The Future Image Group Curriculum: Applying What We Already Understand to Working Professionally During the Covid-19 Crisis.

Though a great number of employees are now working remotely, the basic principles of the Future Image Group curriculum still apply. Improving relationship skills, understanding how you function in professional situations, and working toward better human-to-human interactions are still of paramount importance in the remote professional workspace. Below, you’ll find tips on applying the six basic principles of the FIG curriculum to your socially distant professional life. If you want to take a more hands-on approach, we’d love to hear from you.

The Future Image Group Curriculum

Curiosity

Human beings are curious by nature. Access to the Internet has given us the world at our fingertips; and now, the Internet is a more powerful tool than ever. After all, it provides one of the only truly safe spaces for face-to-face interaction at this point. Applying true curiosity when talking with a person can still mean the start of a conversation, a connection, and a relationship, even though it’s online.

networking

Networking is a mandatory skill for any professional, and very few people are actually taught how to do it, let alone how to do it well. Now, we face the added challenge of networking well when you can’t be physically in the same place as those you’re networking with. How can you develop interpersonal skills for our all-digital world IN our all-digital world?

boundaries

Boundaries are fundamental in any relationship, personal or professional. In some ways, working in a remote workspace makes it easier to develop and maintain professional boundaries. On the other, with email always in our pocket, it can be hard to check out and take off of work when the day is over. Maintaining boundaries in the remote workspace is of the utmost importance.

Technology

The importance of face-to-face communication in business relationships is irrefutable, but technology is an incredibly important tool as well - now more than ever. It’s important to reflect and explore how technology has changed relationships and now, how it’s an essential part of face-to-face relationships as a whole.

Intention

To set the intention of how, when, and where we wish to interact is a key component to any professional relationship. Now, with limited human interaction, going into meetings and calls with intention is essential. How can you understand what conscious intentions are, and how can you apply intentional interactions in your remote workspace?

Teasing Fact From Emotion

Have you ever received professional constructive criticism and taken it personally? Have you ever ben on the other side of the equation - trying to help an employee grow by giving feedback that they take as an attack on their personal self? This kind of reaction in a professional space is common, and can stand in the way of employee growth, team morale, and office efficiency.

social anxiety

Social anxiety can be a powerful motivator for people to use technology to communicate. Now, technology is our main way to communicate, allowing social anxiety to grow unchecked. How can you use technology responsibly as a tool in your social anxiety toolbox without becomeing socially isolated during the Covid-19 Crisis?