 session of hacks for hybrid working. I'm so excited to be doing this, Maren and I. We've been talking about this for quite a while and so it's great to be finally here. I'm joined today, like I just said, by with Maren and we're going to be spending the next couple of weeks talking about hybrid working, hacks for hybrid working, our relationships with digital tools and everything that entails. And so I wanted to start first, Maren, by letting you introduce yourself and talk about who we are and why we're here. Oh, hi Lauren. Hi everybody. I'm really excited to be kicking off this week and hacks for hybrid working. I'm Dr. Maren Diegweil and I have been, yeah, I think having hybrid work experience for over a decade. And since 2017, I've led a completely remote and hybrid blended workforce. So I've kind of been through a whole transition from working in an office where we have a who makes coffee, rotor and a dress code in a very traditional kind of, you know, UK higher education kind of background to, you know, literally packing up the boxes of office equipment and closing the office door for the last time. And then, you know, entering the brave new world of the virtual workplace where we arrived a few years before 2020. And when so many of us had to adopt hybrid working and fully online working environment. And now I've kind of come out at the other end, you know, and I'm very mindful of, you know, it being really challenging, like even if you're super digitally literate and really good with technology and a big front of technology, working from home on hybrid working in general brings with it a whole new set of challenges and requires a whole new set of skills. So I'm really interested in, you know, working with you all for the next four weeks and exploring, yeah, how we can help. That's great. I have been, excuse me, I've been in a similar position, I think, over the last many years working in a remote and virtual setting too. So for those who don't know me, my name is Lauren Hanks. I'm the director of operations at Reclaim Hosting. And Reclaim Hosting is a small web hosting company that is entirely remote. So our growing team is, you know, distributed across the United States and we've got Jim in Italy. And at one point we did have an office location in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and it was actually a co-working space. And we were, again, just thinking about working even at that stage in different working models that make sense for folks. And we opened it up to the community and that was really exciting. But I think ultimately, you know, it just made sense for our team and the work that we're doing that, you know, we wanted to give folks the flexibility of working in their homes and working wherever they wanted in the world. So I've worked remotely from Spain. I've, and now I'm stationed in Florida with my husband and, you know, and so it's been a journey of trying to think about the best ways of doing good work in virtual settings. And so I'm really looking forward to chatting with you, Marin, and chatting with folks in Discord and throughout the Q&A times over the next couple of weeks about the pros and cons of that and really kind of, you know, reflecting on where we are currently and where we hope to be with our working habits. So definitely super excited and looking forward to it. So with that, Marin, should we chat first maybe about the welcome post and maybe how folks can participate over the coming weeks? Absolutely. So we very much hope that this course, which is designed to be an exploration of hybrid working and how it shapes our relationship with digital tools, will provide you with food for thought and practical resources and tools. As we explore what it means that hybrid working is here to stay, whether, you know, some of you might be here thinking, I'm just curious, maybe I'm looking for some new tools or some tips. Maybe others are looking for a hopefully post pandemic or increasingly post pandemic work-life balance and just thinking about sort of wellbeing or personal goals and progress when it comes to hybrid working or you might be in a position where you're supporting colleagues, academics or students to find a way around a kind of blended working environment. So we're hoping very much that the combination of the video sessions, which will be premiering every Monday 11 E.T. and the Q&A sessions, which are at the same time on Fridays, together with a whole lot of chat and learning together on the Discord hybrid working channel and also the resources that we provide will help you along this way. Before we go and talk about the course goals and learn, I know you'll want to jump in there and tell folks what to expect there. I just want to give you a little taste of what's in store for the next four weeks. So this week, we're going to focus on unpacking hybrid working. Next week, we're going to dive down a little bit deeper and think about our relationship to digital tools and platforms in the virtual workplace. Then in week three, we get into actually looking at the hacks. So we have a whole hybrid hacks bonanza planned for you, where there's lots to explore and have fun with. And then bringing this all together, all the things that we do throughout the weeks, we're going to help you set up your own hybrid working roadmap in week four and make sure you have a plan going forward of what you want to focus on. So each week, we're going to take one part of the map and complete it. And then at the end of the course, you should have a complete roadmap. Lauren, did you want to talk a little bit about the course goals and what folks can expect? Definitely. And thanks, Marin, for giving the outline. I think hybrid working or working in general looks different for everyone. It's not a secret that everyone has a different way that they like to learn and they like to work. And so when you pull folks into a hybrid or virtual remote