PwC Experience Consulting

Maintaining

Business

Continuity

While Working

Remotely

Introduction

Maintaining Business Continuity While Working Remotely | 1

A hybrid of remote and in-office work has become our new reality. As

video conferencing becomes commonplace, we have each found spots

in our homes and in the office with good lighting, and maybe even

upgraded the Wi-Fi to support the many virtual calls we each have with

colleagues and friends alike. Slowly but surely, new virtual tools have

become common language, and with practice, our frustrations and

impatience with these tools have started to subside.

This way of working has its own challenges. We have stepped into a

world of new stressors and pressures brought about by the onset of

virtual. Some of us are starting to experience video conference fatigue,

exhaustion, and anxiety, all mixed in with the further blur between work-

life and home-life. Aspects of our lives which use to be separate are now

taking place in the same physical space.

It is therefore more important than ever to equip ourselves with the right

skills to navigate and avoid these stressors.

Here are three easy ways for you to thrive in the virtual world of working

and forge ahead.

The Experience Centre is uniquely positioned to address challenges and

opportunities that arise in the virtual work environment. Here are three

things to consider as we continue in the virtual or remote world.

1. Be intentional in meeting one another - avoid teleconference

fatigue.

2. Be honest in understanding the complexity of the problem.

3. Digital Tools exist, use them wisely.

Our world is still uncertain, we must embrace our circumstance and

working with each other. At the Experience Centre, we can help you

navigate the virtual environment to maintain business continuity, tackle

your complex problems efficiently, and create resilience for your

organisation in the long-term.

Summary

Maintaining Business Continuity While Working Remotely | 2

More and more, remote working has taught us that setting meetings with clear intentions can help reduce

the number of calls required, improve decision making efficiency, and even eliminate the need for

physical meetings entirely. With the onset of video conference fatigue and the associated anxiety video

calls may have on participants and organisers, it is even more important to ensure that we clearly set the

intention for each of these meetings.

Priya Parker, in her book The Art of Gathering, talks about the importance of setting, agreeing, and

clarifying the “why” or purpose of meeting. A specific and clear purpose for each meeting will impact its

utility and people’s ability to “show up” to the meeting – this applies to any gathering, from work meeting

to birthday parties.

There are 5 types of generic office meetings:

Make video conferences more impactful by being more intentional about the meeting objectives

The Presentation puts maximum control of content in the hands of one person and has no

structure to include or engage others.

The Status Report is a series of presentations, putting the control of content into the hands of

one person at a time and with no structure to include/engage others.

The Managed Discussion puts control into the hands of one person to dictate the

engagement and inclusion of other participants.

The Brainstorm provides a structure to include/engage a few people in expressing their ideas

without constraints.

The Open Discussion has no control of content and no structure of inclusion.

Without clear intention, these meetings tend to lead to few achievements. Moreover, as being on a video

call requires more focus than an in-person chat (BBC article), the tendency to disengage during a ‘bad’

meeting increases.

1

Three ways to thrive in the virtual world

Here are some 7 tips to elevate ‘bad’ virtual meetings:

Maintaining Business Continuity While Working Remotely | 3

1. Prepare for the virtual meeting by taking into account the disengagement that tends to

occur in this setting.

2. Turn cameras on to build trust, and keep microphones muted. Cameras allow us see

non-verbal cues. However, do this only if necessary - in a virtual setting, processing non-

verbal cues like facial expresses consumes a lot of our energy, and therefore comes at

the expense of being able to relax into a conversation (BBC article).

3. Amplify all voices to increase engagement – Check-in with all participants with a roll call

at the start, and at closing.

4. Humanise experiences by keeping virtual meetings fun – Start with an icebreaker, or play

Video-Conference Bingo (see below).

5. Less presentation, more interaction – People tune out quickly. Get their input quickly and

often in a virtual setting, and call on peoples names to grab attention.

6. Tighter, Brighter, Better – Less is more… avoid cognitive overload. Try to think about how

much information you can unpack meaningfully in virtual meetings.

7. Mistakes are part of the learning process, so learn as you go.

Key takeaway one: Set clear intentions about meetings to combat disengagement, and use virtual tools

and functions carefully.

Conference call bingo

Hi, who just

joined?

Can you email that

to everyone?Is __ on the call?

Uh, __ you’re still

sharing…

Hey, guys, I have

to jump to another

call.

(Sound of

someone typing,

possibly with a

hammer)

(Loud, painful

echo/ feedback)

(Child or animal

noises)

Hi, can you hear

me?

No, it’s still

loading.

Next slide, please.Can everyone go

on mute?

I’m sorry; I was on

mute

(For overtalkers)

sorry, go aheadHello? Hello?

So (cuts out) I can

(unintelligible) by

(cuts out) ok?

Sorry I’m late

(insert lame

excuse)

I have a hard stop

at…

I’m sorry, you cut

out there.

Can we take this

offline?

I’ll have to get

back to you.

Can everyone see

my screen?

Sorry, I was

having connection

issues.

I think there’s a

lag.

Sorry, I didn’t

catch that. Can

you repeat?

