{"id":586769,"date":"2017-07-27T12:04:05","date_gmt":"2017-07-27T16:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joangarry.com\/?p=586769"},"modified":"2022-06-27T10:29:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T14:29:00","slug":"remote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joangarry.com\/remote\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Tools Every Remote Staff or Board Member Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Shh\u2026 I\u2019m going to let you in on a little secret about Joan\u2019s business while she\u2019s not paying attention\u2026 Let\u2019s keep this between you and me.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll start with what you probably already know \u2013 Joan is a busy woman. Really busy.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s kind of amazing how much she gets done.<\/p>\n

In addition to writing this blog, she has an uber-popular podcast<\/a>. A gig on a weekly network television show<\/a>. A best selling book<\/a>. An engaged (and free) Facebook group called \u201cThriving Nonprofit<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

She consults nonprofits and coaches a few lucky individuals. She\u2019s a keynote speaker at major nonprofit events.<\/p>\n

Plus, she recently launched the Nonprofit Leadership Lab<\/a> where nearly a thousand leaders \u2013\u00a0staff and board \u2013\u00a0are getting much needed and ongoing mentorship, training, and support. Joan creates much of the content for the Lab and is a constant presence in the Lab\u2019s community.<\/p>\n

[As an aside, we\u2019re opening the doors to the Lab again soon. If you\u2019re interested in learning more about it or joining the waiting list, <\/em>click here<\/em><\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n

So yeah, she\u2019s busy.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s able to do all of this because she has the right people on her bus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s something you might not know. For the most part, her company is \u201cvirtual.\u201d What does that mean?<\/p>\n

My daughter tells me to never use Wikipedia as a source (that\u2019s what they taught her in school) but she doesn\u2019t read the stuff I write, so\u2026<\/p>\n

Wikipedia says a virtual organization is \u201can organization involving detached and disseminated entities (from employees to entire enterprises) and requiring information technology to support their work and communication.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In the nearly five years since Joan first hired my company<\/a> to help her launch her business and build her brand, we probably haven\u2019t been in the same room more than ten times. In fact, we worked together for more than six months \u2013 quite successfully \u2013\u00a0before we ever met in person. And that only happened because Joan invited me to guest lecture for her class at the University of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Oh yeah\u2026 did I mention that on top of everything else, Joan is also an adjunct professor at an Ivy League university? Busy.<\/p>\n

It has become increasingly common for any organization to have remote staff and run virtually.<\/p>\n

And when it comes to nonprofits, it\u2019s in the DNA. After all, even if you don’t have remote employees (and you probably do) board members don\u2019t typically work at nonprofit HQ.<\/p>\n

Several folks in the Nonprofit Leadership Lab recently asked if we could recommend the best tools to help facilitate communications and project management when people aren\u2019t in the same physical space.<\/p>\n

And so today I\u2019m going to share with you the three most important tools we use at Joan Garry Consulting, all of which are quite affordable.<\/p>\n

Each of these tools can have a big and positive impact at your nonprofit.<\/p>\n

FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT: ASANA<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

We use Asana<\/a> to keep everyone\u2019s projects and tasks organized.<\/p>\n

Asana is flexible and responsive. You can mold it to your organization\u2019s particular needs. It\u2019s particularly good for keeping track of everybody\u2019s \u201cto-do list\u201d. People can assign tasks to others and track the progress of all the different projects going on in the organization.<\/p>\n

One thing we love about it is its simplicity. This is not a hardcore project management tool that requires tons of overhead and attention just to use the system and keep it up to date. For good or bad, there are no Gantt charts here (though you can have features like task dependencies if you pay for the more advanced version.)<\/p>\n

Asana integrates well with other tools like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Slack (which I\u2019ll talk about below.)<\/p>\n

Plus, you can use it for free for up to fifteen people, so that\u2019s pretty cool.<\/p>\n

If you want a straightforward way to keep track of what everybody is working on, when things are due, and to facilitate collaboration, you can do a lot worse than Asana.<\/p>\n

FOR MESSAGING: SLACK<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

Slack<\/a> is the messaging tool that gets you, finally, out of your email inbox. It gives you real-time chat, channels (to keep conversations on topic), and a powerful search capability to help you find older conversations.<\/p>\n

Within Slack you can easily share documents and conduct private or group conversations. You can invite specific people into different channels. For example, you can have a \u201cboard\u201d channel where only board members can communicate. You can set up channels for specific departments or individual projects.<\/p>\n

Slack is also great as an informal \u201cwater cooler.\u201d Remote workers can sometimes feel isolated and a tool like Slack can be important to help facilitate connections and build your organizational culture.<\/p>\n

FOR MEETINGS: ZOOM<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

Sometimes, online chat isn\u2019t enough and we need a \u201cface-to-face\u201d meeting. But getting everyone in the same room just isn\u2019t possible.<\/p>\n

And so we use the powerful video conferencing system, Zoom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zoom allows our entire team to see each other and speak in real time. It really makes it feel like we\u2019re in the same place. We can even share and draw on each others\u2019 screens, enabling real-time collaboration. The video quality is usually fantastic.<\/p>\n

We also use Zoom to deliver trainings and webinars and to broadcast Facebook Live videos, though these features come at an additional cost.<\/p>\n

YOUR TURN<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

There are no shortage of tools available to help facilitate remote work (though that wasn\u2019t really true when my company went entirely virtual back in 2006). Remote work has come a long way.<\/p>\n

What are some of your favorites? Are there any you prefer over Asana, Slack, and Zoom? Are there any you consider indispensable?<\/p>\n

Let us all know in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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