setting, those working models are highlighted. So I'm really excited. I think over the next couple of weeks, I'm really looking forward to just spending time reflecting on our own personal working habits and also understanding our relationship with digital tools as they are now and thinking about the ways that they're impacting the work that we do. I'm also excited just to talk about connecting with others in virtual settings and making sure that we have hacks or tips in place to do the best collaborative work possible, or even the best personal work possible in these settings, and then also just making sure that we have a plan forward. So my goal, at least personally, is to walk away feeling like I've kind of cleaned up my own working habits, cleaned up how I'm using these digital tools to work for me, and also making sure that I've got good habits in place going forward using that hybrid working wheel. Right. I mean, I hope everybody else is going to jump in and share their hopes on the Discord channel. We'd love to know what your priorities are. So please use their Q&A during the session and also share your comments. We'll be picking them up throughout the week. One thing, before we move over and talk about the hybrid working environment and the plot side, I just wanted to make one more point, which is around how hard folk in edtech have been working for the last few years. It's been an incredibly tough period, and I think I'm not really sure I'm seeing the down time, or they're kind of like, oh, now we're good, but it's all achieved now. Let's build on that. Instead, for many people, it can be maybe not a continuation of a crisis, but certainly much more edtech at scale, which in some ways is great, but also means resources are very stretched. And also a lot of negotiation, I think, with folk who whose only experience of educational technology came through the pandemic. And I think many people didn't have an ideal experience during that period. So I think hopefully this course will provide you with a calm and supportive environment in which to kind of take a moment and just reflect and take a breath. Okay. What do you think, Lauren? Should we talk a little bit about gang sharing on the plot side? I know quite a few folk have already started jumping in. I think so. Yeah. And this is something that's been super exciting to watch. And I'm really looking forward to seeing it build over the next couple of weeks as well and just seeing how other folks are, what you're looking at each day, right? Because I think so many times when we're meeting in these sorts of environments, Mary, and I can see your background, I can see the plants and, you know, the frames behind you, but I'm not seeing what you're looking at each day. And so I think the spot could be a helpful way at that. That's right. Well, for everyone who has heard me before, you probably know that I have a little four-legged working companion, Posi, who is on this plot and a big part of my hybrid working environments. If you ever see me do like this during the recording, this is me batting off an open, enthusiastic puppy, who is now 18 months old, but she doesn't quite know that. Oh, someone joining us for the recording as well. Super well-behaved recording dog. Oh, awesome. Okay. So just to wrap up with the welcome post, I just want to make sure that we just touch base on what you can explore from that, if you haven't already done that. Have a look at building connections with virtual teams, which is where we have a little chat at the OER 22 conference earlier this year. I'm setting out some of our thinking and some of our inspiration, which ultimately informed the shaping of this course. And then one of the things I want to jump into a little bit later on in this session is for us to come round to exploring most of working, which is from leading virtual teams, which is a book I've written on hybrid working. And so hopefully we can explore it a little bit with folks today and see how that can be applied to their context. Absolutely. So yeah, I'm looking forward to getting into it as well. So did you want to start first then jumping right in today and chatting about the article that folks might have had a chance to read before today's session? And if not, we'll make sure that the links are all available as well. I think the article that we're discussing is when do we actually need to meet in person? Right. Yeah. Thanks, Lauren. And every week in our sessions, we are going to bring in some different perspectives and voices from different communities. So hopefully give you some inspiration to look outside of your immediate environment and have a little bit of a think about how what you do relates to what's happening across the sector or indeed in a different industry. So the article is really about thinking about that sort of old bubble of, does this really have to be a meeting? Am I just sitting here wasting my time? This meeting could have been an email. And kind of moving on from this kind of experience, which I think we can all relate to, to thinking around what sort of thought processes and decision making processes do you ideally want to have in place in order to decide can you meet online? Is it an email? Are you going to have to meet in person? And so the article goes and explores whether meetings are relationship based, for example, team building days or maybe conflict resolution or task based. So for example, developing a curriculum plan or delivery plan for a new course, considering how complex the objectives of the meetings are. And then it provides a really handy illustration where it sort of shows where, you know, if, for example, it's low complexity and the goal to be accomplished is basically information transfer. Maybe you don't need to meet at all. Maybe it could be an email or maybe it could be online. And then thinking about sort of how to make use of hybrid formats and then suggesting where value