Ben Britt

One person fights the training battle

Talent development professionals help others. Ben Nemtin, star of The Buried Life, called attention to that in his keynote address closing out the Association for Talent Development’s Virtual Conference: Unleash Potential. And he noted that attendees could likely relate to his bucket list pursuits that entailed not only going after the big things he wanted to do before he died but also involved helping others.The Roots of The Buried LifeAs he began his session “Impossible to Possible,” Nemtin spoke about falling into depression after seemingly being on top of the world as he graduated high school in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He had a spot on the national under-19s rugby team and a college scholarship.But that joy soon turned to anxiety, trouble sleeping, and then depression. He became a shut-in in his family’s home, not understanding why he was feeling the way he was. A summer in a new town, securing a job that brought him confidence, and talking with others about his feelings led Nemtin to start turning the corner. From there, he decided to only surround himself with people who inspired him. He found three individuals who fit that definition: Jonnie, Duncan, and Dave.Sketchnotes provided by See In ColorsWhat followed was their decision to make a film. The quartet were inspired by the Matthew Arnold poem The Buried Life, in which the poet described how we all too often leave our dreams and aspirations buried with day-to-day life getting in the way.To avoid dying without living their dreams, the young men created a bucket list—the stipulations being that they would act as if they had $10 million in the bank and that the goals had to be crazy big. They also knew they wouldn’t be able to accomplish their goals by themselves. They decided that every time they crossed off an item on their list, they would help a stranger do the same.The list that Ben and his friends crafted included such things as helping deliver a baby, having a beer with Prince Harry, and playing basketball with President Barack Obama. That last one required all the grit and persistence they could muster, including dealing with a number of rejections before it finally happened.“Doing what you love actually inspires others to do what they love,” said Nemtin. There’s a ripple effect. The same ripple effect occurs when you help others: They, in turn, have a propensity to help those around them.Your Resiliency Tool KitTo be able to help others, you need to take care of yourself, emphasized Nemtin. Here are some tips to do so, and these comprise what he calls his resiliency tool kit.Gratitude. Think of one thing each night before you go to bed and one thing in the morning when you get up that you are grateful for. They can be as minor as a meal with a loved one, a walk, or the sun being out.Exercise. You don’t have to go for 60 minutes, Nemtin pointed out. Five minutes of push-ups or a 15-minute walk will help you release negative emotions.Mindfulness. This can take the form of the Headspace or other app, a walk, meditation, or being cognizant to breathe deeply from your abdomen.Detox. This may mean staying off social media for 24 hours or avoiding the news for the same period. When you return, only use the tools that bring you joy—come back in control of how you spend your time.Connect. To ease anxiety and stress, talk with friends or a therapist, continued Nemtin.Purpose. This is what the bucket list is all about: doing the things that are most important to you and that bring you joy.Help others. You can’t feel bad when you’re helping others.Nature. If you’re unable to actually go outside for 15 minutes right now because of the pandemic, bring nature inside by getting a plant or two.Fulfilling Personal GoalsThough this belief is hopefully shifting, it’s long been the pervasive mindset that pursuing our personal dreams is selfish. Nemtin refuted that, noting that pursing our dreams is actually a service. Prioritizing your goals, he says, is beneficial to you, your friends and family, your career, and your organization. And if organizations and leaders create an environment that encourages people to go after what they want, those individuals are far more likely to stick around.Psychologist Tom Gilovich reported in his research “The Ideal Road Not Taken” that 76 percent of people identified on their death beds that their greatest regret was not fulfilling their ideal self. What leads people to stop short of that goal? Nemtin identified two reasons. One is that—unlike work goals and duties—our personal goals have no deadlines. The second is that we often lack the inspiration to move forward. To that, Nemtin suggested that we create our own inspiration through small steps and think of “dreams as projects.”Here are five steps he outlined to accomplish your personal goals:Write them down. Putting them down on paper makes them real.Share them. As Nemtim showed with his bucket list, you need others’ help. All too often, we don’t share our goals due to fear—either because we’re afraid of what others may think or because we fear falling short of accomplishing them.Persist. Sometimes we fail because we give up too quickly. Nemtin showcased his persistence in his and his friends’ efforts to play basketball with President Obama.Go for moonshots. Nemtin, smiling, noted that the level of competition for reachable goals is much higher than the competition for ambitious moonshot goals, which few people strive for.Give. Nemtin briefly recalled speaking at ATD TechKnowledge 2019, where he shared the stage with Tiago, a brain stem tumor sufferer who, through the Make a Wish Foundation, expressed his desire to go bobsledding. As a result of Nemtin and the conference attendees, Tiago realized his dream.Ripple effects happen not only from big things—for example, a smile causes a ripple, as does a compliment—Nemtin pointed out. And we don’t necessarily see those reactions happening, and that includes training and development results. But know that as talent development professionals, said Nemtin, you create a positive difference in others.Share your ATD Virtual Conference experience on social media. #ATDVirtualConference

