00:00:00: hello and welcome to our bi KT expert

00:00:04: talk today we're gonna talk with Kyle

00:00:06: Wallace and he's our communications

00:00:09: expert in Zurich Switzerland Kyle

00:00:12: hello hello there how should managers

00:00:17: now in East copied 19 crisis times work

00:00:22: with their teams in virtual race what is

00:00:26: the most important thing they should

00:00:28: think about well there's quite a few

00:00:33: things to think about but I think

00:00:34: looking at a most important setting is

00:00:36: at the moment staying fit and healthy

00:00:39: it's something which if your body isn't

00:00:42: fit and healthy then it doesn't matter

00:00:43: how good the mind is everything's gonna

00:00:45: fall apart or go downhill from there and

00:00:48: it's quite hard at the moment keeping up

00:00:50: with sports activities people have lost

00:00:52: the routine with gyms being closed but I

00:00:55: go out in the forest on my bike and I

00:00:57: think other people could get out walk

00:00:58: it's getting some fresh air doing

00:01:00: something at home finding some way to be

00:01:02: able to at least keep the body healthy

00:01:04: and well and getting some routine to

00:01:07: that as is another thing I would say

00:01:09: it's important because we've lost a lot

00:01:11: of the routine at the moment and the

00:01:13: routine that needs to be structured

00:01:14: could begin with a bit of good hard

00:01:16: exercise at the start of the day I'm a

00:01:18: great believer in that so bets for each

00:01:21: and every individual but seen as a

00:01:23: manager caring for his team how many

00:01:27: times should he try to communicate with

00:01:29: them again this is another important

00:01:34: issue because there are people who are

00:01:36: being told oh yeah let's work from home

00:01:38: we've got the technology it's been in

00:01:39: the companies for years but what I've

00:01:41: been finding this week is have a little

00:01:43: practice some people have with it I've

00:01:46: just come from a session with 14

00:01:48: participants I was an outside person and

00:01:51: some of the people there were doing

00:01:54: things with the technology which showed

00:01:56: you they not really used it I mean

00:01:58: backgrounds that were maybe dresses and

00:02:01: a Wardrobe full of various personal

00:02:04: stuff is not really quite the sort of

00:02:05: thing to show on on a session like that

00:02:08: or people not knowing how to use the

00:02:10: mics or just a general set up there

00:02:13: in a lot of learning for a lot of people

00:02:14: this week and I think to assume as a

00:02:17: manager that your employees have all

00:02:19: that training we haven't really got it

00:02:21: and therefore it's good to keep in touch

00:02:23: with people ask them what they need is

00:02:25: help and to provide those resources to

00:02:29: them so you are know very experienced

00:02:32: with webinars virtual conferences and so

00:02:34: on so in your experience are our top

00:02:40: level executives and board members are

00:02:43: there prepared enough to work really

00:02:45: online to work in virtual teams and to

00:02:49: work from home again I think that's a

00:02:55: bit of a mixed answer there are clearly

00:02:57: some who are great experts in it and

00:02:59: have a lot of practice but that's not

00:03:01: true for most of us and we're answering

00:03:05: the question for most of us and I think

00:03:07: there it's a case of looking at who has

00:03:09: got the practice who hasn't got the

00:03:11: practice and if they haven't got it then

00:03:13: provides some help to them and board

00:03:16: members need to be checking in their

00:03:18: companies what is needed is the top-down

00:03:21: thing just assuming because we've got

00:03:23: the system set up that everybody's happy

00:03:26: working with it that's really not the

00:03:27: case again to mention another company I

00:03:30: was at this week there they have teams

00:03:34: to set up which is one of the many

00:03:35: platforms but some of the employees are

00:03:37: just not used to working with it and we

00:03:40: have two team events set up for Monday

00:03:43: of next week which HR is joining me on

00:03:45: because they need to see that everybody

00:03:48: is able to work with this because they

00:03:50: want to use that more in their company

00:03:51: so my little group is partly as a test

00:03:53: group that's there but they've had MS

00:03:55: teams for quite some time and I think

00:03:57: that's another thing that employees some

00:04:00: of us are using team some of us are

00:04:02: using Skype some of us using zoom

00:04:03: there's a multiplicity of platforms

00:04:05: there and they've all got their own

00:04:08: little quirks so now we talked about the

00:04:12: communication between managers and their

00:04:14: teams but being more specific on

00:04:17: communication managers how can they are

00:04:19: prepare for life crisis management in

00:04:23: terms of communications what is their

00:04:25: skill to do

00:04:26: now you mentioned crisis there Nikolai

00:04:31: and I prefer not to look at crisis I'm

00:04:35: going back this is probably quite a few

00:04:38: years back now but and I look at

00:04:42: something like that and I think if we're

00:04:44: calling it a crisis we might start

00:04:46: pulling our hair out of it and

00:04:47: overreacting in some ways yes of course

00:04:50: there's some challenges but we seem to

00:04:52: be coping quite well at the moment

00:04:54: Society hasn't stopped working we just

00:04:56: need to be able to find and practice and

00:04:58: keep that sort of stuff going to keep

00:05:00: our spirits up that's extremely

00:05:01: important to do at the moment so I

00:05:04: prefer not to use a word like crisis and

00:05:06: just be able to get on and manage it for

00:05:09: managers that also means that they you

00:05:11: need to be pretty understanding of their