lies in meeting in person. And one of the reasons why we've included this in this week's sort of hybrid working unpacked is that I think it can be a lot more nuanced, the hybrid working experience than, you know, basically like you have a Slack maybe or a different instant messaging service and just kind of say, okay, there you go. That's it now. Problem solved. It's a little bit more complicated than that. And I hope this article can start us thinking around those considerations. So Lauren, do you want to jump in here and what are your thoughts on this? Yeah. Thanks, Marin. I read through this article a few times now because I think it makes a lot of good points, but I also have maybe some critiques based on my experience working in a remote setting and leading a virtual team that, you know, really does try to prioritize connection and striking that balance between, okay, less is more in terms of meeting and trying to avoid meeting just to meet, but also knowing that, you know, if done right meetings should be prioritizing that connection. And that's really important for that work to happen. And so that's something that I, you know, it's like hitting a moving target trying to find, you know, the right balance of meetings, right? But I think one of the first things that I took away from the article was right in the beginning, I think the quote was without the ability to bump into one another in an office setting, you have to schedule every interaction. And that really resonated with me because that hits it right on the head in terms of how we have to think in our Slack environment. So to kind of back up for a second, reclaim is entirely remote. So we use Slack as our primary virtual office space. We do have email, but that's not something that we really try to use to connect. And then we also have Asana as our transparent to do list space, and we'll get into more of the tools and how we work with those next week. But I think for the purposes of where I wanted to start today, it was thinking about how we're scheduling that time for connection, because you're right, you can't just bump into someone in an office setting and say, oh, yeah, you know, how was your weekend? Or, you know, how did that go for you? Or, you know, you look like you're, you know, are you feeling okay? Like you can't have that same pulse on your team. And so that's really done through meetings for us, and also through Slack connections. And so I think one of the ways that I try to combat that idea of not meeting just to meet, but also knowing that it is important is to have helpful pathways in place for unscheduled connection. And for us, what has worked in the last many months, I would say, so Slack huddles, we're just recently introduced quite a while ago, but they've been really helpful for our team to just say, hey, you want to jump on a quick call and just, you know, talk about this or, you know, look at this issue together. We've also recently started doing kind of this impromptu working hour where there's no real agenda. It's not a meeting in the same way where we don't have things to get through. It doesn't have to be efficient. It's just a chance for our team to jump on a call and work alongside each other. And the conversation can go wherever it wants. And they're completely optional to join. It has nothing to do with, you know, again, performance or anything. It's just a chance to connect. And then we also try to you know, integrate different mediums of connection as well. So radio shows or podcasts, discord chats, we've even started doing Music Mondays where someone can control the podcast, or not the podcast, but the playlist for a while. Just again, trying to get at that idea that everyone connects differently. They learn differently and they work differently. And sometimes, you know, jumping on another call and the working hour thing might not work for you if you've got fatigue from meeting. So, but listening to a playlist and tuning in and saying, like, oh, yeah, I love that song and sharing a gift and Slack or something. That is another way to connect to without being on a meeting. So I know that's kind of a lot. But Marin, I just wanted to throw that out as sort of a first maybe point of conversation just around scheduled versus unscheduled connections. I think that's a really important point and a really interesting insight into, you know, how you're trying to blend, blend those different modes of interaction. When you were speaking, one of the things that came up for me and that's also related to the article is that, you know, in higher end, I think there is a really broad spectrum of expectation but also ability. So I think we're seeing everything from folk who are kind of like scheduling meetings in person again, because that's what they used to do and they don't have to be online if it's safe to meet in person to, you know, institutions who are adopting kind of really quickly like policies to say, like, oh, you can now work from home like any day you choose, but you have to be in for this day. And I've had so many stories of folk who are like, I'm in my office, there's no one else here, or, you know, which kind of totally negates the whole point of going anywhere to connect with a beauty only person who choose Fridays, then, you know, there's no one there to connect with. And that is, I think, a really good example of why this requires thought, right? This isn't kind of going to be solved by in the long run, it's not going to be a good experience by not being designed properly and similar to, you know, how we design student interactions online. It's always, you know, we need to learn from virtual learning and for virtual working and really start to curate those experiences. And just before you jump back in, I think the big factor here is also skill and confidence level. So, you know, in order to be informal using technical technology or tools rather, you need to have a certain