Author: H

How to Connect in Remote Teams
Photo by Rémi Walle on Unsplash
In a remote job interview, I was asked, “How do you stay connected within remote teams?” I thought “How do I? Just watch me.“

I
shared two ideas in the interview*, but immediately I realized that
I’ve kept this good info inside, waiting to give it to a new remote
employer. Silly me. I’ve got to give this good stuff away. I’m like the
Grinch whose heart grew three sizes that day.

Why should I keep reading this?

First,
my credentials, because adults want to know why they should keep
reading this. What do I know about this remote online stuff anyway? I
have 15 years experience working full time online which means I was
working full time online 3 years before the iPhone existed. I’ve built
and rebuilt fully online virtual teams. I have two advanced degrees in
online work. I feel passionately about the positive future of working
remotely. Within this amazing digital nether, how do we stay connected, as humans?

As Mario says, here we go!

General ideas

Group doodle –aka Incomplete Figures (and an idea I had from Erik Wahl):
5 minutes before a meeting starts, I open a whiteboard to share. I draw
just part of basic shape (i.e. half a star, half a circle, 2/3 of a
triangle) and then invite everyone to add to the doodle while we just
chatted. I took care of scientists so invariably, every doodle ended up
with the Starship Enterprise in it somewhere.

MadLibs
– these are easy to make and most folks know the premise. Ask them for a
series of nouns, adjectives, verbs, exclamations, etc. and fill those
words into a pre-made short story. Giggles and hilarity will ensue.

Get a running joke and keep it running
– My team decided that at every point when we wondered whose “fault”
something was, we’d blame the San Andreas Fault. We had geologists, so
that joke always worked. Other jokes: I used to play Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al”
every time our network went down because it was the one song I had on
my hard drive. Secretly, I always wanted to incorporate a llama or volcano into project specs. Just to see what my team would do.

Add a llama to your next project

Crazy hat day – which is really any hat. This one is good in a pinch because everyone can find a hat.

Within Reach – Pick up an object within arms reach (being on webcam keeps this honest) and explain what it means to you.

Favorite superhero or villain and why?
Mine is The Rhino from Spiderman 1960. So what that it’s basically a
man in gray snuggie? When he is mad, he runs into things. I love the simplicity.

Old English Day.
Everyone who makes an appropriate comment using Old English can leave
the meeting 10 minutes early. It can be interesting to go 40 minutes
into an online meeting when your quiet team member appropriately uses
“thither” and you think “Wow, how long have you been holding that in?” The comments must work in context like “Let us parlay by the glowing embers of thou’st certain demise.”

Bizarro World Project.
When assigned a project that you know is truly ridiculous (and no one
else is checking), do the opposite project. My team was assigned some
training on customer service. We were spectacular at customer service.
So I had them do the opposite: create fake recordings on giving the
worst customer service possible. The recordings became the best training
videos because they showed what not to do, and why!

Calendar ideas

September 19: Talk Like A Pirate Day. Everyone signs into a meeting with their pirate name instead of their real name and we have to figure out who is who.

October: Since the theme of October is Halloween, play up “scary.”
Make a “most scary question” matching game having your team submit
their scariest work question and create a matching game. Whose scary
question is that? Add on: Photoshop their standard work photo into a
scary photo.

November: The Thanksgiving table. Remotely, this one is brilliant because the virtual table expands
to fit everyone. Invite everyone to share something for which they are
thankful. This works well synchronously or asynchronously.

December: Obviously, ugly sweater contests completely work online.

January: Haiku time. Deep
quiet winter. Contemplation. Minimum words for minimum temperatures.
Run a Haiku contest but downplay ‘contest’. Instead, just make it about
singular voices piercing the cold.

March: Limericks.
Run a limerick contest. Set a theme (mine were always science
limericks). Keep it clean! Have a Guest Judge’s Award and a People’s
Choice Award.

March 14th, Pi Day. Get your numbers-can-be-lines…err…pies groove going. At the very least, everyone picks their favorite pie.

April: Earth Month! Working remotely is a very green action!!
Do you know how many mayors of major cities would love to take 50,000
commuters off their highways everyday to ease congestion? That’s already you, remote worker!
But don’t stop there. Share one new green commitment you are going to
make this year. You could also host a panel of contributors. I used to
host a “State of the Earth” presentation.

The Point

The
point is to use the strengths of working online to your advantage to
connect. If it is important to you to have more connected workers for
better communication and productivity (Zappala, 2007), it only makes sense to go for your strengths when working remotely. Strengths I’ve included:
- Creativity
- Equal contributions from all
- Offline/offstage meeting prep
- No schlepping a crock pot through the parking lot.
Yeah,
I didn’t add “working in your pajamas” because remote workers get
tossed a lot of shade for that. We also have cats that sit on our
keyboards and dogs that bark at amazingly inappropriate times. I believe
we are more productive and I just like it.

Sure, I’ve missed 15 years of office trick or treating, but then again, the entire bag of Reese Peanut Butter Cups is for me. Sorry, not sorry. Remote on, workforce, remote on.

*The
best interview answer here is ‘communication’, followed by ‘keeping set
meetings.’

#connect
#happy #howtoconnectonline #teamwork #inspiration #management #wfh
#workingfromhome #remotework #remoteworking #onlinework #onlineworkers
#virtualteam #asktheonlinemanager #llama #volcano #PiDay #Limericks
#TalkLikeAPirateDay #OldEnglishDay #EarthDay #haiku #bizarroworld
#madlibsatwork #groupdoodle #incompletefigures #FetchwithRuffRuffman

This article originally appeared on LinkedIn pre-pandemic on September 2, 2019

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-connect-remote-teams-heather-dodds This post was updated on April 3, 2026 with improved font and replaced a missing image.
November 8, 2021
So you want to work as WGU faculty…
The following represents my opinions as a former WGU employee. I
conducted over 150 interviews and hired at least 30 faculty in my role
as a Department Head or Program Manager. Specifically, I worked in the
General Education department but as you’ll see, the names for many
things at WGU are different; Gen Ed was never referred to much as a
department or quasi-college. While I would look for a specific type of
faculty member for General Education, I don’t feel as though the list of
qualifications would not apply to faculty within the four colleges as
well. I’m writing about the course faculty, course mentor, academic
mentor, or whatever title they give the people that work in the courses.
I’m not referring to student mentors, progress mentors, graders, or
assessment faculty.

