In this concise presentation, Lorraine K. Lee outlines five essential components for thriving in a remote work environment. First, she emphasizes the importance of adopting virtual collaboration tools—highlighting platforms such as Prezi Video, Slido, and Miro—to enhance meeting engagement and productivity. Second, she stresses building genuine connections with teammates through simple, regular interactions like a weekly “question of the week,” while also noting more elaborate virtual activities. Third, she advocates for a structured meetings playbook that defines policies, contribution norms, agenda creation, and the choice between recorded and live sessions, referencing her LinkedIn Learning course for deeper guidance. Fourth, she recommends frequent, proactive communication to avoid assumptions, align with manager preferences, and foster cross‑functional collaboration, exemplified by a weekly internal newsletter. Finally, she introduces the TEAM method for a smart home‑office setup—ensuring the right technology, energy, and aesthetics—to create an optimal remote workspace. Throughout, Lee invites viewers to connect on LinkedIn for further discussion.
Chapters
Hi there, my name is Lorraine Lee, and I'm going to share the 5 things you need to successfully work remotely. The first thing you need is to use virtual collaboration tools. So the super exciting thing about our remote setups is that we now have all this technology and these collaboration tools that allow us to work better, smarter, and to do even more than what we were able to do in person. Tools like Prezi Video will help you create more engaging, productive, and collaborative meetings by allowing you to bring any content on screen with you. Slido allows you to create live polls, quizzes, and Q&A for that added level of interactivity. Or you can try Miro, a zoomable canvas that is great for brainstorming. Now, these tools are of course just the tip of the iceberg. You can use one, you can use all. I encourage you and your organization to do the research to see what's out there and to figure out what makes most sense for you. The second thing you need is connection with teammates. And connection doesn't mean that it has to be a big expensive virtual event. In my team meetings, we take turns asking a question of the week about anything. So we've had people ask, If you could play any sport in the Summer Olympics, what would you choose? What color best represents your personality? That was a hard one. And what's your latest Netflix binge? There are, of course, more elaborate activities like virtual escape rooms, murder mysteries, online cooking classes. But what I want to highlight here is that there are really simple free ways that you can learn about each other and connect with one another just on a weekly or daily basis. The third thing you need is a meetings playbook. So believe it or not, we are spending 5 times more time in video meetings, which is a staggering number. Leaders need to ensure that they have structure, policies, and rules of engagement when it comes to meetings so that meetings stay productive and a good use of everyone's time. You'll need to answer questions like, how should people contribute during meetings? When should we use a recorded video versus a live video meeting? And what's the best way to create a useful agenda? If you're interested in learning more about how to optimize your virtual and hybrid meetings, you can check out my newly launched LinkedIn Learning course here. The 4th thing you'll, you'll need to do is have frequent communication. In a remote setting, it is always a safe bet to overcommunicate. Even if something seems obvious to you, it's probably not going to be obvious to everyone else. Communicating more frequently can also help you in other ways. For example, figure out the way that your manager prefers to receive information and share your updates with them so they don't need to feel the need to constantly check in and become a micromanager. That's never fun for anyone. Or when you communicate more, it can help with cross-functional work. So the editorial team, which I lead at Prezi, shares out a weekly internal newsletter to help socialize what we're working on, and it's led to cross-functional partners reaching out to share ideas or to connect the dots with what they're working on within the company. And the 5th thing you need to successfully work remotely is to have a smart home office setup. You can use what I like to call the TEAM method. Make sure you have the right tech, that you're bringing energy, and that you have your aesthetics figured out. If you wanna dive into the TEA method a little bit more, you can read more in my article here. So there you have it, the 5 things you need to successfully work remotely. If you wanna learn more, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, and I look forward to continuing the conversation there.
