NEW BOOK

Coming May 2024 

Clever Skills

How to use your greatest human capabilities for the unfolding future 

 

 

AS PUBLISHED IN

 

 

 

 

See Lynne's 2024

Masterclasses & Workshops 

 

 

 

Award winning & Best selling

10 x author

 

 

What people say...

 

 

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which I live - the Yalukit-Willam - and pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging. 

 

 

Entries in hybrid work (18)

Monday
May222023

Hybrid working/Asynchronous audiobook/New ways in schooling/Workplaces for the anti-work trend

3 things needed in hybrid working 

As the world of hybrid work keeps evolving and changing, we’d do well to check on how it’s going and what tweaks and changes are needed. 

Two out of three key requirements for people seem to be lacking. 

Let’s look at them: 

🔸Choice or Autonomy

🔸Mastery or Learning

🔸Connectivity in all its forms. 

 

From your experience and observations, which one/s are working in hybrid do you think? 

And which is being missed? Read more in this article from Fortune quoting the great work of Lynda Gratton. 

And consider how you and your teams can lead with greater focus on the important parts that are being missed. 

 


Sync Async Audiobook is out now !

My most recent book ‘Sync Async: Making progress easier in the changing world of work’ is now available in audiobook. 

What’s it about? 

One of the best ways to respond and adapt to the changing world of work is to consider not just the work itself … but the WAY it gets done. 

 

Consider:

◻️ Do we really need everyone at the same meeting at the same time? (synchronous work)

◻️ Could some people contribute prior to, or after the meeting or begin working on tasks outside of a meeting? (asynchronous work)

 

A growing number of teams and businesses are learning and experiencing the value of deliberately working in sync / async ways. 

That is, some work is completed synchronously — at the same time with other people; and other elements of work completed asynchronously — at a time and in a way that suits them. 

 

In this book you'll hear about:

◻️ how, why and when to work in sync and async ways

◻️ tools for creating your team’s sync async strategy

◻️ ways to identify the type of work you prefer 

◻️ techniques to work in more async ways

◻️ how to make daily progress easier — get started on things that have stopped and accelerate things that have slowed. 

 

You don’t need to wait for a culture to change or for someone to give you the go ahead on this. You can start working better in both sync and async ways from today. 

 

There will always be too much to do and not enough time in which to do it. Putting practical sync async techniques to work can make your work easier … and the rest of life better. 

Available via your usual audiobook app or supplier. Use one of your Audible credits to get the book now. 

 

 


New ways in schooling

Evolutions in how we work don’t just happen in corporate offices or businesses. 

 

New ways in how a school can work are most certainly working for the glorious Hester Hornbrook Academy led by their highly regarded principal, Sally Lasslett

In this great piece in The Age, insights abound on how innovation, inclusion and new ways of thinking and working are helping make education happen … for the better. 

 

Adaptive thinking in education is working on things like: 

▫️meeting students where they are

▫️classes starting at 10 am 

▫️no rows of desks, replaced with flexible seating like groups of desks or beanbags

▫️a focus on who students want to be,

and

▫️no need to leave after a graduation; students can keep coming back!

 

Funded by Melbourne City Mission (MCM), the independent school is thriving and growing and gaining attention for the right reasons. 

It’s a most beautiful example of how to think beyond the default or mainstream … no matter the kind of work you do or the services your organisation provides. 

Read more here

 


A workplace for people who don’t like work 

What would it be like? 

Following on from the above post about Hester Hornbrook Academy in Melbourne, Australia, which has created a school for students who don’t like going to school, let’s think further …

 

How might we apply this to the workplace, more broadly? 

Some changes in ways of working have been successes for those who need them:

▫️the non linear work day

▫️remote work

▫️asynchronous work

▫️work from anywhere 

▫️the four day work week 

▫️flexible working hours …

 

And so what else? 

How else are workplaces helping make work better for those who don’t like work? Or don’t much like going to work? 

 

There are things like:

▫️quiet spaces, booths and soundproofed areas

▫️collaborative cafe-style designs for a less formal feel

▫️softer furnishings to create a more comfortable environment

▫️ambient sounds and effects to create calm yet productive spaces 

▫️creative tools for communication and collaboration 

▫️online apps for contribution and collaboration 

▫️cross functional teams to create greater progress and autonomy 

▫️self-selected teams enabling people to exercise choice

▫️incremental work to help make better progress 

▫️less time wasting activities like boring meetings and more outcome focused work

▫️iterative work to break tasks down in to manageable pieces

▫️a mindset of good enough to reduce the effects of perfectionism, …and plenty more. 

What else?

