[Webinar video] How to avoid the “unexpected” pitfalls of remote publishing
The first event took place earlier this week, with Kilian Schalk, founder of PurpleGray Consulting, talking to FIPP CEO James Hewes about the essential steps needed to kickstart your publishing process by way of a team remote working environment.
Dealing with the psychological and logistical aspects of making the shift to remote working work first, Schalk said:
“As a manager, you have to think about what could go wrong, for all of your individual team members. So you have to put yourself in the position of the individual and think ‘What could go wrong?’ Because they’re not always going to tell you what is going on. When people move out of the physical space that they’re used to, they may need support that they didn’t even need. So your job is to reach out, understand where they are, and then go from there.”
“As an individual, get sleep! Stay connected, but sleep is a key part right because if you can’t function, you can’t do it. A friend of mine is a single mother of four, and she’s suddenly working from home, which is a whole different space. And you need to actually connect with both work and home and be prepared there. And the other thing: be on time. It’s a small thing, but you can’t be like oh let’s sit in the office and wait. If you’re sitting in the office and you have 25 people, multiply that by their salaries, that’s a huge amount of money that just goes out the door. No-one goes by your desk and says hey come on we’re running late, where are you? You are adults, you have to manage to yourself. And so people really need to step up and be ready.”
Five key takeaways
1. Make sure everyone has the needed tech skills – and make sure everyone knows it’s OK to ask and take their time to learn
2. Model the behaviour you want to see in your team – and mirror the behaviour you like in others
3. Involve everyone in decision making
4. Keep the communication lines open
5. Celebrate problems: you can’t fix what you can’t see
Helpful tools
With regard to tools: Kilian’s go-to suggestions are:
– Zoom for video
– Google Docs for document editing
– Slack for team communication
Others good ones are:
– Trello (to start with), then Airtable, Wrike
– Parse.ly, Chartbeat (to start with) then Google Analytics
The key for people setting up remote workflow is to use tools that are:
– easy to use
– accessible to any skill level
– free (basic version at least) so they can experiment
These tools are ideal for people who are not used to working in a cloud-based environment in the stage where they have to adapt to new thinking. Once they can handle this basic stage, they will be able to explore the many new applications that are being developed. The key is to try and test platforms until they find what works for them.
Next FIPP Insider Webinar: Launch of FIPP Innovation in Media Report 2020-21 Edition. Join us to hear from author John Wilpers as we launch the 2020-21 edition of the FIPP Innovation in Media Report. Thursday 16 April 2020, 2pm London time. Book your place here.