As I used to say to my students who took online classes before; it’s also true for faculty:

you’ve never experienced anything like WGU before.

How WGU measures competency

The competency-based model
takes a little time to get used to and, as a concept, is foggy to
understand. My current best definition is that we taught to “first day
on the job” understanding. How this plays out for faculty is that
courses contain prescribed information for students to learn and there
isn’t much cognitive space for extra. You’ll teach what you are told to
teach, and nothing more.

Not In Control

The next item to learn is the disaggregated faculty model.
In a traditional university, one faculty member usually designs the
syllabus, teaches the course, and then makes and grades the assessments.
At WGU, those roles are split into 3 separate departments (ah, there’s
where the word ‘department’ is appropriately used). So there is a
product development department that designs what should be inside a
course (and a series of courses; a program aka a major), picks the learning resources aka textbooks, and creates the assessments aka
tests. Said another way, they make the syllabus. Mentoring is where the
faculty are; they teach the course. Mentoring is the face, voice, and
heart of the course. Course faculty write the emails, help struggling
students, call the students, form relationships, and become the
students’ greatest ally as they complete the course. The assessment
department creates, maintains, and grades the assessments whether they
be multiple-choice type exams, written papers, or portfolios. So if you
are considering being faculty, you will spend all your time teaching and
with students. For faculty that love teaching as the “best part of the
job”, you’ll be a good fit. However, if you have a hard time realizing
that you will have almost no voice in the design and creation of courses
(no, you will not eventually teach one section of your favorite niche
course) and if you resent not being able to give out points for effort
or resent not personally investigating plagiarism, you will not be a
good fit. Many would-be faculty members are sorted out right at this
early explanation of the disaggregated model because they don’t
understand how they would be faculty and not be in control of their
courses. So this leads us to the next concept– how time works at WGU.

Time

In
parallel with the understanding that semesters are called terms and are
6 months long, not 4 months, is the understanding that in
competency-based education, it does not matter when Day One of a course
is and when Day Final of a course is. Any student will be at any point of a course at all times. More
specifically, 1/6 of the students will be starting during any given
month, 1/6 will be finishing or trying to a course, and 4/6 or 2/3 will
be somewhere in the middle of their learning. So during any given day, a
faculty member could be welcoming new students, helping a student get
ready for the final, or encouraging students to continue their learning
path. If you are a faculty member that feels weak in an area of your own
content expertise (rare in Gen Ed, but it can happen), you will not
have the luxury of brushing up before you arrive at that point of the
semester. From the day you join a course, you could be expected to teach
any of the content from anywhere inside the course. It is very likely
that you will serve in several courses, too.

WGU operates as a business, not as a university

For faculty, that comes with some positives and negatives. Future
faculty should seriously contemplate these as often resignations within
the first year of employment come from these areas listed below.

Negatives
1. No control over course content.
  It is true that at some point, you *may* be invited to be an SME in
  course development, but that is usually a set of duties ADDED to serving
  students first. Translation = more hours for difficult work. However,
  solving problems inside of courses is supremely satisfying because (in
  Gen Ed), when you solve a problem, you are literally helping thousands of students actively within the course.
2. No faculty senate.
  As a matter of fact, no union support in any way. Faculty, as the human
  element within the system, are often blamed and are the easiest to
  change, so get ready to swim in policies.
3. No down time.
  With 6 month terms that run overlapping, the university never closes.
  There is no need to. If a student can learn (online), the university is
  open. Looking forward to one month off at Christmas and three months for
  summer? Not happening for these faculty. Faculty that have worked in
  both elementary and secondary school seem to have the hardest problem
  here. I’ve seen many resignations in May as faculty realize that they
  are not getting the summer off. (See positive #2, tho!)
4. You are responsible for your students and
  that means you will be rewarded or not for their behavior. Students are
  measured on their academic progress if you are course faculty. If your
  students struggle, that is considered to be on you for employment
  purposes. There is some limited acknowledgement that other departments
  carry some responsibility (rare to find at all in higher ed!) but for
  the most part, you will be measured in every way possible; phone time,
  amount of outreach, number of lectures given, quality lectures, etc. If
  you chafe at being held responsible for others, this is not the job for
  you. (See positive #3, tho!)
5. You will work a weekend day and weekday nights.
  Remember that if a student can learn, we need to be available to help.
  Most WGU students are full time employees, which means they are fitting
  college into *their* downtime, which becomes your on time (on shift). So
  be ready to work at least 6 hours on a Saturday or Sunday and then 2
  weekday evenings, which I defined as at least 3 hours after 7 p.m. local
  time zone per week. I was always amazed to hear stories of new faculty
  in the shuttle between the hotel and the campus on the first day of
  training hearing *for the first time* that working a full weekend day
  will be considered a standard expectation. I tried to filter out
  applicants that clearly want what I call “pick up/put down” work. Those
  are the faculty that have taught online classes before and just expect WGU to be “more” online classes– how wonderful! Full time! Not adjunct! I get it. I understand the attraction.
  
  Those
  are the ones that tell me *with pride* that they give out their cell
  phone number to students and are happy to “take a call from a student, even on a Sunday!”
  Uhm. No.
  
  I want you to work the shift I need (which might indeed be
  Sunday) and then not work when you are not on shift (i.e. Friday &
  Saturday, and don’t check your email). More from me on the negatives of
  overworking, but that’s for another day.
6. It’s shift work.
  This one is a good bridge over to the positives because what I mean is
  that your job will *look* like a regular job in terms of shift work. You
  are expected to be one time. You are expected to be working when you
  are at work. You are expected to get yourself out of work at the end of
  your shift. (Overworking is on you. This is salaried, you are not paid
  more for overworking; you are paid less, get that?) You will not appear
  to be “stirring coffee with little tiny spoons in little tiny cups while
  wearing your corduroy jacket with the leather elbow patches” as I once
  hilariously heard a description of traditional faculty. If you want to
  do that in your home office, though, have at it!
Positives

