Tag: virtual

Day 1 Afternoon- New Rules for Work Symposium

A Door Opens – Making Space for Innovation facilitated by Keith McCandless and Nancy White

“Notice and stop counterproductive behaviors that stifle creativity and innovation”

I felt they struggled to explain the concept of a TRIZ and the breakouts struggled to have an impact as a result. In hindsight, it was definitely a bit of my coming at the methodology a little too vigorously from my quality background. So a bit of an learning moment for me.

I’ll be contemplating this picture for weeks. There was a lot to absorb.

The NeuroScience of Teaming by Dr Michael Platt and Elizabeth Johnson

Start with the need to make time to socialize with coworkers at work. Back to the idea of fun.

Good relationships are critical in business. Finding ways to connect is critical for well-being. We are wired to connect.

The need to practice our social networking and skills. I feel that these days, so often I feel out of shape here after the last few weeks.

Our attention is one of the aspects of our neurobiology we have control over and through attention we can prioritize what our brain processes.

All about meeting structure comes back to managing attention. Discusses how eye contact causes processes in brain that link to team work and trust, and how this is an engineering challenge.

Importance of breaks.

All comes back to building relationships. I was interested in there is causal evidence here around synchronizing as a biomarker.

Perspective taking – shifting frame of reference to someone else’s.

Impact of the hierarchy on perspective taking. It’s not good.

Importance of empathy.

Facilitated Mixer: An Abundant Exchange

Fun experiment with 3 assumptions

  1. Visuals make everything easier to remember
  2. Small groups make valuable conversations easier
  3. We can create benefits that live beyond this workshop

Love the concept that the act of receiving help and knowledge is part of our being generous towards our peers. Thinking of abundance and applying it in professional development is a favorite topic of mine.

Deliberately thinking of what abundance I have that may help others fill their needs, and sharing what challenges I need help on was a powerful way to end my day.

Day 1 Morning – New Rules for Work Symposium

This will be my rough notes of the symposium.

Events should always walk-the-walk. What are we told we need to do?

  1. Ensure everyone understands the purpose, the desired outcome, the manner of interaction
  2. Cover the technology. Make sure there is room for mistakes and what to do when it happens
  3. Engage people early and often

The symposium started strong here. And it was great to see so many excited individuals ready to engage.

How to Unlock Creativity Through the Power of Play – Charlie Hoehn

Steve Job (or in this case Steve Jobs adjacent) anecdotes are usually a way to make me groan a little. The guy was not a good person to emulate. And anyone now associated with Tesla is probably someone I don’t want to meet.

I like the Stuart Brown quote of the “Opposite of play isn’t work it’s depression.”

Stresses the key of enthusiastically saying yes. Of co-workers as playmates and work as play.

We played storyspine.

Freedom, mastery and connection – three elements required for play.

Okay, people stop referencing JK Rowling! She’s a horrible person and does not deserve our attention.

Useful exercise a play history. What activities did growing up and did for fun. Jot them down and those are what you were intrinsically motivated to do. I did that here a while back – Story is critical, or why tabletop roleplaying made me the quality professional I am today – Investigations of a Dog (investigationsquality.com)

  1. Work is play
  2. Co-workers are playmates
  3. Office is a playground

If a leader refuses to be vulnerable and play it never feels right. Always an air of eggshells and fear.

Joy Bond – Psychological Safety

Be willing to play the fool

Delivering happiness.com – help for ROI discussions

  1. What stands in the way of you and team feeling safe to play?
  2. What activities would allow you to “play the fool” around your co-workers?

All work and no play leads to culture of fear. Leads to burnout.

Ways to make office creative

  1. Walking meetings
  2. Company outings during work
  3. Company potlucks during work
  4. Contests during work
  5. Playful cues with no obligations to use them

RECESS – The act of stepping away creates creativity

Great question – how do we incentive play in the workplace.

Started kind of weak (and I resicovered my dislike of quoting) but very valuable session. I’ll read his work.

When Virtual Communication Might Curb Creativity – Dr Melanie Brucks

“Can we collaborate when interact on-line”

Shared environment and visual focus and the influence on divergent thinking and convergent thinking is pretty interesting. The mimicking of experiences.

The rating scale for creativity is fascinating. Something we talk about a lot in idea management. Need to followup on this.

Great science dose to start thinking about creativity and work.

Understanding the Power of Environmental Space on Creativity, Collaboration, and Innovation – Matt Chadder

Environmental space capturing attention is a critical thing for design of workspace. I’m shocked we aren’t talking about this more in Lean circles.

I need to read more about this. There’s something deep here for GxP spaces and human error reduction.

Rest spaces – the company cafeteria – as the number one place to manage stress. Looking forward to discussing that in a continuous improvement issue. No surprise hospitals are Matt’s reference.

Environmental spaces to reset culture (3-4 days to seed the new behavior)

New Ways of Working Symposium

It is critical to carve out the time to develop and challenge oneself, to listen to external exertise and to share with peers. You cannot wait for others to make the time for you to engage in learning.

The learning I am looking forward to is the New Way of Working virtual conference next week co-hosted by two of my favorite thinkers in this space – Elise Keith and Dave Mastronardi.

I’m looking forward to challenging myself on the best ways to work in-person, virtually and hybrid.

I’m told there is still time to register!

Impact of Virtual Communication on Creativity

A very interesting study in Nature this week on “Virtual communication curbs creative idea generation.” And while I don’t think the results will surprise many, I do think we are not close to settling the question. This is a fairly good-sized study, with a good methodology, but I think more research is needed in the area. I’m thinking we will see a few more studies around the topic.

The results suggest that there is a unique cognitive advantage to in-person collaboration, but the authors do acknowledge there are a whole lot of other factors in play.

This is the big question for many. How do we get the benefits of in-person while maintaining the flexibility and benefits folks are used to. I think, for those work environments where virtual work is possible, the answer is going to be to structure times to maximize the tangible benefits of office-based work, including:

  • “Serendipitous collaboration,” a term coined by Dana Sitar in Inc. to describe informal interactions that result in innovative ideas, problem-solving, and new approaches. For me this includes plopping in a coworker’s office for a quick problem-solving session (maybe with a little healthy venting on the side). Speedy, efficient interactions that simply don’t happen in a remote environment — and that build a sense of camaraderie and teamwork.
  • More productive meetings. Even though we’re becoming more skillful at remote meetings, there are just certain meetings that benefit from in-person..
  • Connection and loyalty are difficult to promote in employees working remotely. The sense of team is not the same when team members see each other online as opposed to seeing them and speaking with them multiple times a day.
  • High-functioning teams have outstanding communication and shared experiences — both of which are difficult to manufacture long distance. Creating a relaxed, and informal environment, diffusing tension, and engaging in an extensive discussion where every team member is heard are all much easier to do in person than virtually.

Businesses operate thanks to human ideas and energy. People are the power behind every business; successful businesses find that fulfilled, happy employees drive fresh ideas, work harder to accomplish goals, and remain loyal to their employers.

The human element (and the need for and value of human connection) can’t be overstated as an ingredient for success and growth. I think we’re entering a new phase, and there are a lot of questions to be answered. What I hope is that bad decisions won’t become enshrined because of cost-cutting or just organization laziness. That approach already gave us horrible open offices.