comfort level to kind of, you know, use different tools to jump in on radio shows or Slack channels. And these tools also need to be available. So there's quite a lot, I think, to unpack in that area. And yeah, if you have some thoughts on this, please put them in the chat or share them with Discord. We'd love to hear your experiences there as well. Absolutely. And I think while folks are writing in, you know, one of the things that I was thinking about while you were talking, you know, I've taken meetings with folks from other schools that say exactly that, that they're in sort of this hybrid working schedule at the moment. And that means that their colleagues, you know, they're on alternating shifts about who goes into campus on what days. And so as a result, you more than likely are always still, you know, working with someone who is remote, right. And so to say, oh, I'm in the office now, you know, while it's unavoidable to think that, you know, just because you're in the office doesn't mean you're not going to have to adhere to hybrid working models because in order to collaborate with others, you know, in a virtual setting. So yeah, I think that that's definitely the challenge. And I thought that the article did a good job of trying to, you know, elaborate just on how putting together and facilitating virtual events or hybrid events, especially is so challenging. It's something that Reclaim has really struggled with in the past. I think we're, you know, we really, you know, we have a plan and a workflow for doing complete virtual events. But anytime we're running an in-person event, and Marin, I know you can probably relate to this, the question is usually, well, can I tune in remotely? And that, you know, it completely changes the game. And I think that the author of this article, you know, hit that on the head, basically saying that if done incorrectly, you can really sideline or alienate those virtual participants. And so until you have that done right, and you know you can do it right, it's, you know, it can be kind of a gray area for sure. That's such an important point. I wonder whether we just take a couple of minutes to think about the language we use to talk about these different ways of working. And I wanted to maybe share one of the documents we already put into this week's post, which is a document that we can use to start thinking about how we use these different terms and what different modes of working we're talking about. So I wanted to also use this to reflect on, you know, this really not being a new thing. Like digital technology is kind of incidental to working from home, which is, you know, historically speaking, a very long tradition. If you really think about, you know, like individual craftspeople or small industries over 100 years ago, working from home used to be a very normal thing. And having, you know, having your own workshop or specialism in your own and living there was not an unusual thing. So it's not a kind of completely new concept. But I think during 2020, in particular during the pandemic, it took on a very contemporary meaning. And it's worth, I think, stepping back from that and having a think. So throughout this course, we're going to try and use these different terms to describe different modes of working. So home working, the practice of working from home, hybrid working, working both at home and from office or from on campus, working as a virtual team. So this could be a whole blend of different modes of working. But the primary way of working is digital workflows and communications. I think Lauren, I think your team would be a great example of how you describe that. There's also distributed working, which folk who work for larger institutions in particular might really identify with. So if you have different campuses, this doesn't necessarily have to be, you know, facilitated by digital means. And if you think back about the old days of like the UK's Open University, for example, where, you know, mailed out assignments, constituted kind of work and study, or, you know, also radio and TV, it doesn't necessarily have to be digital technology that's used to facilitate distributed working. And then also remote working, which I think many of us are experiencing is all around a central hub, such as a compass or a company HQ. And I think it's important to consider whether this applies to you, as well as being a hybrid worker, because very likely if you're working in higher ed, you're working through to a central hub where things, people, resources are located. And a lot of institutions have policies that are kind of designed to envisage everybody being in the same place and working in the same way, rather than being able to reflect the kind of broad reality, which is much more messy and much more complex. So thanks for sharing that, Lauren. I thought it would just be helpful to kind of unpack that a little bit. What are your thoughts on those different terms? And what is your experience of that? Yeah. And let me just pull the visual back up because I find that it's helpful just to have something to reference while we're talking about them. I think, for me personally, the work that I am most familiar, I feel like I have worked in many of these modes at various points. I would say now I'm in the home working category for the most part. I work every day from my home office. That's where I am now. And so my commute is really waking up in the morning and going into the office or going to a dedicated work zone in my house. But I have also been in that hybrid working model where I've spent a couple of days working at our Fredericksburg office and then one or two days at home. Obviously, I'm a part of a distributed team and that folks are working across various locations, various time zones, and that's something you have to take into consideration as well. And then working as a virtual team right there with you as well. So definitely