OK, now the
positives because heretofore, I’ve made this sound like a terrible job
and that truth is that LOTS of wonderful faculty want to work here and
some of them do! So what do they get?
1. One of the strongest dedications to student learning you will ever find
  in higher education. WGU does a ‘best places to work’-type of
  measurement every year or so and consistently, the consultants say that
  WGU has one of the highest connections to mission from the faculty and
  staff ever measured within higher ed. I believe that. Faculty that want
  teaching to be their highest mission LOVE working here. They find
  freedom in not having to constantly tweak courses, no publishing
  pressure, and no grading any papers or exams. Not one. No grading AT
  ALL. I call it: “you play for the student’s team.”
2. The freedom to utilize leave at *any* time.
  This is magical. True, while traditional faculty may be involved in a
  binge-fest at the end of May (<-what’s up with that, trad higher ed?
  What are you doing to your faculty such that they must drink themselves
  into oblivion at the end of the semester?), you’ll be able to jet to
  Europe for 2 weeks in October. Or February. Or if your child is sick on
  any given Tuesday, you can ‘not work’. We’ll cover for you. Good
  managers create teamwork-based coverage. It’s gorgeous. At 5 years, you
  get 4 weeks of leave in addition to holidays (you do earn up to this
  along the way). Most consider that quite good. (Extra tip: Disney World
  in October is wonderful.)
3. You are responsible for your students.
  OK, so there are a lot of complaints thrown at higher education or
  education in general and a lack of tying teacher performance to
  employment is one of those complaints. At WGU, problem solved. You
  either help your students get to graduation or you find yourself invited
  to be happy working somewhere else. You are part of the larger solution
  on this one.
4. If your manager is good, your schedule won’t be onerous.
  I can’t comment more about this, because just like in all jobs, it
  really matters who you are working for. Some schedules can be very
  difficult (i.e. working until 12 a.m. (midnight) local time and then
  being back on shift by 8 a.m.). While you are expected to work fully
  when you are on shift, you are not expected to work all of the time. You
  are not a robot.
5. You’ll be part of a team.
  This one surprises some faculty that were used to being lone wolf
  teachers. And it dawns on faculty over their first 5 weeks. The best
  teams have been designed specifically by their managers to utilize the
  strengths and weaknesses of the team to survive. The pace of change is
  light-speed because there is little to no overhead of time (classes
  change overnight, not at semester breaks) or space (no buildings, no
  offices, no classrooms) to worry about. Just like Hogwarts, while you
  are at WGU, your team is your family. Teaching with colleagues right by
  your side has never been this good.
Summary: It will be one of the hardest jobs you will ever love.
Even once a faculty member says “OK, I’ve taught before, I’ve even
taught online. I think I can handle this,” the rigor of the job will
surprise you. You will *normally* work 43-45 hours a week, because hours
41, 42, 43, 44, and 45 will all have student names attached to them.
You’ll get to know your students to a deeper level than ever before.
Personal wins will be few and due to FERPA, you can’t crow about your
student successes. Faculty from other institutions and States will try
very hard to look down on your work (I’m looking at you, Washington
State). However, you will know you are doing incredible work changing
the lives of your students. Often in Gen Ed, we had the ability to
instill study habits that were going to make students successful in all
of the rest of their learning. Students discover with us that they are
flashcard learners, or that they like audio notes, or that cramming
doesn’t work. Students discover that there is no such thing as a math
person because we are all math people.

Faculty get to ride shotgun through students’ college experiences. It can be the best ride.

Good Luck on your WGU faculty pursuits! Tell them I sent ya. 😉

P.S.
This article represents my own opinions based on my experiences. I
hope that Google collects this post and that job seekers find it because
I wrote this for you.

P.P.S. If it’s so great, why don’t I still work there? I was a whistleblower on some illegal behavior by a Vice President and I was retaliated against. Lots of great folks are forced to leave WGU. Just ask Glassdoor dot com.

#wgufaculty #wgucoursementor
#wgucoursefaculty #bestplacetowork #competencybased #newhire
#wgutraining #westerngovernorsuniversity #wgu #yourteamisyourfamily
#notaglassdoorreview #heatherpolicy #hr #hiring #wguhiring #success
#jobs #tips #successful #highered #workfromhome #wfh #online #remote

This article originally posted to LinkedIn on August 5, 2019. It was slightly edited on April 3, 2026 to remove missing images.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/so-you-want-work-wgu-faculty-heather-dodds This post was updated on April 3, 2026 with a better font and removed missing images.
November 8, 2021
What Does the Space Age Teach Us about Instructional Design?
Source: NASA

The 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Mission to the Moon is upon us. As a science lover, I’ve been soaking up all of the ceremonies
as well as the updates of future space missions ahead including
Artemis. Space science has been inside of science learning standards for
years. Several themes have emerged that intersect with instructional
design and I want to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Mission to the
Moon by noting these lessons.

First, a little history.

The
urgency within modern STEM education within the U.S. traces it’s
history directly back to geopolitical sources. With both Sputnik in
low-space orbit and a man in “space” already, the Russians were ahead
during the Cold War and fears were rampant that enemies could be
anywhere on the planet because they could look down or drop down from
above. Since the dawn of the Space Age, there has been a call to
increase the number of working scientists in the United States in order
to achieve and maintain supremacy of near-Earth space. Interestingly,
this call for more mathematicians and scientists goes on today, even
though the U.S. is undeniably one of the top three countries in the
world with viable dominance in space. Therefore, lesson one is: Never
underestimate the power of geopolitical influence in guiding overall
learning and education. If you thought science and space could float
off together un-tethered to any human notions of greed, you are very
wrong. (Reference: the entire movie Interstellar.)

Coincidentally,
the field of Instructional Design tends to trace its history to nearly
the same time period, starting in the 1950s Post-World War II America,
with ID edging out the space race by less than 10 years. ID was born to
the idea of planning and putting edges and method to the art and science of learning. How nice that ID was considered both an art and a science! That’s a theme coming up.

Next lesson: It’s all about teamwork.

