on some kind of flexible working arrangement, such challenges are becoming increasingly common, especially in the public sector. This programme is designed to meet the needs of everyone working in such a team who want to understand how to manage and meet the challenges of these new working practices whether they be teams that work at different times, or in different locations, or on different contracts - or all three.
The key to successful team working is to engender high levels of trust. But how can trust be engendered when opportunities to meet face to face or to see fellow team members in action may be limited? This one day programme will show you how.
Presenter: Larry Reynolds


Programme details
0900 Registration and Refreshments
0930 Welcome and overview
· Setting the scene - trends in flexible working in the 21st Century
· The four characteristics of a successful flexible team
· Why trust matters and how to create it
· It''s not just money - the five things people want from work and their relevance to flexible working
· Skill, will and focus - the three things you want from your team members
· Taking stock - how is your team doing right now? In what ways does it need to improve?
1100 Break
1115 Managing flexible individuals
· Three steps to managing individual performance
· How to negotiate objectives with team members
· How to help people manage their workload
· Trust must be earned - are your people at level one, two or three?
· Why you want them at level three, how to get them there, what to do if you can''t
· How to ensure that flexible workers get regular high-quality feedback
· How to motivate people you rarely see
1230 Lunch
1315 Managing flexible teams
· How to get everyone on the team pulling in the same direction
· What must be communicated to everyone on the team - and how
· How to choose the right kind of regular communication
· More work on developing trust and good team morale
· Management by ''virtual wandering about''
1445 Break
1500 Tools and techniques that really work
· Understanding why communication goes wrong and what you can do about it
· Understanding rapport and how it helps with trust
· How to make sure people stay informed and feel they are being listened to
· When to use email and how to use it effectively
· Intranets, blogs, shared folders and other alternatives to email
· When to pick up the phone and how to get the best out of it
· When, and how often you must arrange a face-to-face
· Making sure you give enough time to your team - the investment principle
1615 Review and application groups
· What are you going to do as a result of today?
1630 Close
Key Benefits
· Discover the four characteristics of a successful flexible team
· Get everyone on the team pulling in the same direction
· Understand why communication goes wrong and what you can do about it
· How to engender high levels of trust
Presenter
Larry Reynolds is MD of his own consultancy which specialises in the development of ethical leaders for the challenges of flexible working in the 21st Century. Larry has helped to develop leaders and build high-performance teams in a wide range of organisations Public sector organisations that Larry has worked with include the Department of Health, the Department of Work and Pensions, House of Commons, Manchester City Council, Newcastle City Council, Derby City Council, and Leicester City Council. Larry has seventeen years experience as a trainer and consultant. His current areas of interest are leadership, flexible team-working, negotiation and life balance.