 

What do you see that companies, business, leaders and teams are offering to make work that little more workable — particularly if you don’t want to go to work? 


The meh of work / the anti-work trend 

Any leader leading a team, any worker trying to work, is sure to have felt and seen that malaise … the discomfort and disinterested feeling towards work. 

 

Where did the motivation go? How long has it been gone? And was it ever really there? 

 

The stats are showing that many of us are wading through the ‘scrap heap of broken promises’ about a version of a future dream we’ve been quietly conjuring. 

It’s a 50/50 moment. Some of us are happy enough and interested, some of us not so much. 

 

With job roles important to our identity, if something isn’t quite right then it can feel incredibly wrong, having compounding effects elsewhere in our lives. 

 

While a magic fix might not be as entirely visible — or as possible — as people would wish it to be, simply understanding that people are pretty ‘meh’ with things is important. 

You know the … ‘I don’t need a solution, just give me some support, empathy and understanding’? Yeah, that. 

As a team leader or HR practitioner, consultant, adviser or manager, be aware of these tones so you read the room and respond accordingly. 

Read more here in Fortune 

Monday
Jul182022

What does it sound like

Awkward silence. 
Deserted office. 
Difficult to focus. 

Each of these quiet situations can potentially benefit from the beauty that is music. And so can we. 

No, not just the radio or those poppy head banging louder tunes. 

Think more like ambient music … it’s music you may not recognize and barely notice. 

But it’s there. And it’s been shown to help with distraction and focus management, productivity, creativity … and community. 

Could your space do with some music? Might your headspace benefit? Do you know the impacts it could have on you? 

I’m writing this post listening to an Apple music station, ‘Spa’. It’s like I’m waiting for the massage therapist to come in for my relaxation massage. 😃 It’s a great way to start the day. 

During the workday when I need to focus, I’ll play the ‘Chill’ station. 

I write more about the benefits of music, white noise and ambient noise in my book ‘Argh! Too much information, not enough brain’. It’s a practical guide to outsmarting overwhelm.

And this great article talks about how music might help us work better in this new and changing hybrid world. 

I think I’d edit the title to say ‘your LIFE probably needs more ambient music’. 

Press ‘play’ more often. 

Friday
Oct012021

The liminal pickle of the middle

There are plenty of challenges in this hybrid world of work for middle managers. 

Often lumbered with things from above and below, middle managers deserve and need ongoing invested support and development for what I’d call the ‘liminal pickle’ they can find themselves in. 

Liminal because it is between two worlds, potentially in the transition from one to another. 

And pickle... well it’s tricky. 

There’s plenty to read in this Harvard Business Review article by Brian Elliott.

Monday
Sep272021

What would you ‘go in’ to an office for

Beware the big effort for a dull return. 

It’s happening. 

There’s the call that ‘everyone needs to be in the office for this’, or ‘we need all hands’ or ‘it’s worthy of face-to-face’.

And everyone makes the effort but it ends up having a dull, disengaging, “could have been a zoom or teams meeting, could have been an email, could have been a link, could have been a PDF” feeling about it. 

We will need to be more discerning about the ‘moments that matter’. 

When do we truly need to be face to face and why? What will we make, do or happen that will reap the benefit of the effort? 

Beware promising great things with everyone on-site, but reverting to bad meeting cultures, boring presentations and events that could have remained virtual. 

This Fast Company article by Ashley Goldsmith has 5 tips to plan a return to an office. 

One of those tips is ‘Establish moments that matter.’  

Work out when it’s valuable, impactful and necessary for people to be face to face - and then reward them with brilliant experiences when they do. 

Or they’ll be even less likely to take the next call for ‘all in’ seriously. 

What would you ‘go in’ to an office for? 

Saturday
Sep252021

I’ll work from under a palm tree, thanks. You? 

That would be my ‘workcation’- somewhere where I could see the water, feel the sun, watch some boats sail by and paddle and splash in the sea. 

What about you? What’s your dreamy work location, because it could become one of those standard job perks that are today... standard, for many. 

Beyond the opportunity to ‘forever work from home’ that some of the big tech companies announced in recent months, Google is now up for the month-long remote-work-from-anywhere perk. 

This article in CNBC’s Global Traveller by Monica Pitrelli shows how the competitive advantage of employee flexibility is growing. 

I was pleased to provide some comment for the article. 

Imagine holidaying. Working. Then holidaying some more. Or enjoying the local cuisine and sights at night after remote work during the day. 

Or remote all night, party all day 😱

It could be just the holiday extender we need when borders open more, and our travel dreams move closer to reality. 

The lines are further blurring between here and there, this cocktail and that zoom meeting.