This one is the biggest lesson for me. There were two types of people directly involved in the Moon Missions:

First, Ground Control.
Notice the name. Ground Control. Not Ground
We-Think-We-Have-A-Good-Idea, Can-We-Run-It-Past-You. Not
I-Have-10,000-Twitter-Followers-So- Obviously-I’m-Thinking-Clearly.
Ground Control. They called the shots. The people on the ground had
access to:
- The most amount of data. (Crossover with AI here)
- The most amount of experts.
- Prototypes and the ability to change technology setups on the fly. Hint: Cross-over with UX technology here.
I
look at the footage of the control rooms, practice areas, and hear from
the astronauts themselves and I see one theme over and over: Checklists.
Controls. Contingency plans. And training until it is automatic. And
this is a great lesson for instructional design. When designing
learning, make sure every step is documented. Make checklists. Keep
checklists. Update them. You will need to know about every fuse, knob,
switch, and procedure that your learners will need to engage. In Space
travel, there is no “hand waving” approach. That means that there are no
shortcuts or middle parts that are so ubiquitous that they are not
documented. You can’t skip launch to get to orbit. You can’t skip orbit
to get to the Moon. Checklists make me happy. Every step is important.
This is learning science.

Second, Test Pilots.
As we reflect on history, we’ll have to just weigh the balance as to why
the test pilots were only white males. Grr. But alas, the specific
personality characteristics of test pilots is the point here. Test
pilots need to know as much as they can. They need to be trained to the
point of automatic responses (just the same as police, fire, and
medical personnel on Earth). And then the most important point: they need to be able to improvise and take the leap from the known to the unknown. Another name for this characteristic is bravery. This is the art.

If I may insert an analogy here, we had our Spock on the ground and sent our Jim Kirk to space. We need both.

Instructional
designers need to have a little of both within them. They should know
everything about everything within the instruction they are working on.
(I’m not saying that they should be SME’s on the content. We have
SMEs, it’s the SME’s job to be the Subject Matter Expert.) But
instructional designers should know the learning inside and out.

Instructional designers should have a test pilot streak; the ability to say “I wonder what this will do” and be willing to try.

As I’ve written about before, most of the bad rap that online education has comes from badly done online education. We have to experiment to do better. Strap on a parachute and get up there and try something new.

Next lesson: It’s worth it to “shoot for the moon.”

There
is a quaint phrase out there that says “Shoot for the moon. If you
miss, you’ll land in the stars.” Beside the annoyance you give
scientists over the concept of accuracy, the point is to try because
other things besides your main goal are achievable; to reach out. It is
good when the instruction you designed reaches its goal. It is an
absolute delight when the instruction you designed reaches another unplanned
but desired for goal. But you don’t get that second goal until you try
for the first. It is this degree of bravery that helped us get where we
are. To this day, we have advanced in many areas of Earth habitation,
not just space exploration, with the Moon Missions. We need more bravery
in instruction to go forward.

Final lesson: After 50 years, we’ve only just started.

NASA
has plans and I entirely support their explorations both in space and
on Earth. (Indeed, without Earth, where are we going to keep our stuff?)
The blue marble in space idea reminds us that we are all in this
together. Within instructional design, brain-based learning is getting
some great traction and I support this as it erases differences of
gender and race to look at the neurological underpinnings of learning.
As I’ve noted
before, I’m researching the future of transmedia, cross-reality, and
virtual reality as it relates to instructional design and we are only
just beginning to know what it can do.

Our Moon shot is still ahead, instructional designers.

Come along for the launch. I’ll save you a seat.

#Apollo11
#Moonshot #space #NASA #spaceexploration #50thAnniversary #Transmedia
#virtual reality #virtualworlds #crossreality #mixedreality
#augmentedreality #design #instructionaldesign
#everythingilearnedfromStarTrek #Spock #JimKirk #GroundControl
#TestPilots #brainbasedlearning #neuroscience #teamwork #artandscience
#science #heatherpolicy #heatherlovesscience #5DayChallenge

This post originally appeared on LinkedIn on July 16, 2019

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-does-space-age-teach-us-instructional-design-heather-dodds This post was updated on April 3, 2026 with a better font and removal of missing images.
November 8, 2021
Designing With Transmedia: Watch This Space

Source: Stockphoto

I used to fly back and forth to Salt Lake City, a lot. I stopped
counting after 26 trips. Statistically, it’s bound to happen on those
flights. And it did.

I sat next to Donny Osmond.

I didn’t bug him, talk with him, or ask for a photograph with him. Because I was focused on something else, something much more important to me. I was focused on a book.

To this day, the book sits within arm’s reach of my working space. What book is so important? The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning,
edited by Richard E. Mayer, 2009 edition. What held my attention so
strongly? The disciplined and codified research that says no matter how
fancy you make the learning method, the learning is the same.

How could this be? Bigger, better, faster, happier learning is my raison d’etre. What’s going on here?

I
started my doctoral program with one focused idea: that I believe in
the power of transmedia. The entire field of virtual reality is still in
the wild wild west stage, and here, anybody can do anything. Hence, I’m
calling it all transmedia. But I don’t mind what it is called*. I’m
just fascinated with what we can do virtually that fools the mind and
brain into thinking an experience actually happened.

(more…)

November 8, 2021
Find Your Dragon Slayer
Reign of Fire. (2002) Image soruce: moviestillsdb.com

Once upon a time, I processed purchase orders for a large university.
We often made large dollar value purchases near the end of the fiscal
year to spend all of our budgeted funds. One year, we purchased a
software license early and I followed a template of a prior year’s
purchase on the order form. There was a “Notes” field that was usually
left empty. In that field, I typed the next year “Fiscal Year 20XX” and
thought nothing more about it.

A few days later, I noticed that the funds had been encumbered in
the wrong account. Our purchasing department had read the field and
interpreted that I had meant this order for a different account.

This was a dastardly problem.

I could not change the purchase order, nor could I change funds
encumbered in the accounts. With the fiscal years changing, the accounts
were locked for transactions. The power to correct the order was not at
my level. As far as I knew, I had made a huge mistake. I went to my
boss to explain the problem.

He said “Call Mr. So-and-so at the such-and-such office and ask to
have a 1:1 appointment with him and then explain the problem to him just
like you did for me.” Now this was the equivalent of saying ‘Go before a stranger, stab yourself, and bleed out until death takes your soul.’

Said another way, I was facing a dragon.

I could fully see this dragon before me. I could see the razor
sharp teeth, I could see the growing fire glow in the belly, and I could
contemplate the acid brewing in the stomach.

Why did I take this problem so seriously? It was a monetary error greater than my annual salary.
I had committed a violation of one of my most closely held employment rules: Make yourself so valuable to an employer that it is cheaper to
keep you than to fire you. Firing me at that point would be cheaper.

On shaky legs, I walked into Mr. So-and-so’s office. I still
remember it. Big office. Polished wooden desk that glinted in the light.
I explained my problem.