feel like I can relate to many of these just in over the course of years working for Reclaim. And they do come with their own challenges and benefits too. Well, we'd really love to hear what your thoughts are. Which of these modes of working have you experienced? What is currently dominating your experience of work? And Lauren, I think just before we jump into kind of a more practical part of this week's session where we're going to start actually working together and collaborating together. I just wanted to kind of ask, in terms of like how things have changed for you for the past sort of two to three years, what would you say is kind of like the thing that you reflect on that's sort of like a big difference? And just to share my example, I think before the pandemic hit, I think many people when I said, oh, I don't have an office or I'm based from home, they were like, really, you know, you're not, you're not, you're not somewhere, what's your address like, like registering a mailbox without a physical office address was quite difficult. So I think many people were, were quite sort of surprised. And even if they were familiar with the idea of home working, they didn't think this was a dominant or prevalent way of doing things. And now when I tell people that I'm working from home, they're like, oh, yeah, well, so do I, you know, and I'm basically, I've got my laptop, I've got the kitchen table, you know, there's dogs, kids, complete chaos very often. And or, you know, there could be like a bedside where I'm kind of sitting in this corner. And, you know, a lot of folks now have the sense that the sort of emergency response to not being able to safely go and co locate with other colleagues is kind of the reality of, you know, hybrid or home working long term. And I think that does worry me, because for a lot of folks, that is not the ideal situation. And there should be more support from an employer point of view, but also support for skills development. So that is one of the things that does kind of worry me at the moment. Yeah, I think you raise a really good point. And I saw that that kind of coming through the article even as well, like, I think the author at one point was saying, you know, instead of doing another meeting, the supervisor now records the updates for the week, and that gives folks the flexibility to listen to it as they're going on a jog or making dinner. And I immediately was, my red flags went up, because I think just because we have the benefit and the flexibility of being in a home working environment and don't get me wrong, that's great. You're commutes shorter, you can get up and walk around the block and be with your pets and you know, or your children or, you know, but it's, it's still really important to have those boundaries and to treat it like a full time job in that you are going to work and dedicating time to work. And then you're also switching off and leaving work, even if it's just leaving your desk or leaving your working zone or whatever that looks like. And so I thought that that's where that article was a little problematic because I don't want my colleagues or the folks, you know, if I've given someone directives for a project, I don't want them doing that while they're making dinner. Absolutely not, you know, so I think like having those boundaries are still really, really important. And I think also what you said just about knowing that, okay, we're going to have to ramp up our technical skills in order to use these tools, you know, for a successful working working environment. That's really important too. And I think over the summer in particular, we've spent more time as a team in that strategic space, thinking about time management, thinking about, you know, navigating and working on meetings, as opposed to just focusing on the content or, you know, the professional development technically, right? But actually spending time developing and improving on just how we're working. Because I think ultimately that does make us more successful, you know, employees on our own paths, but also as part of a larger team. And also, you know, personally with our mental health, I think that that's that that has to be prioritized and it can't be overlooked in these settings. So that's something that I, you know, I'm really excited to continue chatting about as well. I'm not sure if that's where your head goes with this type of conversation, but that's definitely where I'm thinking. I really hope that all of you, you know, joining in for this course will have similar thoughts and priorities, because that's what, you know, Hex for Hybrid Working is really all about. It's meant to give you ways to think about things, practical approaches, tools, resources to kind of start reflecting and starting to get a sense of which parts of how you currently work, work for you, not just today, but long term, and which don't. And there might be some aspects that you don't have much control over. There might be others that you do have some control over. So I think we're probably ready to jump in and talk about our practical exercise for the week, because this tool is designed to help you do just that. And it's called the Wheel of Hybrid Working. And Lauren and I are going to demo that for you now and share a template, which is also in this week's post and also talk you through every step of the way and how to use it and what you can do with it. So we hope that hybrid working will fit many of you, but this template does contain versions of all different ways of working. So if hybrid working doesn't feel the ideal fit for you, then just choose one of the other ones. And you can also try and do more than one, see if you get different results, if you have different reflections. But the way it works is the same for everyone. So we are going to use this example to just share how it works and what to do. You can either complete this template digitally and