What happens when you 2x the speed

Busy busy and no time to watch a replay or trying to catch up on a podcast or learning video?

It’s just a tap or two and we accelerate the speed of it all 1.1, 1.3, 1.5 and 2 x … still barely holding the threads of the information together.

But more ⏩⏩ than that and we struggle to comprehend and catch the nuances in the story, the style and the speaker.

And how s l o w can it seem when you go back to 1x or even 1.5 speed?

Tip for speakers and trainers, online or not - keep it pacey!

But back to the fast forwardness of information and replays. I think we
want to know we’ve watched it and we’re keen to keep FOMO at bay.

And so at what cost all of the speeding?

This HuffPost piece by Monica Torres reveals the thinking that we do in those spaces between words and ideas. So if the spaces are gone … perhaps the thinking opportunities are deleted too.

And our self control could be suffering too. You know that feeling of impatience and irritation. Come on — hurry up!

Remember though you’ve still got control over the pause button even when you do 2x.

You can continue to think and allow time for thinking.

But it’s another version of the changing nature in how we are desperately addictively trying to handle the increasing flow of information.

We’re just ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ 😩

Refresh leadership development/Do you soak it up/The voice in your head/Not a priority/Open to the new/Meetings get you down

When they say, 'you don't need to take notes' - what do you do? 

It happens at conferences; it happened in a meeting yesterday; it happens in presentations and workshops.

The presenter/speaker/leaders suggests you don't need to take notes. You can just

• sit back and soak it up
• focus and pay attention
• read the pack/info/transcript later.

But they're not you. You know how you like to absorb information, convert it to information you'd like to keep/retain/recall - and most of all, you know how you learn.

So what about the assumptions above? 

• We may sit back and soak it up but we can only soak up about 90 seconds of information before our short term memory conks out. So while information might make sense to us as it's unfolding, we may not recall or retain it for later.
• We may focus and pay attention, giving the presenter their much loved eye contact and facial expressions (you know when cameras are off in remote meetings and people complain/ed about how they couldn't read facial expressions or know if they were engaging? Yeah, that's a post for another time) but that's also about the presenter/speaker/leader. It's not what you'd like to do or how you'd like to do it.
• We may defer to 'catching up' with the detailed content later, but few of us truly do and, not as much as our future self thinks we will. Whether you're pro notes (analogue or digital) or not, know that you can't recall all you think you will and that your brain doesn't hold as much in the moment as you think it can.

It's why cognitive load coping in this era of so much more information is such a clever skill. It's clever because we must accept and acknowledge that we need a little guidance on dealing with information in better ways.

Then we'll:

• feel better at the end of the day,
• have processed and stored information more effectively,

and

• be able to connect the dots through the information we're processing.

We become better trend spotters, insight gatherers and more able to spot cues and hints, weaving them into what we already hold.

Do you. Yes, do you, when it comes to notes; but also know that your future self will hope like heck that you did capture something in the now.

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Leadership development needs a refresh

This recent piece in Fast Company shares some of the reasons why leadership development could be ‘broken’.

Some of the issues include:

💀 overwhelming online learning libraries (who’s got time to explore them?)

💀 training experiences that don’t deliver change (they’re fun — but then what?)

💀 pricey retreats that don’t create true impact (but the wine was good wasn’t it?)and

💀 1:1 coaching that’s too slow and labour intensive (but coaching is so hot right now, no?)

What do you think?

We’ve all experienced the overload of learning content that does little to change behaviours or install new capability.

Learning events can be euphoric but unless there is a behaviour shift designed into the program, it’s just more and more and more information put in the hands of participants to absorb and embed.

Development tools, methods and techniques need to keep evolving. Just as new ways of working have been spreading across the world, so too must new ways of learning, and targeted at developing an entire workforce — not just leaders.

Skills gaps continue to be felt at all levels in many businesses.

And for many learning program participants, old ways of learning persist; there are too few opportunities in a business to put new skills into practice or experiment with them, with true safety.

Is leadership development broken where you are? Or is it evolving into something new and hopefully, a little different?

Whether it’s budget, time, ineffectiveness or the same old topics, leadership development — and development generally — needs a refresh, update, and probably a rebrand too.

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Is there a voice in your head as you’re reading this?

There’s one in my head; I can hear it as I’m typing/writing this and I hear it as I’m reviewing and reading what I’ve written.

Most of us have this ‘subvocalisation’ as it’s called - and gosh, I’m relieved it has a name! 😁

This human behaviour helps us with

🔅 memory and recall

🔅 understanding and comprehension

🔅processing and integrating information.

Read more — and listen to yourself 😜 — in this piece by Madeleine Muzdakis.

🎤 I’m a conference keynote speaker on the topic of Cognitive Load Coping. Open your event with a session that helps people better handle the torrent of information they’re drowning under.

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Engagement isn’t a priority

Yes there’s just too much else going on. The modern workplace is shapeshifting and right-sizing. It’s steaming ahead with priorities and results.

And engagement probably isn’t one of those must-have/must-do goals anymore.

Engagement levels have been decreasing for years and while they continue to be measured, how much do they matter?

And if they matter, how much effort do we want to put in to improve them?

And if we improve them, what difference will we notice against the goals, outcomes and results the business is aiming for?

Believe in the benefits of engagement and making it better; and don’t stop. But equally, don’t be surprised when other priorities (more urgent/more important) push engagement down the list of ‘why we’re doing this’.

Whether it’s engagement in a meeting, in a team, on a project or towards the greater goals of the business, it could be time to stop focusing on it — and attend to other more valuable needs.