He said, “What account number is the money in?” I gave it to him.
Tap tap tap on the keyboard. “What account number do you need the money
in?” I gave it to him. Tap tap tap on the keyboard.

“There you go, all set. Anything else I can do for you today?” he said.

“No, uh…that’s it.”

Numbly, I walked out. Alive. With my job. Dragon slayed. What just happened?

Over the years, I have had the chance to think a great deal about this story. I know now that:
- Mr. So-and-so was literally the only person on campus who is authorized by the state to move funds account to account. Hence, only he could solve my intractable problem.
- Likely his access was restricted to his office terminal. He could only do that transaction from his polished wooden desk. Hence I had to go to his office.
- If my boss was reading me correctly, he knew the hardest part of what he had asked me to do was the first step: ask for help.
Lesson learned?

When you are facing your big, fire-breathing dragon, it is often not your job to slay that dragon. Your job is to find the Dragon Slayer. That person slays that particular dragon

all

day

long.

And they get paid for it. And they think it’s no big deal.

Repeat this to yourself:

Find the Dragon Slayer

I’ve met other dragon slayers over time. As a remote worker, I find
them most often when I’m eating fettuccine alfredo at some in-person
work event, and I’m complaining about the biggest work problem in my
life. A stranger from across the table will say, “Oh, I fix that all the
time. You just do this, this, and then this.” Picture me dropping my
fork, mouth wide open.

Dragon slayer, thy name is…whoever you are on the other side of that table. You just saved my (work) life.

See the secret here is to realize that you are not alone.
This is a connected leadership philosophy. I’ll write more about this in
the future, but here is a hint: Every time Jean-Luc Picard faced a
difficult situation on the Enterprise, he’d turn off the view screen,
and turn to his team and say one word, “Options?” It’s a brilliant
leadership maneuver.

Over time, I’ve become a Dragon Slayer myself. I can take care of
some problems that cause others to fear. It’s pretty cool. I know
exactly how to do it. You just do this, this, and then this.

Best of all, however, is that I share this Dragon-Slayer-Finding
Power with others when they come up against their intractable problems. I
share that polished wooden desk story to give them hope that finding a
dragon slayer starts with asking for help. It’s not so hard to ask for
help. The other steps come easily.

When seeking Dragon Slayers while working remotely, I love to pick
up the phone and say to a colleague, “I know you faced this one. What
did you do?”

After our conversation, I thank them and hang up the phone, and whisper “Dragon Slayer.”

#management #dragonslayer #leadershipphilosophy #reignoffire
#leader #manager #manage #workfromhome #remotework #remotemanagement
#onlinemanager #onlinemanagement #wfh #fear #asktheonlinemanager
#weareallconnected #intractable #problem #facingproblems
#startrekmanagement #askforhelp

Executive summary:
- You are not destined to solve every problem you face.
- Someone else regularly solves your problem.
- Do not take on the problem head-on. Instead, find your problem solver.
This post was updated on April 3, 2026 to improve the font and remove missing images.
November 8, 2021
Get a Naysayer and Keep Them Close

I still remember the conference call when I heard a team
member spout, “Nay, I say, nay!” While I took a moment to recover from
my laughter on mute, everyone knew that this comment wasn’t a joke. This
was a respected team member that contributed real progress to our team
goals. He was pointing out a critical flaw that would delay delivery of a
quality product.

At that moment I knew, every team should have at least one naysayer.

This idea is difficult to follow, fellow managers, but hang in there with me.

Your quest is to find competent people who have the emotional
intelligence to say no respectfully but who also don’t play the safe
game with their career, your team, or your goals. These are not the
people who “always present an alternate solution if they do
point out a flaw in your plan.” No, not those people. Those are ‘A
student’ employees and I’ll write about them at a different time.

These
naysayers are the people who are really, really good at their assigned
job; they just don’t color between the lines the rest of the time. They may be true curmudgeons during
team meetings. They might be late, last, and incomplete with every
non-critical work function that you ask from them. It will be clear that
pleasing you completely as their manager is nowhere on their to-do
list.

But, naysayers will sharpen you as a manager and you want at least one.

I had a naysayer once on my team that I first thought was
spectacularly gifted at his job. He was truly great. He could be trusted
with the most difficult work situations and he got along with everyone.
Then the naysayer broke out.

We were at an in-person meeting and I was sitting next to him at a
very large round table while the leader was talking. The speech was
clearly unrehearsed by the leader, it was one of those “everyone go in X
room in 10 minutes because the leader has something to say” moments.
‘Splash zone’ was clearly uttered as we all dutifully filed in to
listen. The leader then lambasted the employees for not doing their jobs
and admonished them to do better. The employee sitting next to me went
from zero to throbbing in anger.

At the point when he threw his pen across the table, I knew we had
crossed from intellectual disgust to physical anger and even though this
person was probably 150 lbs heavier than me, I started calculating what
Spock-like maneuvers I’d need to do to physically take him down before
he made it to the stage.

Don’t be concerned here, managers. We would go on to joke about this moment in the future.
Fortunately, as good employees do when things get tough, he turned to
me as his manager and allowed me to verbally calm him down right after
the speech was done. I had so much cleaning up of psyches to do after
that speech. Splash zone was a good metaphor after all.

But I admired that my naysayer had the temerity to question authority so deeply. It is only because he listened so intently
that he knew he had been spoken to in a disrespectful manner. Neither
he, nor his team, were guilty of what was being thrown at us. While I
wish he had not thrown the pen, there was no one on the other side of
the table. Haven’t we all felt frustration of some type before? Let he
who has not felt frustration go pick up that pen.

This employee went on to be one of my most treasured team members.
In a clutch, I knew exactly what my naysayer could and could not
deliver. He became one of my most honest touchstones of my management.
If he stayed in the mildly pissed off stage, I had him in the sweet
spot. He’d stay honest, he’d keep me honest (no faking for a naysayer),
and he’d be my true canary in the mine.

Here are 3 reasons why you want a naysayer:

1. Naysayers keep managers informed. As much as any
manager might have worked their way up from the front lines, the moment
you become a manager, you start to be out of touch with what is
happening with your clients. A naysayer has no ego to preserve for you
and feels no ‘the problem shall not be named’ hesitation to tell you
what’s really going on. Use your naysayers to stay in touch with the
front line. They will tell you exactly what is going on.