download it, either use it in Google Slides or PowerPoint, something like that. You can print it out. Hopefully you can adapt it in whatever format works for you. And if you want to take this completely offline, just with pencil and paper, you can absolutely do that too. We hope that some of you might feel comfortable sharing your thoughts and results with us on Discord. But also if you just want to keep it to yourself, the point is really that you should try and reflect for yourself as honestly as you can. So the wheel is divided into eight different areas. And many of you maybe come across a similar tool called the Wheel of Life or familiar with that. But the idea is really to reflect on different common areas that impact on the way we work and to try and give them a score. Now in this example that I've completed ahead of time, I've put some example scores in. And ideally we want you to assign a score from one to 10. Now if you assign a lower score, for example one, two or maybe three, that would present an area which is challenging for you or which might require attention. If you have a high score in an area, maybe a seven, eight, nine or even a 10, that would represent a way of working, which is currently working well for you, something that has a positive impact. And there's also a blank space for you to add your own categories. Eight categories is quite a lot to reflect on, so hopefully you won't need to add more. But if you have a burning category that you really want to add, and just please use the space provided and add one in. Now I want to say a few things about what it means to have a low score or a high score. So in the example I've shared, socializing with colleagues is a score three, and that's the lowest score on that board. Also collaboration, which is the category I added, has a low score, which is four. Now you might be an introverted colleague who is not so keen to do a lot of socializing with folk after work. You may be quite happy to be socializing on Slack and leave it at that. You might be quite happy with the score of three for socializing with colleagues if it's not an important category to you. A low score doesn't mean that you necessarily want to take some action. On the other hand, if, for example, work-life balance is super important to you, seven might be not a good enough score and you're like, oh, I think it's only a seven out of 10. I would like it to be a 10 out of 10. This is the thing I'm going to focus on for the next four weeks. The wheel isn't about judgment or performance. There are no right or wrong answers. If you give low scores across the board or high scores across the board, there's no right or wrong. The main purpose of it is to help you reflect on how you feel it's going and to just give you that moment to take a breath. In a minute, I'm going to come to you, Lauren, and see what areas you identified and what your scores were and see what you might want to share with us. Just to emphasize, we are going to be using this hybrid working wheel as part of our roadmap. In next week's sessions, we are going to show you exactly what to do and how to do that, but hopefully it will help you identify one or maybe two areas that you particularly want to focus on throughout the course. With that, Lauren, what was it like for you to complete this? What are your thoughts? Have you identified any areas you want to be focusing on? Yeah. In preparation for this course, I have to say that I've cheated a little bit and I cleaned up my workspace and definitely set the tone a little bit and knew that this is where we were headed this fall with this conversation. I've been thinking about my work-life balance and my physical and mental health and things like that and really reflecting a lot this summer in particular. For me, I would say that when I was taking a look at the working wheel, the commute for me was actually surprisingly low and that people might be like, Lauren, your commute is 10 seconds. How could that be low for you? I am a night owl. I do not like waking up in the mornings. For me, working from home has been great because I can sleep to the last minute, but I also know that I'm much happier if I wake up earlier and I start my day and I give myself time before work to make coffee or go on a walk with my dog to read the news or whatever. That is something that I would like to improve on in the coming weeks is just being really intentional on building that more into my schedule and actually making a commute, even if it's mentally to work. That's something that I'm particularly interested in doing. I also think for me the work-life balance has been tricky in the past because even though my day will end and I create those physical boundaries for myself and I leave this room and I do other things, I'm still thinking about work or that's something that has been a struggle for me in the past where I can't turn my brain off and then I'm thinking about my to-do list or what I'm working on the next day or things that I'm maybe just unsure about or something like that and I just mull through these ideas in my head and to the point where I'm still mentally exhausting myself even though I'm on my own time. That's something that I've really tried to work on particularly this summer and it's something that I am still going to be really focusing on in the coming weeks as well as just making sure that I'm setting up good habits towards the end of my day or at the beginning of my day where I feel like okay I've got a plan for the next day so there's no real reason for me to be thinking through all of these things on you know through the evening. I'm not sure if you can relate to that. Yeah I think everyone in the room can relate to that. I would be very surprised if there were a folk in a room said oh no I've never had that problem. I've never thought about work after 5 p.m. I would say like work-life balance is tricky so like you I've worked so hard