Ripple Effect of Helping Others

The following is a Q&A with Ben Bisbee and Kathy Wisniewski, the authors of The Unashamed Guide to Virtual Management, an ATD book about how to address the unanswered and critical questions that arise when managing virtual teams.What, from your own virtual management experiences, prompted you to write this book?Ben: We were experiencing a variety of daily challenges and frustrations in our own virtual management efforts. We both started in the virtual management landscape in 2009 and were shocked by how little information you could find when it came to typical daily management issues and how they should be or could be best experienced in the virtual workplace. At one point, I was asked to provide employee engagement and team building opportunities for more than 80 virtual employees to help repair morale and build community. With no funding and just a few weeks’ notice, this felt like an impossible task. Another time, Kathy was trying to figure out how to build a strong new virtual volunteer orientation model that didn’t rely solely on written web documents or phone conversations. We weren’t even that deeply interested in innovation; we were just craving some best practices to do our jobs in that moment and could not find resources on Google or Amazon.Kathy: The tools and resources addressing real daily issues did not exist. Discussions were focused on the possibility and costs of virtual workplaces and on how to move offices online. There wasn’t a community of virtual managers talking about daily, classic experiences and solutions. Best practices did not exist—nothing anyone could point to, anyway. And, so we started developing ideas and found them to be successful. We knew we needed to share them with others who found themselves in the same position.Where is virtual employment in 2019?Ben: Virtual employment is one of the fastest-growing professional areas in just about every white-collar industry. We needed to move past the idea of virtual management being novel. It’s 2019. People need real tools about real topics to help them be the best they can be as managers behind a computer, leading one or more people to success.What were some of the challenges you were facing as you started to manage virtually, and how did those struggles lead you to write this book?Kathy: When we began managing virtually, we did not realize that communicating virtually could be such a challenge. We assumed that email and telephone would be fine mediums for communicating with remote employees. We quickly discovered that email has limits and shortfalls. It is a terrible medium to talk one-on-one about heavy issues. And there were better mediums than the phone as well. We realized we had to get comfortable with new technology— namely, the medium of virtual video for complex or difficult meetings. In fact, video meetings are essential because these meetings need a “human touch,” requiring some eye contact and face-to-face interaction.Ben: Knowing how to leverage a variety of technologies is critical. Elements of that realization absolutely made it to the book in a wide variety of ways. We wanted to explain that tech needs to aid you, not allow you to evade important management moments.What answers were you looking for that you could not find out there?Ben: Most of them, honestly. It was often like trying to convert a recipe from U.S. measurements to metric measurements. We found standard day-to-day management struggles, successes, answers, and policies but nothing that helped us figure out how to convert those strategies and successes to the virtual landscape. Topics like hiring and firing may sometimes discuss about virtual models, but they often would start with suggestions like, “If you can fly them out to your offices, we recommend you do . . .” And in many cases, there wasn’t some model of “headquarters” and everyone else. It was all just everyone, everywhere.Kathy: Or when we wanted to try to learn more about topics like managing effectively across multiple time zones—not just trying to schedule an occasional or standing meeting but truly managing people across a variety of time zones with different ideas of a workday or bandwidth. There are a ton of topics and issues that are unique to the virtual workplace that were literally impossible to find information on. For example, how to tackle online happy hours; how to handle digital awkwardness in text, print, or on camera; how to handle random power outages; what to do when you know someone is taking a meeting from the bathroom. These were issues related to personal, cultural norms or issues for which we did not find anything to support our daily needs.What seems to be the hardest issue to address with virtual employees or the greatest challenge in managing virtually?Kathy: This is less of a universal thing and wildly varied based on the employees or manager at the center of it. For more introverted virtual folks, the hardest issue may be teambuilding or work parties. For the extroverts, their challenging issue may be building the landscape for equitable meetings where it’s not just the same three people talking over each other on a conference call. For managers, perhaps the