The naysayer will say “Voldemort” when no one else will.

2. Use your naysayers to bounce your ideas off of.
I have a notebook on my desk where I scribble my most brilliant, often
caffeine-fueled ideas that will solve my employers’ greatest problems,
end poverty, and bring world peace. It really is brilliant. No, you
can’t see it.
In my private 1:1s with naysayers, I crack open
an idea from the notebook and see what happens. The most important part
is here is the privacy and importance that you give the naysayer in that
private space. They need to be heard. It’s healthy for everyone to get
the right message delivered in the right time at the right place. Yes,
this is a manager CYA manuveur too. Use up their naysaying juice
privately and they *might* have too few nays to give at that bigger
meeting.

If a naysayer feels heard, they are going to pipe up in
other meetings less often.

3. Pay attention when a naysayer does get excited. If a naysayer sees even a glimmer of hope in any idea, scream “Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!” No, not out loud,
mind you. Naysayers love shooting down ideas so…if they don’t find that
an idea is a complete waste of time from start to finish, you’ve got
something worth pursuing. They are your canary in the mine. But pay
attention to frequency here. If your naysayer likes an idea that they
traditionally hate, worry as to why your naysayer isn’t saying nay.
Something is really wrong. #Igottabadfeelingaboutthis #thatsnomoon

Get nervous when your naysayer is nervous

In summary, I hope you will embrace naysayers. They truly are the
most honest and loyal employees because they are willing to pick the
mountain that they’ll die upon. They really are. They call things like
they see them and are often the first to see the emperor naked.

At times when you are questioning your mountain to die upon, they will be behind you saying “Nay, not that one” when you might most need it.

#management #leadershipphilosophy #nay #no #startrekmanagement
#starwarsmanagement #HarryPottermanagement #leader #manager #manage
#righttimerightplace #naysayer #private #workfromhome #remotework
#remotemanagement #onlinemanager #onlinemanagement #wfh #surround
#notAstudents #loyal #fear #honest #curmudgeon #lovethis
#asktheonlinemanager

This article originally posted on LinkedIn on April 19, 2019

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/get-naysayer-keep-very-close-heather-dodds This post was slighted edited and updated with a better font and replacing of missing images on April 3, 2026.

November 8, 2021
Get a Naysayer and Keep Them Close

I still remember the conference call when I heard a team
member spout, “Nay, I say, nay!” While I took a moment to recover from
my laughter on mute, everyone knew that this comment wasn’t a joke. This
was a respected team member that contributed real progress to our team
goals. He was pointing out a critical flaw that would delay delivery of a
quality product.

At that moment I knew, every team should have at least one naysayer.

This idea is difficult to follow, fellow managers, but hang in there with me.

Your quest is to find competent people who have the emotional
intelligence to say no respectfully but who also don’t play the safe
game with their career, your team, or your goals. These are not the
people who “always present an alternate solution if they do
point out a flaw in your plan.” No, not those people. Those are ‘A
student’ employees and I’ll write about them at a different time.

These
naysayers are the people who are really, really good at their assigned
job; they just don’t color between the lines the rest of the time. They may be true curmudgeons during
team meetings. They might be late, last, and incomplete with every
non-critical work function that you ask from them. It will be clear that
pleasing you completely as their manager is nowhere on their to-do
list.

But, naysayers will sharpen you as a manager and you want at least one.

I had a naysayer once on my team that I first thought was
spectacularly gifted at his job. He was truly great. He could be trusted
with the most difficult work situations and he got along with everyone.
Then the naysayer broke out.

We were at an in-person meeting and I was sitting next to him at a
very large round table while the leader was talking. The speech was
clearly unrehearsed by the leader, it was one of those “everyone go in X
room in 10 minutes because the leader has something to say” moments.
‘Splash zone’ was clearly uttered as we all dutifully filed in to
listen. The leader then lambasted the employees for not doing their jobs
and admonished them to do better. The employee sitting next to me went
from zero to throbbing in anger.

At the point when he threw his pen across the table, I knew we had
crossed from intellectual disgust to physical anger and even though this
person was probably 150 lbs heavier than me, I started calculating what
Spock-like maneuvers I’d need to do to physically take him down before
he made it to the stage.

Don’t be concerned here, managers. We would go on to joke about this moment in the future.
Fortunately, as good employees do when things get tough, he turned to
me as his manager and allowed me to verbally calm him down right after
the speech was done. I had so much cleaning up of psyches to do after
that speech. Splash zone was a good metaphor after all.

But I admired that my naysayer had the temerity to question authority so deeply. It is only because he listened so intently
that he knew he had been spoken to in a disrespectful manner. Neither
he, nor his team, were guilty of what was being thrown at us. While I
wish he had not thrown the pen, there was no one on the other side of
the table. Haven’t we all felt frustration of some type before? Let he
who has not felt frustration go pick up that pen.

This employee went on to be one of my most treasured team members.
In a clutch, I knew exactly what my naysayer could and could not
deliver. He became one of my most honest touchstones of my management.
If he stayed in the mildly pissed off stage, I had him in the sweet
spot. He’d stay honest, he’d keep me honest (no faking for a naysayer),
and he’d be my true canary in the mine.

Here are 3 reasons why you want a naysayer:

1. Naysayers keep managers informed. As much as any
manager might have worked their way up from the front lines, the moment
you become a manager, you start to be out of touch with what is
happening with your clients. A naysayer has no ego to preserve for you
and feels no ‘the problem shall not be named’ hesitation to tell you
what’s really going on. Use your naysayers to stay in touch with the
front line. They will tell you exactly what is going on.

The naysayer will say “Voldemort” when no one else will.

2. Use your naysayers to bounce your ideas off of.
I have a notebook on my desk where I scribble my most brilliant, often
caffeine-fueled ideas that will solve my employers’ greatest problems,
end poverty, and bring world peace. It really is brilliant. No, you
can’t see it.
In my private 1:1s with naysayers, I crack open
an idea from the notebook and see what happens. The most important part
is here is the privacy and importance that you give the naysayer in that
private space. They need to be heard. It’s healthy for everyone to get
the right message delivered in the right time at the right place. Yes,
this is a manager CYA manuveur too. Use up their naysaying juice
privately and they *might* have too few nays to give at that bigger
meeting.