at this and tried all kinds of different strategies for making sure work-life balance kind of does exist and has a balance but yeah the last few years I just feel like every time I figure it out there's like a new emergency or a new context in which you know I need to reinvent that all the time and one of the things that this really makes me reflect on is how much my approach to working in a hybrid kind of workplace is evolving over time. It changes a lot through circumstances you know in my life like last year when I had a puppy it was incredible like the amount of time that took like out of my working day and you know the amount of things that got destroyed not just the dimension but I think that was really tough and I also highlighted collaboration and I would be interested to hear what folks experience as that is so at the moment my in my team and my immediate team I have a whole range of colleagues who have started working with us very recently who've worked with us for many years so some of them have been you know seeing us through the pandemic some of them joined us beforehand and I think it's really difficult for folk to continuously upscale and adopt new tools like we're just about to adopt a tool like Asana and I already know that half of my team are going to be like really really I am so busy it's just really necessary that I'm learning a whole new workflow which is going to completely change how I manage every project and I think the bigger your institution the more work it is to kind of get that sort of collaboration in the tools for collaboration like across everyone and also to update it continuously. We are a Google Apps for Education user and you know boy is it unhelpful that they iteratively release updates without notice what I tell you on the data like hey did I hang out it's completely different and you're like oh my meetings just disappeared so thanks for that so yeah I think this is where you know big tech is super unhelpful in the virtual workplace. Well yeah so a couple of things to say to that one you know tool fatigue I think is just as real as needing fatigue where it's like oh you know everybody has this new platform that's just going to change the game and I you know I think you know some of them are very valid and have a real purpose but it has to be helpful for you it has to be a natural part of the work that you do and I think anytime you're talking about using a new tool or platform it needs to aid not take time to use you know where it's like if I've got to stop what I'm doing and go input data in here just to check a box that's that's efficient for no one right but if it's actually helping me you know by collecting things so I'm more efficient or something you know there might be a real purpose there but yeah I completely relate to the idea too of you know then okay you become ingrained with a tool and then suddenly they change their entire entire model and you know you realize that everything you were leaning on is now like you know feeling a bit rocky we're feeling that even with cPanel and WHM at the moment and that's something that we can talk about more next week as well where we're now faced as a team with okay all of our training all of our documentation is built on cPanel and WHM looking a certain way and they've completely thrown that on its head and so not only are we having to relearn where things are but we have to be experts enough to teach others and then we have to update you know so much documentation that it's just we have a mountain of work in front of us and so that's definitely something to think about when we're talking about collaborative tools for sure but I agree I think collaboration in general is something that I could probably you know do a better job you can always improve for that category for sure and I think reclaim as a whole does a great job of collaborating on projects in fact it's something that I'm really proud of because I think our teams can jump in on so many different projects and work cross-functionally which is wonderful you know but it can still be a challenge sometimes in virtual settings where you do feel rather isolated you know I look around by myself you know and so building that time to collaborate is an intentional choice as you said it's we have to be intentional about setting up working environments for these priorities. One of my favorite experiences of sort of you know collaboration fails is like a few years ago a colleague was showing me something on a spreadsheet and you know I'm a I'm a good spreadsheet user you know I'm not like amazing but I'm skilled and we were like online for like an hour sharing your screen talking about it I just couldn't do it and then in the end it turned out that he was just pressing a keyboard shortcut and he was like this is so obvious obviously you know that you press this button and I was like this is not a keyboard shortcut I've ever come across so keyboard shortcuts is one of those things where if you're sitting next to someone it's the most obvious thing in the universe but if you are remotely desktop sharing magic it is it is literally magic it just appears and you're like wait it can't replicate this and it's one of those examples where you know you can frustration and kind of you know miscommunication can so easily creep in and like someone leaves the meeting thinking well you know I'm really failing at this and the other person leaves thinking my god you know how can you not get this like and and you know these things can go wrong and spiral very quickly um so the question really just to come back to our hybrid working real and I know that many folk in a room will want to kind of share their own views and thoughts it's really to just think about the overall picture and once you've completed it reflect on the scores and just have a think and say okay which of these scores would I like to change um it may be a high score that you want to