Peer-to-Peer Equation Coronavirus Webinar – Part Two

May 12, 2020

By: Dennis Ensing, Executive Director, SWO Angels

Last Wednesday May 6, 2020, Equation Angels (#bepartoftheequation) held our second coronavirus pandemic Peer-to-Peer webinar for members, portfolio ventures, sponsors and other community stakeholders. Participants from all four member chapters – GTAN, AngelOne, SWOAngels, and WECAN (Windsor) – joined to hear and contribute to content on two very topical subjects.

First, BDC and EDC presented their overviews of financing programs available and their perspectives on navigating business during uncertain times. From BDC was Jean-Philippe Pépin, Vice President & National Lead, Technology Sector. EDC’s speakers were Jeff Keats, District Manager (Team Lead) – Technology and Diversified Industries and Anthony Sturgeon, Account Manager – Technology Sector. Be sure to download BDC’s COVID-19 resource guide for businesses and consult their COVID-19 business planning toolkit for entrepreneurs. Stay up to date on EDC’s efforts on their COVID-19 page. Their presentations are also available on request – send your email to: info@swoangel.com.

Next up was Shelle Rose Charvet who led us in an interactive session on Success Strategies for Remote Teams. Shelle is known internationally for her book Words That Change Minds. She works with organizations worldwide to help them understand the buying triggers of their customers, and how to influence people with integrity. She has been an angel investor, Angel One Board Director and is a founder of a software company.

We had two straightforward goals in mind for this session: 1) to help us as leaders and teams better understand the personal and interpersonal dynamics of working from home; and 2) to give us practical strategies and techniques for self-management and leading teams.

There were many “ah ha” moments for us from Shelle’s session. For me it was her insight on the importance of feedback, especially her Suggestion Model and Bad News Formula. When leading remote teams Shelle reminded us that “High performers offer more positive feedback to peers. In fact, high-performing teams share nearly six times more positive feedback than average teams. Meanwhile, low-performing teams share nearly twice as much negative feedback than average teams.” (Christine Porath, HBR.org 2016/10).

The Medium blog post linked above on the Bad News Formula covers that if you are interested. Her Suggestion Model goes like this:

1. Make a suggestion
2. State what problem it avoids or solves
3. State the benefit
4. Overall why it’s easy to do

A COVID-19 work from home example, where it’s easy for a partner or family to drive you crazy: “I was thinking that we may want to set up in different rooms, so that our phone calls and meetings don’t interfere with each other, and it’s easier to hear. It’ll only take a couple of minutes to do it.”

Shelle’s presentation is also available on request, but won’t bring you the added impact of the small group discussions we held utilizing Zoom’s Breakout Rooms.

Our next Equation Angels Peer-to-Peer event will be Wednesday, June 3 – mark your calendars!