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Yolanda Crosby
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87
Vistra Corporation in Irving, Texas
09/08/20 at 3:49PM UTC
in
Lifestyle & Relationships

I have two questions.

What can one implement within their department to instill a sense of team pride and department excellence working remotely? As we work remotely what can we focus on as a department through the remainder of the year?

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Dr. Trelaunda Beckett-Jones
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96
Transformational Leader, Wife, Mom of Multiples
09/10/20 at 11:24PM UTC
Virtual awards & recognition, virtual fun events such as attending the Escape Room virtually (it can be done), developing creative ice-breakers, virtual games (I.e. scavenger hunts) are some of the ways you can instill team pride. Also, sending your team organization paraphernalia (“office team swag” cups, t-shirts, flash drives, pens, etc) is a great way to motivate & encourage your staff while working remotely. Even though you and your team may not be physically together, you and your team can incorporate a team day when everyone wears an organizational t-shirt. Successories is one of my favorite stores that includes a plethora of items for actions such as this! Check them out! For the remainder of the year, you and your team can focus on resilience, work/life balance and help them move to work/life brilliance (BTW, this is the name of a real book—-Amazon.com!) Self-care is extremely important and is greatly needed for productivity. You and your team could also work on short-term end of the year goals, even if one of them is to create a health and wellness Initiative if you don’t have one to date or expand your existing initiative.
Katherine
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21
Online Business Manager
09/10/20 at 10:49PM UTC
I've seen some companies start communications channels for weekly or even daily accountability where everyone checks in with 1-3 things they will accomplish for the day/week at the beginning and then checks back in at the end with what they completed or a plan of action/request for support for anything not done. I've seen this build a lot of camaraderie which holds the whole team/staff responsible for moving forward together.
Samantha Lane
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18
Director, Sales and Marketing
09/09/20 at 2:16PM UTC
I love all of these ideas and it really shows how important community is, even when WFH. Consistency with communication is key, and a great way to show respect and compassion for your colleagues. Setting up a routine weekly call (even an informal Friday afternoon at 4pm week recap) can give everyone a nice ending note to the week and set up a positive vibe for the weekend!
Jeanne Baade
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24
Customer Success Leader, CenturyLink
09/08/20 at 9:53PM UTC
Our team did a white elephant exchange through the mail. We encouraged everyone to find the most outrageous/useless item for $10 or less and shared just the recipients address. We made hats, have virtual scavenger hunts, play our version of "bingo" during certain executive calls (pick the right exec), and did a recipe swap. Next we need to do something related to football.... Departmental Excellence can be celebrated by creating a "brag" slide with achievements from different folks on your team and sharing them with Exec leadership, sharing the feedback with the team. Recognition is SO important, as individuals and as teams.
Yolanda Crosby
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87
Vistra Corporation in Irving, Texas
09/08/20 at 9:12PM UTC
@Bonnie Okay, Great. I love your suggestion. I'm sure the team would love a Pizza party.
Bonnie
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13
Environmental Evangelist and Edupreneur
09/08/20 at 8:48PM UTC
We do a few things at SB which are really cool. Every Week we have 30 minutes and different people take the lead and ask a cool question. We go around and everyone answers that question. We get to know each other well. Ideas - bring one cool thing to the computer from your house and tell memory, share something funny a kid said, tell us your favorite museum in the world, what is your favorite junk food, we have had some doozies and some deep ones. We also have pizza afternoon once a quarter where the company pays for you to order or buy and make pizza and then share it with each other. We always do debriefs of events together.
Sue
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516
Seasoned Sr Treasury Coordinator, Sr Exec Asst
09/08/20 at 8:25PM UTC
I will say work on communication and ensuring that staff, while working from home, respond to emails, or requests in a reasonable manner. It is frustrating to chase down approvals or questions when it was not this difficult when we were in the office. Zoom meetings for a book club has worked to keep in touch with others and have something other than work to do.
Yolanda Crosby
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87
Vistra Corporation in Irving, Texas
09/08/20 at 9:09PM UTC
@Sue It should like a great idea. I'm taking notes to add to my list of suggestions.
Nicole Fortune
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192
Reporting & Data Lady in "BHAM"
09/08/20 at 8:24PM UTC
I feel any type of recognition, whether its formal or causual. I think its really important to acknowledge the effort inspite of pandemic and other challenges people might be facing as we work remotely. We are in the middle of a large conversion project and our manager came up with silly award names, but it recognized everyone on the team and their contributions during our monthly team video call. I personally make it a point to verbally recognize those who participate on the long conference calls and who I see working the extra and odd hours, like myself.
Yolanda Crosby
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87
Vistra Corporation in Irving, Texas
09/08/20 at 9:06PM UTC
@ Nicole Fortune, that's a great idea. Thank you for your support.
Yolanda Crosby
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87
Vistra Corporation in Irving, Texas
09/08/20 at 4:36PM UTC
@Flour I appreciate, and thank you for your quick response. I love the idea of making a batch of cookies and sharing their favorite recipe. The only issue is we all are working remotely. I will keep that one for when we return to the office next year. I love the idea of switching roles to help others determine if they ready to the transaction into a different department.
Flour
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264
I worked it out
09/08/20 at 4:12PM UTC
I am a food person so I'd say everyone makes a batch of cookies, everyone gets one cookie from each person and a recipe trade off could start more discussions helping people to relate to one another. Also make it a point that everyone anonymously write in what they appreciate from other members of the team, and then once a week you could celebrate all the comments given on one particular person. Perhaps have everyone write in what they want to learn more of and pair the mentors and mentees together for a week or two to learn what another team member does. Things to focus on for the rest of the year- improving customer service; and letting people switch jobs inside the company if they feel they have become better at something else during Covid Era Work . Is there a new department that needs to be developed? Are there new job benefits that should be considered (celebrating bdays, good work gift cards, yearly company grill outs/fun days for entire family)?

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