Maintaining Business Continuity While Working Remotely | 4

Within PwC’s Experience Consulting, we have a

dedicated team of Facilitators, Solution Designers,

Visual and Graphic Media experts and Crew who

create opportunities for people to tackle some of

their most complex business problems, with

proprietary processes and in a dedicated space.

We help businesses build out their vision, strategy

and goals with the support of our subject matter

experts and data insights from around the globe.

These proven methodologies are a great means to

mitigate risk, reduce costs, speed up project

implementation and support organisational

innovation.

We call this practice “The Difference”. It is an

emergent process that allows the voices of your

organisation be heard from multiple perspectives,

formulating genuine buy-in and adoption.

Be honest in understanding the complexity of the problem

2But you don’t need all the tools all the time. Not all

problems are complex. Through an appropriate

conversation and “Discovery Day”, we can

uncover what is really needed and how much is

required to really solve a challenge properly the

first time.

Over the past few months, we have learned and

experienced how to adapt these skills and

methods of working to the virtual space. With the

right collaboration tools and skills, business

continuity and important decision making go ahead

in a remote setting.

Key takeaway two: The power of virtual work has

reduced our collective carbon footprint, it has

created areas of efficiency in decision making.

While virtual tools are readily available to most, it

is facilitation of these virtual meetings that

determine success or failure.

Maintaining Business Continuity While Working Remotely | 5

Scale of complexity of interaction when communicating virtually

Level of External

SupportAdvisor Full Execution

Passive

CommunicationCo-Creation

Scale of

Interaction

Large Scale

Broadcasts

Webcast / Email

Informal /

Small

Meeting

Phone / VC /

Meeting

Formal

Meeting /

Presentation

VC / Live Polling

/ PM software

Interactive

Co-Creation

Session

Visual

Collaboration

Software VC /

Breakout / doc

sharing

Strategic

Complex

Problem

Solving

Collaboration

The Difference

Sessions

Town Hall

Whole

Organisation

Broadcast

1:1 Meetings

Coaching

Meetings

Project Team

Update Meeting

Project Team

Discussion

Team / Project

Updates

Team / Project

Check-Ins

Client Context

Meeting

Status Updates

Project Scrums

Governance

Meetings

Presenting to

Clients

Presenting to

Teams

Discovery

Sessions

Idea Generation

Workshop

Validation

Workshop

Business

Requirements

Gathering

Workshop

User Research /

Testing

Focus Groups

Training Session

Design Workshop

High Complexity

Design Session

Crisis / Strategy

Sessions

Executive

Leadership

Alignment Session

Digital &

Organisational

Change Initiatives

Maintaining Business Continuity While Working Remotely | 6

At PwC we have invested heavily in our teams to upskill and be at the forefront of new technology. We

have seen the impact that Digital Transformations have had on our clients and businesses. The events of

the first half of 2020 have accelerated the adoption of Digital and remote work for both ourselves and

other businesses alike.

“The right tool for the right job”: Understand the digital collaboration ecosystem

Virtual collaboration and management tool landscape

3

Corporate File Sharing Web Video Conference

Visual Collaboration Corporate Social Network

GOOGLE CHAT

Team & Project

Management PlatformsDecision Meeting Workshop

Maintaining Business Continuity While Working Remotely | 7

There are many digital tools to use to achieve

your goals, each with its own purpose, and

can be used in combination with different

effects.

There are appropriate tools to support different

forms of communication. You wouldn’t send a

Gif via email, just as you probably shouldn’t

send confidential documentation through a

non-office-supported communication medium.

Outside the office setting, we lose the

opportunity to hop into a meeting room and

white-board ideas and discussions; but with

the onset and use of Visual Collaboration

tools, we have found that we are able to

achieve just that. Tools like Miro, Mural and

Google’s JamBoard allow people to draw, stick

post-it notes, and move ideas around on a

virtual whiteboard. These are helpful tools that

allow teams to collaborate on a problem and

generate many ideas together.

Key takeaway three: The virtual tools exist –

put faith into going virtual, and unlock your

ideas and embrace the untapped potential of

remote working.

Maintaining Business Continuity While Working Remotely | 8

Guy Parsonage

Partner, PwC Experience Consulting

Tel: +852 2289 1860

Email: guy.parsonage@hk.pwc.com

The immediate future for all of us remains uncertain and confusing as

we all adapt to this new reality. There are some constants though; even

though all the technology, we should continue to form human

connections. Celebrate challenges and treat them as learning

opportunities. And perhaps most of all, be resourceful and learn the

correct skills to work around constraints.

Today, going virtual is no longer optional. We know that business

continuity and connectedness can thrive in the virtual space with the

right skills. We at the PwC Experience Centre and in Experience

Consulting have adapted quickly to understand and build expertise in

this area.

If you would like address how to approach risk and resilience your

organisation, how to understand your potential future customer, tackle

your organisational digital transformation, or better understand how to

most effectively upskill your employees, or if you just want to have a

better online virtual meeting experience, reach out to us… Let’s have a

conversation.

Learn the skills of virtual - Let’s do this!

Contact us

Conclusion

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