even get better it may be a low score that you want to increase or you may not decide that um something needs change but there's something you're really curious about or really frustrated about or something that you wish you could do something about even though within the practical constraints of your working environment or higher ed um environment you're working it's not as easy to change all that so in whatever mode you're completing this um do you try and pick one or two things that you want to focus on um and that's one of the things we're going to use for next week and I know Lauren we're nearly at the time where we're going to start our roundup and reminding folk of what's coming up next week so are you ready to jump into that sorry I can't hear you you know I I can't believe I did that I've tried really hard not to to at this point you know in the game but here I guess it's unavoidable but yes that sounds great I'm really looking forward to uh following along with the the working wheel over the next course of sessions um and looking forward to just continuing these conversations in the discord chat and also later this week as well um you know where we can just check in on how folks are getting along with that um and also just continue these conversations too around you know hybrid working in general and maybe we'll chat about the article and all good things so yeah you want to take us from here maren yeah definitely we want to encourage you all to keep posting on this blog site um I want to see pictures of coffee cups and dogs cats maybe you'll commute whether that would be a staircase or maybe it's a water campus or maybe something completely different um that makes your hybrid working environment special um I know of a few folk who've got craft items in and around their offices you know cushions maybe posters have sports equipment unreliably informed that at least two people I know have vinyl setups in their offices so you may decide that something that we haven't thought at all about is important to you and we hope that you'll share it with us so that we can all have a look at this sort of tapestry of hybrid working as it is developing yeah I have to say too I'm I'm really interested in seeing people's um desk layouts something that our our team at Reclaim talks about all the time I think Meredith put out a big blog post on it recently and I know Taylor just recently uh put out a tweet and he's got you know a vertical monitor and all of his radio you know things set up as well so um and Jim meanwhile is living in an arcade basement so you know I think everybody has their own setup and I'm really looking forward to seeing how people use um these tools to work for them so well I've got a small fun fact before we jump into what's in store for next week um the area around your desktop um that you're looking at is called a geekosphere and there's an interesting research article about that that I'm going to share on discord so if you're um into that sort of thing there is the research for you out there that I'll be sharing with you there are people watching this who are interested in that believe me so that's I'll be seeing you on discord and we can have a lot of conversation around that I'm looking forward to it great so what's up for next week so next week um we are going and focusing on tools and platforms um one of the things we've reflected on a lot when designing this course is how important the relationship is between us as human beings and digital tools particularly when it comes to hybrid working and virtual working so I know that Lauren you're really passionate about next week is there anything in particular you think folks will be looking forward to um so I just was writing this a little banner while we were talking here um but yes I'm super excited for next week this is kind of my bread and butter just thinking about how we're using these digital tools to work best for us and not just integrating a new tool because it looks pretty or we you know just because right we need to be really particular about what we're using I'm also excited just to you know think about you know how we're storing our data how we're you know if you think about cleaning up your office space it's just as important to clean up your virtual space too and so yeah definitely looking forward to getting into next week and just reflecting on how we're using digital tools to work for us and in case you know you're arriving here kind of super stressed from the start of term and you're like I really don't know what is this all about I need help well help is at hand because we have our weekly Q&A session coming up on Friday um so just drop in um we're going to be there to answer your questions if you have any problems completing the template we can help you with that and also if you just have any other thoughts comments questions um things you want to share do please join us on Friday I'm really looking forward to that conversation definitely and the thing I'll also mention too just because I know the hybrid working wheel can get into some personal concepts as well and so if you're wanting to ask a question but anonymously that's also fine too you don't have to put it in the public discord chat uh just you know write it to us privately or send it an email or in a twitter dm or somewhere else and we will highlight the question without highlighting you so that's something that I'm interested in and and you know continuing on this week as well absolutely um yeah feel free to share what you feel comfortable sharing and keep to yourself or share with us privately um what you don't want to be in a public channel but yeah keep those photos that you are happy to share um going on in our hybrid working spot sites awesome well thank you Marin uh for joining this first session we look forward to chatting with folks uh in the discord chat this week and on Friday so we will see you then thank you see ya