5 RULES TO SURVIVE WORK AND STUDIES IN NEW ONLINE REALITY FROM MIM-KYIV STUDENTS

Viktoria says that she have been spending her entire career in the offices. Endless meetings, dress-codes, and heavy traffic eat a lot of time. She was dreaming about distance work but did not believe it may come true. Nowadays everything is different. It turned out that having a 12-hour marathon of Zoom meetings with colleagues from all over the globe and to develop an anti-crisis is possible. Here are her rules for lockdown distant working. Looks like many of them are applicable regardless…  

Rule #1 Provide everything which your team may need

Organizing online communication is not so difficult if both management and rank-and-file team members have all the gadgets and accesses. It is the management task to secure that everyone has that.

The whole world now understands that if you have internet and mobile you can solve any problem. New procedures could be well applied even after the lockdown, for emergency situation.

Rule #2 Structure your communications

All internal communications have to be structured and strictly to the point. Do not discuss anything not related to the work in the working charts. Please do not give any links to yet another article on the crisis or pandemic unless it is work-related. We are all scared enough now and we do not need yet another horror story.

Rule #3 Structure your personal and your teamwork

Distance working needs to be mastered. The working day seems to be longer without a familiar 9 through 6 routines. However, it is more important to work effectively rather than stay connected in messengers. Some people, very good performers in the off-line world may stumble in the new virtual world. It is the managers’ role to help those people adapt to the new reality.

Rule #4 Stay intellectually tuned

Constant learning is a remedy. New knowledge and skills help better adapt, be more agile. Currently, I am a student of MIM-Kyiv’s Pre-MBA “Business” program. The school always delivers, no matter what. They are temporarily teaching online. It turned out that it partially suits me well – at least theoretical parts of the courses could be delivered online. As a lockdown solution Zoom or other conference services allowing interaction is good. However, nothing could match face-to-face experience, especially when practical joint efforts are needed. Online studies are very similar to work efforts: you need to understand your goals, and have time allocated to studies.

Rule #5 Rest needs to be included in the schedule

Both physical and mental health is critical. So, we need to rest. When you think about your team or yourself schedule gadgetless rest. It is your time to be spent with your families, pets, books, meditation, or any other activities. The only one rule works no gadgets.