Hey Reader,

I don't know where you've been this past year, but many of my friends and colleagues went back to the office.

I still work fully remotely (though I did have a few in-person workshops and classes).

And it's getting lonely sometimes.

I think I talked about how we lose that social aspect of work that we used to have in some of my videos (I won't be able to locate which ones though but feel free to hunt them down :))

So if you are back to the office from time to time, I think you are lucky.

I'm not advocating for going back full-time. But... you know ... like once a week?

I'd say, if you have a chance to do that, you should definitely organize it with your team.

Well, I guess many companies hired people from all over the country (and the world) and a get-together may be more complicated than it seems.

But this is definitely something to consider.

Last summer I went to the first in-person conference in a while and last December I did my first in-person event since January 2020.

It was a bit weird. But it was actually fun and needed.

So I'm kind of torn. Which one is better? Is there a "better"?

European countries, most of them, went back to the office full-time, while here in North America it's a different story.

Many potential candidates are looking for remote positions.

And I definitely see the benefits. But I also see the downsides.

As I said at the beginning of this email - it can get lonely sometimes.

So that's what I was thinking when I started to write this email. I would love to go to the office from time to time to meet with the team, run an in-person workshop, go for a coffee break...

What are your thoughts on this? Are you in the 'fully remote' camp or the in-person camp?

(not that there are really camps - we all know the best answer is always "it depends" )

But apart from these ramblings, I actually wanted to tell you about a great online tool that is changing remote meetings completely.

And this tool is Sessions.us

This is our first official sponsor!!!

And I know what you're thinking - "there you go, now we'll only be getting the promotional content from Daria"

Don't worry, that's not going to become the focus of my channel. Plus - I actually try out the tools before I speak about them.

Another point (if you read my past email it will make more sense) is that I love trying out new tools. I can spend a whole day just researching tools that do X and then figuring out how to use them in my work.

(I spent this past Sunday setting up a new invoicing tool for better or worse)

So when Sessions approached me, it was actually quite a mutual interest. I've never heard of Sessions before, but it gave me an opportunity to check it out and see what it can do. And I liked it! That's why I thought it made sense for me to talk about it.

It really allows for streamlining the presentation and collaboration during remote meetings which can generate higher engagement. And I'm planning on using it for my next webinar.

(it will be with the Scrum Masters of the Universe if you are interested)

Anyway, I would appreciate you checking out my latest video / blog post showcasing the tool.

And, as always, I don't want to leave you without any actionable tips and tricks.

One more thing I want to add to this newsletter is a simple structure that you can use for a short webinar, or a community of practice, or a meetup.

I got my inspiration from my Retrospectives That Matter webinar that I used to give about 2 years ago. Here are the steps that you can follow:

1. Introductions (5 min). That's an obvious one. You want to spend the first few minutes on making sure that everybody knows what the purpose of the meeting is. But you don't want to make it too long either, so pay attention to the timer.
2. Impromptu Networking (15 min). A simple liberating structure exercise. Short description: split the group into pairs and give them 3-4 minutes to discuss their answers to a question you give them for the exercise. Then you shuffle people around and give them 3-4 more minutes. Then you do it one more time. You can also keep it open with no question to answer and just give the participants an opportunity to get to know each other.
3. Presentation (15 min). You should keep it short to 15 minutes maximum to get everyone on the same page. For example, in my Retrospectives That Matter webinar I talked about the purpose of the retrospective and how it is related to team and org. culture
4. Brainstorming using tools like Miro (10 min). Simple brainstorming like 1-2-4-All can work here, just simple silent writing, or splitting participants in pairs. Ask a question and give everyone about 5 minutes to think about it. Depending on what your goal is, you may quickly read some of the most interesting notes out loud, or dive deeper into some topics that came up during brainstorming. You may also do a dot-voting exercise to identify the best ideas as a group (that will require extra time).
5. Show a video on the topic (15 min). I'll be honest, I would have never thought about it if I didn't experience it in during the PSFS class I took last year. Basically, you can show a video on the topic and ask the participants to answer a couple of questions while they watch. At the end you'd want to have a quick debrief all together (don't just jump to the next step immediately after watching the video - spend some time on summarizing the key points).
6. Key takeaways (5 min). It's the last exercise to run where you may collect feedback from the participants on the meeting like a mini-retrospective - it's a great opportunity to improve continuously. There is another way to go about key takeaways which would be more focused on the learnings of the participants. For that ask the participants to write down their key takeaways from the session for everyone to see.

This simple structure can create a good hour-and-a-half workshop. Now the only thing you need is the topic!

And Sessions.us can make this so much easier for everyone involved - the facilitators and the participants. I truly believe it can increase engagement because of how seamless the experience is thanks to their smart integrations.

Btw, the tool is FREE.

Anyway, I think that's all for today. Let me know what you think.

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