challenge is getting comfortable on camera or having to fire someone thousands of miles away.Ben: In many ways, the hardest issue is knowing how to leverage the technology or tech-driven process based on whatever is already feeling burdensome as a manager or for the employee at hand. It’s about gaining a virtual management intuition as much as it’s about knowing the rules or most effective process. That takes time and experience. Even if you grew up as a digital native, there are still the skills and experiences necessary to blend classic management effort to the virtual workplace.How do diversity and inclusion factor into virtual management?Ben: Diversity and inclusion factors into virtual management powerfully and dynamically if done correctly. In the virtual workplace, talent isn’t held to a specific geography, worldview, background, or ethnicity. On the one hand, the virtual workplace can quickly level the playing field when it comes to new, diverse, inclusive hires. On the other hand, it can also “wire-wash” the idea of diversity and inclusion, which means we almost disvalue (or devalue) the need for diversity and inclusion because we start to look for only individuals with the privileges, background, and experiences of virtual employment—an area that is still highly white and middle class given its requirements for modern technology and environmental temperament.Kathy: The note here for virtual managers is that smart, equitable technologies afford a wealth of advantages to help level the playing field for employees of all backgrounds, types, and experiences. They can create a way to address issues such as workplace inclusion and diversity with a fresh set of tools and approaches.What is something that every virtual manager must adjust to or do to be successful?Kathy: To be a successful virtual manager, you do have to be tech savvy. This doesn’t mean you need to be the tech expert; it just means you need to be comfortable enough for both advancements and daily tech struggles.Ben: Your virtual staff will come to you often with questions or problems—like they would for any workplace issue—and your technology knowledge and comfort will give you a stronger sense of virtual workplace empathy when things are broken or confusing.Is there something within virtual management that we will never get right? If so, what is it and why is it problematic or elusive?Ben: This is all in the eye of the beholder. Do you love the smell of someone else’s burnt popcorn on the breakroom? Do you miss being able to walk down to an employee’s cubicle to talk quickly one-on-one about something pressing? Do you miss having to physically gather everyone into one room for a meeting? In many ways, just about every management and workplace experience can be virtually replicated successfully.Kathy: Virtual management will not be experienced or felt the same way by every person. For some, that will be refreshing, maybe even the new normal. And for others, they may be forlorn or frustrated by this new reality. It just depends on their expectations. On the other hand, virtual employment may not be for everyone. And that’s OK.Does it cost more (or less) to manage virtually?Ben: No matter how you lay it out, running a virtual office is far less expensive than running a stationary office. In virtual management, there are no expenses for leasing or buying office space, building supplies, utilities, or office and breakroom equipment. There is no need for security staff, cleaning, or administrative or office management.Kathy: There is the cost of the technology itself and upgrades when necessary, but those costs are still likely going to be present in a stationary workplace. The overall costs for virtual offices are far less than the costs of a stationary work environment.What about the future? Will managing virtually get easier? Or, with more of our workforce working remotely, will there be even greater challenges?Ben: We believe that managing virtually will get far easier. There are innovative, cool, wild technologies coming out to help us work better together no matter where we are in the world. With stronger, hands-on collaboration tools, in-real-time language translation tools, the daily advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR), this is an exciting time to be in virtual management.Kathy: It’s already fairly easy for a good manager to be a great virtual manager with the right instincts and efforts, even with slightly outdated and limited technology. It’s about blending classic management skills to match existing technologies to make virtual management successful. As more and more digital natives join the workforce, working and managing remotely will become the norm and become second nature.The Unashamed Guide to Virtual ManagementISBN: 978-1-949036-55-8 | 248 pages | Paperbackhttps://www.td.org/product/book--the-unashamed-guide-to-virtual-management/111911To order books from ATD Press, call 800.628.2783.To schedule an interview with Ben Bisbee or Kathy Wisniewski about their book, please contact Kay Hechler, ATD Press senior marketing manager, at [khechler@td.org](mailto: khechler@td.org).

Ben Britt

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