If a naysayer feels heard, they are going to pipe up in
other meetings less often.

3. Pay attention when a naysayer does get excited. If a naysayer sees even a glimmer of hope in any idea, scream “Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!” No, not out loud,
mind you. Naysayers love shooting down ideas so…if they don’t find that
an idea is a complete waste of time from start to finish, you’ve got
something worth pursuing. They are your canary in the mine. But pay
attention to frequency here. If your naysayer likes an idea that they
traditionally hate, worry as to why your naysayer isn’t saying nay.
Something is really wrong. #Igottabadfeelingaboutthis #thatsnomoon

Get nervous when your naysayer is nervous

In summary, I hope you will embrace naysayers. They truly are the
most honest and loyal employees because they are willing to pick the
mountain that they’ll die upon. They really are. They call things like
they see them and are often the first to see the emperor naked.

At times when you are questioning your mountain to die upon, they will be behind you saying “Nay, not that one” when you might most need it.

#management #leadershipphilosophy #nay #no #startrekmanagement
#starwarsmanagement #HarryPottermanagement #leader #manager #manage
#righttimerightplace #naysayer #private #workfromhome #remotework
#remotemanagement #onlinemanager #onlinemanagement #wfh #surround
#notAstudents #loyal #fear #honest #curmudgeon #lovethis
#asktheonlinemanager

This article originally posted on LinkedIn on April 19, 2019

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/get-naysayer-keep-very-close-heather-dodds This post was slighted edited and updated with a better font and replacing of missing images on April 3, 2026.

November 8, 2021
Get a Naysayer and Keep Them Close

I still remember the conference call when I heard a team
member spout, “Nay, I say, nay!” While I took a moment to recover from
my laughter on mute, everyone knew that this comment wasn’t a joke. This
was a respected team member that contributed real progress to our team
goals. He was pointing out a critical flaw that would delay delivery of a
quality product.

At that moment I knew, every team should have at least one naysayer.

This idea is difficult to follow, fellow managers, but hang in there with me.

Your quest is to find competent people who have the emotional
intelligence to say no respectfully but who also don’t play the safe
game with their career, your team, or your goals. These are not the
people who “always present an alternate solution if they do
point out a flaw in your plan.” No, not those people. Those are ‘A
student’ employees and I’ll write about them at a different time.

These
naysayers are the people who are really, really good at their assigned
job; they just don’t color between the lines the rest of the time. They may be true curmudgeons during
team meetings. They might be late, last, and incomplete with every
non-critical work function that you ask from them. It will be clear that
pleasing you completely as their manager is nowhere on their to-do
list.

But, naysayers will sharpen you as a manager and you want at least one.

I had a naysayer once on my team that I first thought was
spectacularly gifted at his job. He was truly great. He could be trusted
with the most difficult work situations and he got along with everyone.
Then the naysayer broke out.

We were at an in-person meeting and I was sitting next to him at a
very large round table while the leader was talking. The speech was
clearly unrehearsed by the leader, it was one of those “everyone go in X
room in 10 minutes because the leader has something to say” moments.
‘Splash zone’ was clearly uttered as we all dutifully filed in to
listen. The leader then lambasted the employees for not doing their jobs
and admonished them to do better. The employee sitting next to me went
from zero to throbbing in anger.

At the point when he threw his pen across the table, I knew we had
crossed from intellectual disgust to physical anger and even though this
person was probably 150 lbs heavier than me, I started calculating what
Spock-like maneuvers I’d need to do to physically take him down before
he made it to the stage.

Don’t be concerned here, managers. We would go on to joke about this moment in the future.
Fortunately, as good employees do when things get tough, he turned to
me as his manager and allowed me to verbally calm him down right after
the speech was done. I had so much cleaning up of psyches to do after
that speech. Splash zone was a good metaphor after all.

But I admired that my naysayer had the temerity to question authority so deeply. It is only because he listened so intently
that he knew he had been spoken to in a disrespectful manner. Neither
he, nor his team, were guilty of what was being thrown at us. While I
wish he had not thrown the pen, there was no one on the other side of
the table. Haven’t we all felt frustration of some type before? Let he
who has not felt frustration go pick up that pen.

This employee went on to be one of my most treasured team members.
In a clutch, I knew exactly what my naysayer could and could not
deliver. He became one of my most honest touchstones of my management.
If he stayed in the mildly pissed off stage, I had him in the sweet
spot. He’d stay honest, he’d keep me honest (no faking for a naysayer),
and he’d be my true canary in the mine.

Here are 3 reasons why you want a naysayer:

1. Naysayers keep managers informed. As much as any
manager might have worked their way up from the front lines, the moment
you become a manager, you start to be out of touch with what is
happening with your clients. A naysayer has no ego to preserve for you
and feels no ‘the problem shall not be named’ hesitation to tell you
what’s really going on. Use your naysayers to stay in touch with the
front line. They will tell you exactly what is going on.

The naysayer will say “Voldemort” when no one else will.

2. Use your naysayers to bounce your ideas off of.
I have a notebook on my desk where I scribble my most brilliant, often
caffeine-fueled ideas that will solve my employers’ greatest problems,
end poverty, and bring world peace. It really is brilliant. No, you
can’t see it.
In my private 1:1s with naysayers, I crack open
an idea from the notebook and see what happens. The most important part
is here is the privacy and importance that you give the naysayer in that
private space. They need to be heard. It’s healthy for everyone to get
the right message delivered in the right time at the right place. Yes,
this is a manager CYA manuveur too. Use up their naysaying juice
privately and they *might* have too few nays to give at that bigger
meeting.

If a naysayer feels heard, they are going to pipe up in
other meetings less often.

3. Pay attention when a naysayer does get excited. If a naysayer sees even a glimmer of hope in any idea, scream “Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!” No, not out loud,
mind you. Naysayers love shooting down ideas so…if they don’t find that
an idea is a complete waste of time from start to finish, you’ve got
something worth pursuing. They are your canary in the mine. But pay
attention to frequency here. If your naysayer likes an idea that they
traditionally hate, worry as to why your naysayer isn’t saying nay.
Something is really wrong. #Igottabadfeelingaboutthis #thatsnomoon

Get nervous when your naysayer is nervous

In summary, I hope you will embrace naysayers. They truly are the
most honest and loyal employees because they are willing to pick the
mountain that they’ll die upon. They really are. They call things like
they see them and are often the first to see the emperor naked.

