Events in October 2020: Getting things done in the Distributed Office

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The October 22 Work Smarter Together event is getting close but, in the spirit of living with emerging circumstances, details are still being finalised.  Booking for the event will open on Monday 28 September – you will be able to see all the details then.

We will be on Zoom for this, naturally, with one session at 10.30 and one at 12.00, both done within the hour.  The 10.30 session is being finalised.  The 12 noon session is ‘Tales from the Distributed Office’ – colleagues from across the campus describe how they have been making the ‘new normal’ work.

‘Distributed office’?  When your colleagues are not at the next desk or in the next room, but in another town or county – then you are working in a distributed office.  And, as has become clear recently, we will be working in our ‘distributed offices’ for quite some time.

How does the distributed office work for us?  We are all facing the challenge of needing to navigate the complexities of an unpredictable environment.  It can feel like we are faced with “Here are the rules, here are the tools… now you go figure.”  If everything feels like it has to be invented from scratch, and if everyone is inventing in their own way, this can feel like an added challenge.  Join these two sessions and get the chance to share some of the experiences from around the campus in figuring out just how to work in the distributed office.

Join the conversation on Twitter with #UCDWST  #UCDAgile and follow us  for news and updates.

Also in October…

We are also keen to bring to your attention the Lean HE Global Festival, running from 19 to 23 October, a festival of Lean and improvement in Higher Education.  UCD is part of Lean HE. 

The Lean HE Global Festival comes to you from colleagues in Higher Education across, as I write, North America and Europe.  This is the COVID version of the annual Lean HE conference.  The number of sessions (45 minutes each) is growing (yet another ‘emerging situation’) so check the link above for stuff that might interest/help you.

The ‘distributed office’ is not nice and neatly laid out, all structures in place, all patterns familiar.  A key skill in the ‘new normal’ is to be able to navigate change and cope with the unpredictable.  That is the focus we are bringing to WST October 2020.  Looking forward to seeing you soon.