00:05:13: employees some people really do have

00:05:16: fear at the moment and if you're a

00:05:19: manager and you connect with those

00:05:20: employees discuss what those fears are

00:05:22: how can you help listen to them be

00:05:25: empathetic

00:05:25: it's really a time for managers to step

00:05:28: up and get fully involved in their

00:05:30: businesses and really give us some good

00:05:32: leadership that will also inspire us and

00:05:35: keep us strong at this time isn't this

00:05:39: challenging situation now or not even a

00:05:43: chance to make maybe the TIMSS team

00:05:46: spirit role yeah yeah I think that's

00:05:53: that's a good question because there are

00:05:55: some managers who are just not up to the

00:05:57: challenge that the techni but it's a

00:06:00: challenge it's an opportunity that this

00:06:02: technology that we have gives us and

00:06:05: those managers need to be able to find

00:06:07: out where the people are in their team

00:06:10: that maybe you've got the best skills

00:06:12: some people maybe not using the systems

00:06:14: in company very much but they maybe have

00:06:16: used them privately or in other groups

00:06:18: and those skills if the company manager

00:06:21: asks who's got them can then be brought

00:06:23: down so I think yeah that's a very good

00:06:25: point there about bringing out the team

00:06:26: aspect of working together we've got a

00:06:29: problem

00:06:29: let's try and work it out so some of the

00:06:33: managers probably face the situation

00:06:35: where they have to tell the employees

00:06:38: that they have

00:06:40: to let them go because the economical

00:06:44: situation of the company is really

00:06:45: getting getting very very bad and how is

00:06:51: a good way to prepare the employees for

00:06:54: such a hard measurement I don't have a

00:06:59: really easy answer for that because I

00:07:02: think there with the the distance if you

00:07:06: like that we have with the technology

00:07:09: it's great to meet people face to face

00:07:11: and to be able to communicate something

00:07:15: like that just over a video screen no it

00:07:19: really does require some extra skills

00:07:21: there I think video is great we do need

00:07:23: to get away from it sometimes that's why

00:07:25: I also encourage people to use the

00:07:27: telephone and post and other channels of

00:07:31: communication that can reach out and

00:07:32: touch people but to be able to tell

00:07:34: somebody there that what you've just

00:07:37: described that they've lost their job

00:07:38: because of these conditions challenges

00:07:42: that we currently got that really is it

00:07:44: a toughy it's gonna bring out the best

00:07:47: in some for the people on the receiving

00:07:51: in tho yeah managers have got to be able

00:07:55: to find out for example what government

00:07:58: guidelines are what government support

00:08:00: there is and to be able to inform

00:08:03: whatever is available to tell their

00:08:05: employees that as quickly as possible

00:08:07: just for the company to be making a

00:08:10: decision in the manager to be

00:08:11: communicating a company action really is

00:08:14: not enough there are there is support

00:08:17: available around managers need to make

00:08:19: it their job to find out what's there

00:08:20: and to keep keep completely up to date

00:08:22: with the news on there that they can

00:08:24: then tell their employees and say that

00:08:26: whatever might not be answered this

00:08:28: afternoon they'll be in touch with them

00:08:31: the next day or the day after to keep

00:08:33: them updated with what's available to

00:08:35: help would you recommend giving bad

00:08:39: messages why our email why a phone call

00:08:42: or on earth when you concede on the

00:08:46: videoconference

00:08:48: and that brings in questions about email

00:08:51: an email is something that's so easy to

00:08:53: hide behind isn't it yeah giving some

00:08:56: bad news because you don't want to

00:08:58: confront somebody with it no I'm sorry I

00:09:01: think that just makes it a lot worse

00:09:04: you can feel emotions down a telephone

00:09:06: you can see them in the faces of people

00:09:10: and it really needs to be some extra

00:09:14: personal touch and you show empathy you

00:09:19: show that you are on that person's side

00:09:21: email now I mean I've seen plenty of

00:09:25: cases of where companies to fire people

00:09:27: by text message I'm sorry I'm really not

00:09:31: into that that's that's not a way that's

00:09:33: not a good communication tool to use

00:09:35: those companies in my opinion won't have

00:09:37: great futures if that's the way they

00:09:39: treat their own employees and what

00:09:42: attitude do they have towards customers

00:09:43: they don't deserve to continue at this

00:09:46: world that we're getting in a moment is

00:09:48: going to shake out the best ones

00:09:51: okay so let's be hopeful that the

00:09:56: lockdown won't be too long let's use the

00:10:00: time to read to make phone calls and

00:10:03: write postcards and listen to super

00:10:07: trend maybe again after you some of the

00:10:10: old records so you haven't heard for a

00:10:11: long time and do some positive stuff

00:10:14: keep it positive it's really it's not

00:10:17: about talking positive that's that's no

00:10:20: that's not it it's about doing positive

00:10:22: things that you really do enjoy it and

00:10:24: because that's gonna be able to be

00:10:26: spread around with other people and

00:10:27: that's what's gonna keep us going

00:10:29: through this that's a great call to

00:10:31: action thank you very much Kyle was a

00:10:34: pleasure talking to you and hope to talk

00:10:37: to you soon all the best for you keep

00:10:39: saying yeah bye bye Nicola bye bye

00:10:44: everyone

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