At times when you are questioning your mountain to die upon, they will be behind you saying “Nay, not that one” when you might most need it.

#management #leadershipphilosophy #nay #no #startrekmanagement
#starwarsmanagement #HarryPottermanagement #leader #manager #manage
#righttimerightplace #naysayer #private #workfromhome #remotework
#remotemanagement #onlinemanager #onlinemanagement #wfh #surround
#notAstudents #loyal #fear #honest #curmudgeon #lovethis
#asktheonlinemanager

This article originally posted on LinkedIn on April 19, 2019

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/get-naysayer-keep-very-close-heather-dodds This post was slighted edited and updated with a better font and replacing of missing images on April 3, 2026.

November 8, 2021
The 90/10 Model for Your Time
Many years ago, I was assigned to sit on a strategic planning
committee. I thought it was going to be the driest, most boring work
assignment ever. Then I went to the first meeting.

The director started by saying, “Five years is going to come to
pass, whether we plan for it or not. Five years from now is going to be different
from today; that much is certain. The purpose of this meeting is to
plan for change. Let’s arrive where we mean to go.”

Suddenly, the
problem looked less like a color-between the lines assignment and more
like a ‘what do you want the future to be and let’s plan on getting
there’ assignment. Any choice was on the table? All future options? The
future is always in flux? OK, Yoda, count this Jedi in.

Frequently new employees to online work ask “how much time can I
set aside, reasonably, for professional development?” After all, this is
remote work and no one is checking a time clock. But I know that the
heart of the question is “Am I going to get in trouble for investing in
myself?” Wholeheartedly, the answer is no.

I personally subscribe, and I like my employees too, to a 90/10
model of professional development time. That means that I want 90% of
time dedicated to what needs to be done today, now, and urgently. But I
want 10% of time to be set aside and kept reserved to invest in the
future. In my opinion, if you do not invest in the future, you don’t
know what it will be when it gets here. (Remember, strategic planning is
planning for change.)

Investing in the future could look like a myriad of things but in remote work it could be:
1. Keeping up to date with your favorite professional blogs, podcasts, or journals.
2. Brushing up that presentation that you don’t have a date for yet, but you know you want to improve the slide deck.
3. Working with a teammate in helping them with something that you are good at (because by teaching, you refine your own craft).
4. Attending remote meetings or conferences.
5. Reading professional books. Yeah, books. Remember those pedantic
  things? They are quite forgiving and a great deal of them are waiting on
  you. P.S. the local library reminds you the books are free, too.
10% of a 40 hour workweek is 4 hours each week. 4 hours is a whole
morning or afternoon’s worth of work. Put that way, many of my employees
found the idea refreshing and were a little stunned to be free to spend
that much time. Spend 1/2 of a day a week on making a better version of
yourself–it’s OK. I’ve got your back.

If setting aside 4 hours seems untenable (and yes, I struggle to
set aside that much myself), how about 1 hour a day Monday – Thursday as
your last hour of the workday when your productivity (#when
#DanielPink) might be at its lowest anyway? Wouldn’t it be easier to
listen to a podcast than do those spreadsheet calculations? Believe me,
the spreadsheet can wait until your brain is buzzing tomorrow. Give
yourself the moment to think creatively and together we’ll solve MANY
more problems than that spreadsheet was ever going to.

The most important thing any employee will want to know with this
question is that their manager supports their own development
completely.

It takes courage to support your employees and let them invest in activities that might lead them away from their current job.

The trick here is that everyone seeks to learn; everyone seeks to
become more than they currently are. If you create the support and the
pathway, you are creating the place where everyone feels that they can
explore and do better. This is a ‘rising tide raises all boats’ thing
and it represents a leadership philosophy that I invite you to join. After all, don’t you want to do better, too?

#management #leadershipphilosophy #timemanagement
#professionaldevelopment #setasidetime #time #bebetter #leader #manager
#manage #timeofday #schedule #online work #workfromhome #remotework
#remotemanagement #onlinemanager #onlinemanagement #wfh

This article originally posted on LinkedIn on April 12, 2019. It was updated with a better font on April 3, 2026.
November 8, 2021
Research Writing is Like Baked Alaska
When I help students understand the basic reasoning behind research
writing, I often say “Research writing is like Baked Alaska. Do you know
what a Baked Alaska is?” I always get back a confused, laughing “No.”
Purposely, I pick this food because:
1. I am pretty sure few people have heard of it and I need to refer to something you don’t know before you do it and
2. I just love the 1950s kitchen where cakes like this would have
  been the norm. I mean, ice cream inside a baked cake! And served by
  someone in pearls and an A-line skirt. Just imagine!
But I’m getting off track. OK, back to writing.

If I asked you to go make a Baked Alaska, what would be the first
thing you would do? You would probably Google it. Totally OK. Everyone Googles. Asking questions is the first step.

You might look ‘Baked Alaska’ up in several cookbooks. You would
gather a few recipes that you would consider your main guides and you
would keep rereading those recipes. Congratulations, you have started
your literature review.

You might look up several recipes and compare the ingredients, or
the style of making. Do you have a nine inch pan or a ten inch pan? Does
it matter? What if you want to use chocolate ice cream instead of
strawberry? Is your oven big enough? Can you whip the meringue by hand
or with a mixer? You are determining your methods.

Once you head into the kitchen, do you start just randomly throwing
flour, sugar, and eggs around hoping that a dessert will somehow
happen? No. You carefully measure the ingredients in the proper order
and follow the instructions. You are specifying your tools and techniques.

You would keep at your baking until your food creation is complete.
A wondrous cake, ice cream, and meringue dessert that you’d quickly
take a photo of and post up to your social media accounts. You have
communicated your results and conclusion.

You have completed a research writing cycle. Just like with baking,
you might have ideas to try to make Baked Alaska again. This time the
oven needs to be hotter, or you will use sponge cake instead of yellow
cake. You have joined the academy of researchers, asking questions, setting up experiments, gathering data, and communicating results.

Well done! Congratulate yourself! And here, have a piece of this lovely thing called Baked Alaska.

This article was originally posted to LinkedIn on November 22, 2018. This post was updated on April 3, 2026 with a better font and deletion of the missing images.
November 8, 2021