Tag Archive for: remotework

Collaboration

Working together, with a group of returned missionaries is such a joyful delight.
Last night, despite being geographically dispersed, literally thousands of miles apart, through the marvel of technology, we were focused, unified and purposeful in the pursuit of a new book project.
Our working title โ€“ โ€œ๐‘ซ๐’‚๐’Š๐’๐’š ๐‘บ๐’‚๐’๐’• โ€“ ๐‘ฌ๐’—๐’†๐’“๐’š๐’…๐’‚๐’š ๐‘ท๐’‚๐’“๐’‚๐’๐’๐’†๐’๐’” ๐’•๐’ ๐‘ฎ๐’๐’”๐’‘๐’†๐’ ๐‘ป๐’“๐’–๐’•๐’‰๐’”โ€
It is a collaborative effort.
Collaboration: โ€œis the act of working together to produce a piece of work, especially a book or some research.โ€
I certainly liked the feeling of being a team again.
Any successful collaboration requires our time as well as effort to communicate and gain understanding.
Whilst serving in Belgium and the Netherlands, each of them learned that to be successful in their work, they must be together, as one.
Creating a culture of collaboration was essential in the mission field, and now a new opportunity has arisen for them to co-create in a collaborative way.
Together they shared their views, we heard different perspectives, and received a broader understanding of the project at hand in a respectful and loving way.
It was captivating, engaging and quite frankly just so exciting to be working together again.
I was so grateful to sit in counsel once more with so many of my dear friends.
Individuals brought their own unique perspectives to our discussions, which is of course highly desirable in any great collaboration.
I count it a great blessing and privilege to work with each one of them.
It was as if weโ€™d switched on a powerful divine light as we collaborated and shared ideas.
We began to understand each of our roles and how the project work will move forward.
Through experience, we all know the best collaborators also need to be great communicators.
We learned that successful collaboration allows for lots of benefits to emerge that are essential to success, including delegation, innovation, planning, persuasion, agility, and speed.
And we got off to a marvellous start!
It feels that all of this experience didnโ€™t just happen by accident, or random chance, but rather by divine design.
I canโ€™t wait to meet again in two weeksโ€™ time.
How do you feel about working in a collaborative team?

Massage!

Four months ago today, the UK went into lockdown – everything changed. No more travel for me. No more flights, trains, taxi’s or hotels.

I have spent 125 nights in my own bed! My sleeping patterns have never been better! But, with the new ways of working, new tests arise. Yesterday, whilst facilitating a virtual workshop on remote working, we discussed the many challenges it brings.

Video call after video call sounds like fun, but those of us now in that daily routine, are finding it pretty tough. Popping paracetamol and ibuprofen a few times a day to combat headaches, muscle pain in your shoulders, neck and back is becoming the new normal for many. In our session we talked about the tension, fatigue and exhaustion that comes at the end of the day from the high intensity of virtual interactions.

As we got into our top tips, brainstorming ideas, work patterns, moving around, setting boundaries, hydrating etc – it struck me that something happened this week that really helped me. A massage! And the salons are back open this week too!

Luckily my sister is a massage therapist. As she worked her magic on my neck, shoulders and back it relieved so much tightness and stress. I’m booked in again next week!

Go on – give it a go – you know you want to!