Contributing as a Virtual Team Member
Companies often opt to create virtual teams in place of on-site teams. This allows employees to work from home or remote locations. However, if not managed appropriately, remote working may cause breakdowns in communication, collaboration, and teamwork.
In this course, you’ll learn how to develop the skills you need to show team leadership and be an effective member of a virtual team. You’ll explore personal traits that are useful when working on a team remotely.
You’ll also learn strategies to stay connected with other team members, and ways to manage your time and overcome the challenges associated with managing teams remotely.
0.3 Hours
- Identify the traits that a good virtual team member should possess
- Identify ways of staying connected and communicating successfully with your team
- Identify some of the challenges associated with working remotely
- Identify some of the challenges and considerations associated with managing your time as a virtual team member
- Knowledge Check: Contributing as a Virtual Team Member
Exploring Virtual Collaboration
Goodbye e-mail and intranet portals; hello cloud-powered, integrated, collaborative platforms! Digital technology enables colleagues working on a team to connect and work together, no matter how remote their location. Quick, reliable communication enables and facilitates working together as people telecommute from home.
In this course, you’ll learn the benefits of virtual collaboration when working with others, best practices for its successful implementation, and how to choose the right collaboration technology.
You’ll also learn how to avoid common mistakes when rolling out virtual collaboration. And you’ll explore the key steps for leading and being a part of a virtual team.
0.4 Hours
- Identify the benefits of virtual collaboration
- Identify best practices for enabling virtual collaboration
- Recognize the considerations for choosing collaboration technology
- Describe how to avoid common mistakes in rolling out virtual collaboration at an organization
- Identify key best practices for leading a virtual team
- Identify key best practices for virtual team members
- Knowledge Check: Virtual Collaboration
Facing Virtual Team Challenges
Virtual teams can face the same difficulties as other teams, but also have unique challenges. In this course, you’ll learn how to handle challenges facing your team, and how to evaluate your own style.
0.4 Hours
- Recall tactics for ensuring equal management of onsite and offsite team members
- List tactics for managing teamwork spread across multiple time zones
- Identify strategies for ensuring respectful treatment of all members of a diverse team
- Name approaches for avoiding and handling conflict among remote team members
- Apply strategies for overcoming communication difficulties faced by a geographically diverse team
- Recognize the importance of reflecting on your management approach
- Recognize strategies for working around typical challenges facing remote or blended teams
Navigating Challenging Situations with Diplomacy and Tact
You’ll likely face unpleasant situations or tasks at some point in your career. Communicating with diplomacy and tact in these situations can inspire confidence.
In this course, you’ll learn to navigate difficult conversations and situations. You’ll also learn how to communicate a difficult message effectively, write diplomatic and tactful e-mails, and handle angry and manipulative coworkers.
0.5 Hours
- Identify strategies for working with a disliked or difficult coworker
- Identify techniques for composing a difficult e-mail with tact and diplomacy
- Identify examples of strategies for dealing with angry individuals
- Apply strategies for dealing with a manipulative individual
- Identify strategies for correcting a boss or client
- Use diplomacy and tact in a difficult situation
- Reflect on what you’ve learned
Organizations Change So Get Ready
Change can be disruptive, but adapting to change can also open new possibilities. A changing work situation can create a period of uncertainty while you adapt. A clear understanding of what organizational change is can help build your resilience and flexibility.
In this course, you’ll find out what can trigger organizational change. You’ll explore common responses to change and the stages of reacting to change that people go through when dealing with organizational change.
You’ll learn why it’s important to be resilient when adapting to change, and how to prepare yourself to get the most out of change.
0.5 Hours
- Recognize the benefits of accepting organizational change
- Distinguish between examples of internal and external triggers of organizational change
- Match types of organizational change to corresponding examples
- Match common reactions to change with corresponding examples of individuals exhibiting those reactions
- Sequence the stages of reacting to change
- Determine how an organizational change will impact an employee over time, given the person’s initial reaction
- Recognize the importance of learning how to prepare for change
- Use strategies to ready yourself for organizational changes
Organize Your Physical and Digital Workspace
Organizing your physical and digital workspaces is a great way to be more productive. When you declutter your workspace, you can improve many aspects of your work day, including your ability to concentrate, achieve targets, and become more efficient.
This course will help you increase your productivity by showing you how to organize and maintain both your physical and digital workspaces.
You’ll learn the rewards of organizing your workspace and find out what a productive workspace looks like. You’ll learn how to use your organization skills to manage your digital workspace. And finally, you’ll find out how to make your new clutter-free life last by making organization a habit.
0.4 Hours
- Recognize the rewards of an organized workspace
- Recognize what a productive workspace looks like
- Apply the process for creating a clutter-free workspace in a given scenario
- Recognize appropriate examples of the principles of effective filing
- Recognize techniques for managing digital files
- Manage your e-mail in a given scenario
- Recognize how to maintain a productive workspace
Take a Deep Breath and Manage Your Stress
When you’re constantly adding items to your never-ending to-do list, feeling overwhelmed at work and at home, and finding your health and relationships negatively impacted, you are likely experiencing stress.
Stress is produced by your own feelings and reactions to certain external events, rather than by the events themselves. But while you may not always be able to control the external events causing your stress, by applying mindfulness techniques, you can control your reactions to them.
This course explains the physiological, behavioral, and psychological signs and symptoms of stress and where it can come from. It outlines strategies for maintaining work/life balance and managing stress. It also covers ways to change your responses to stress and make them more positive and how to use relaxation techniques and adopting mindfulness to help you focus.
0.4 Hours
- Recognize how stress can negatively impact on your health
- Recognize key concepts about stress
- Identify the main characteristics and symptoms of burnout
- Recognize examples of actions and strategies to cope with stress and prevent full-blown burnout
- Sequence examples of the steps of the ABC model used to control stress
- Use the ABC model to manage your reaction to a stressful situation and challenge irrational thoughts.
The Art of Staying Focused
Even if you know what’s important to do, losing focus can stop your progress. No matter who you are or what job you do, focusing at work can be hard.
Even with great schedule management and organizing skills, it’s easy to get off track if you’re not careful.
In this course, you’ll learn how to stay focused and stay on top of your schedule. You’ll learn strategies for dealing with focus challenges and distractions at work.
You’ll also find out how to beat fatigue, manage your time, and decline work-related requests. And you’ll explore how to adjust your focus to deal with change, and how to regain focus when you’ve lost it.
0.5 Hours
- Recognize tactics for avoiding procrastination and temptation and keeping focused
- Recognize tactics to beat fatigue and manage multitasking to maintain your focus
- Identify strategies for minimizing distractions in your environment
- Select the most effective response for declining a request
- Strategically adjust your focus in response to changing circumstances
- Recognize techniques for regaining focus
- Maintain your focus on a task despite internal and external challenges
Safety Short: Coronaviruses and COVID-19
Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that commonly occur in humans and animals. Most coronaviruses cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses similar to the common cold and flu, and sometimes lower-respiratory tract illnesses, such as pneumonia or bronchitis.
Most people will experience a type of common human coronavirus in their lifetime. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel coronavirus caused by the human body’s reaction to the strain of the virus known as SARS-CoV-2.
In these topics, you’ll learn what COVID-19 is, who is at the highest risk of contracting it, how it’s transmitted, signs and symptoms, and precautions you should take to prevent and treat it.
0.6 Hours
- Identify those at a higher risk than the general population for contracting COVID-19
- Identify precautions to take to protect yourself and others
- Identify best practices to use when washing your hands to protect yourself and others from exposure to infectious germs