Resources for Business Teams Coping with COVID-19
On March 12, 2020, we sent a list of 14 resources to our newsletter. Our local government had just banned gatherings of more than 200 people, President Trump had closed the borders, and the NBA delayed their season. Like you, we’re suddenly juggling a family at home, an unravelling economy, and the shock of worst-case scenario planning turned real.
Several subscribers asked if we could post the list where they could share it with others, so here it is. We hope you can help us make it better, too.
At Lucid, it’s our mission to make it easy for your teams to have the meetings you need to have, and right now, you probably have some pretty important issues to discuss. You’ll find links to several meeting templates and tools below that could come in handy.
As a remote-first software and training company, we’re also active in those communities. Right now, the need for remote work support and remote meeting skills has exploded. The community has stepped up with an explosion of checklists, events, trainings, and guides. You’ll find links to some excellent remote work and training resources below too.
New resources are popping up every day. Do you know of a training, event, meeting resource or remote work resource that can help teams improve their business resilience? In the spirit of coming together to help where we all can, we invite you to add your links in the comments below.
Here’s our original list, plus any updates we’ve found since then.
How-To Guides for Those Critical Meetings
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How to Make a Big Decision Quickly and Responsibly
This science-backed spreadsheet template helps teams evaluate their options before making a big decision, and this article explains the decision-making pitfalls this process prevents. -
How to Run an Urgent Problem Solving Meeting
Go from problem identification to action plan in a calm, efficient way by following this step-by-step guide. -
How to Create a Remote Team Working Agreement
Yes, you should probably establish policies and protocols, but for right now, you all just need to figure out how you’re going to work together in your new remote workplace. This template by Lisette Sutherland walks you through how to quickly get a great initial working team agreement in place.
Not quite what you’re after? You can find more templates here. And again, if these aren’t quite right, please ask.
How-To Guides for Those New to Remote Work
- Video conferencing works much better than conference calling. If you don’t already have a video conferencing tool, now’s the time to try them out. Why? Because the Video conferencing providers just extended free services in response to the coronavirus outbreak via BizJournals
It takes more than tech. Virtual meetings and remote teams require a different way of working. These guides and resources from remote work experts can get you up to speed fast:
- An Essential Checklist for When You’re Suddenly Forced to Go Virtual (PDF) by Nancy Settle-Murphy
- Resources for working at home during Covid-19 by RoRemote
- Remote Resources during the Coronavirus by Lisette Sutherland at Collaboration Super Powers
Timely Training For Team Leads
For those of you unexpectedly stuck at home, this may be the perfect opportunity to catch up on that skill building you’ve been putting off. Here are some training options that will improve your remote meeting and leadership skills and fulfill your professional development requirements at the same time.
Training Options
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Remote Leadership On Demand by the Remote Leadership Institute
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Remote Meetings Masterclass by Collaboration Superpowers
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Virtual Facilitation Online Courses by Leadership Strategies
Free Live Panel Discussions
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Thursday, March 19th, 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET
Shifting The Way We Work In A Coronavirus World, hosted by Dr. Jo Ilfeld
(I’m participating in this one) - Also Thursday March 19, 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET
Suddenly Distributed: Effective Agility in the Age of Coronavirus
featuring an all-star cast, hosted by Retrium
Business Continuity Templates
We’re working on meeting templates to help teams talk through creation of their emergency response plans and action reviews. I found these templates from SmartSheet while doing that research.
- Free Business Continuity Plan Templates by SmartSheet
Like Lucid’s meeting templates, you can download these business continuity templates to files on your desktop. Also like our meeting templates, these templates work even better when you use SmartSheet’s software.
What else?
Please add any other resources you’ve found to be helpful. And thank you for doing so.
Also, please note: I will gleefully trash anything spammy or abusive. If you have a valuable training or resource for sale, feel free to add it. Just know that we reserve the right to delete anything we believe violates the intent of this list.
Be a helper, not a predator.