Read more in this Fast Company article from Mark C. Crowley who suggests it is wellbeing that our sights should be set on improving.

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Come on - are you really open to new things

I think we want to see ourselves as open and creative and willing to try and experience the new — but are we really, truly?

We can prefer the same menu items at the same places, the same holiday experiences and the same work, friends, genres of reading and music. So how much do we really explore novelty and newness?

In this Inc. Magazine article, the trait is labeled as ‘openness’, to the new and unfamiliar. And openness is a cracking good personality trait.

Read on and consider if you’re due for some more novelty, more of the unusual. It could lead to the many other benefits mentioned like happiness, slowed ageing, more creativity and better learning. Might be worth trying something new then?

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Sync Async: Making progress easier in the changing world of work - Lynne Cazaly -

Meetings getting you down?

There’s no denying work has changed in the past couple of years.

The rise of remote work, work from home, work from anywhere, work across different time zones and hybrid work continues to create change and challenges.

What’s one of the best ways to respond to the changing world of work? It’s to consider not just the work itself … but the WAY it gets done.

ASK:

◻️ 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. 😄

And the state of meetings at work is also driving this shift.

Hey, 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, right now.

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.

➡️ Read more about how to make the shift to better working practices in my book ‘Sync Async’. It’s available in paperback, ebook and audio book - yep I’ll talk to you and read it to you 😄

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Productivity is changing … to anxiety 😳

Some recent research results show this state of ‘productivity anxiety’ that many people experience. Have you felt it?

The feelings of anxiety reveal the questions that come up about work. They might be familiar.

▫️What should I be working on?

▫️What outcomes are most important?

▫️Am I focused on the right things?

▫️What is the highest priority right now?

▫️Is there anything that I can push until later?

▫️Is this the best use of my time?

▫️Is this valuable work?

While there’s always a drive to do more or better, what cost or impact does it have on us?

Remote employees are experiencing it more. It’s absolutely worth addressing when work is in any way connected to anxiety.

Read more about it in this Fast Company piece by Stephanie Vozza

5 ways to beat meeting overload

5 Ways to Beat Meeting Overload - or zombie meetings will get you!

Click on the image to download the PDF

HR's New Ways/Asynchronous Work/Beyond Yes and... / NZ Workshops/Tedx Melbourne/See Workish

I'm coming for you, New Zealand 

It's exciting to be planning a return visit to Wellington, New Zealand (August 14 - 18, 2023) for some live in-person workshops! It's been a while, pre-pandemic, you know! 

There are 4 topics to choose from: 

🌕 VISUAL SENSEMAKING

Monday August 14: 9am - 12.30pm

This is one of the most popular workshop training programs I've been delivering over the past 10 years, and it's evolved to give you these highly clever visual skills to help you think, understand, decide, communicate and collaborate better in times of change and uncertainty. The Institute for the Future identified Sensemaking as a capability we'd need for these times, and this session will give you what you need. If you've heard about my workshops that have helped people sketch and draw, this is the session; we'll use visualisation as one of the key tools for making sense of what's happening, helping with your thinking, decision making, collaboration and innovation. 

🌕 ADVANCED TECHNIQUES IN FACILITATION

Tuesday August 15: 9am - 12.30pm

Lift your capability to design processes, lead groups and achieve outcomes ... and, handle challenging situations, people, groups and projects. If you've already had some experience facilitating or you've attended some initial training on facilitation skills, it's time to take things to the next level and move beyond the clichés that are too often part of the facilitator's vocabulary and toolkit. Time to step things up! Bring along queries, challenges, questions and curiosities as the whole learning session will be facilitated. 

🌕 CHANGE TOOLS

Thursday August 17: 9am - 12.30pm

This has been a popular workshop program for leaders and managers involved in change and transformation - whether by their job title, or as part of the work they're doing. It's not easy to navigate the change environment, communicate, influence and shift people's thinking when you're working with such diverse levels of engagement, interest and involvement. Leading change needs clever, creative, adaptive tools. Use the 10 change tools I'll share and demonstrate in the workshop to better engage, lead and impact in change and transformation. Bring along an example of anything you're working on in change and we'll apply the tools to it.

🌕 SPEAKING MASTERCLASS

Friday August 18: 9am - 12.30pm

Take your speaking and presenting to higher levels of performance: more creative, impactful, engaging and memorable. For all levels of expertise. If you've been invited to speak or present at a conference, or you'd like to develop this aspect of your consulting business or practice, or you're just curious to know how you might do better in the world of speaking, this session is going to be a winner. I'll be sharing insights from my journey from not speaking, to speaking a little, to speaking a lot, internationally, and the key things I've learned about the craft, the business and the audiences! Again, bring along queries, challenges and goals and we'll tackle them. 

All sessions use accelerated learning techniques so we cover a lot and achieve great outcomes in a half-day session. No waffle. No words wasted. No dull PowerPoints. Only actions, outcomes and acceleration in learning. 

Get tickets here

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See Workish 

This is the new 5-minute video wrap and curation of work and work-related topics I'm creating and sharing. It brings you up to date with work trends, ideas, information and developments related to work-ish things. 

Workish Episode 1 features:

Future AI jobs, Procrastiworking, Remote loneliness, Text to music, Human centric lives, Swipe useless meetings ... and some music from Theådore

Workish Episode 2 features:

The Business Case for Wellbeing, Designing Offices for the Future, Get Back into the office ... No... it's too expensive !, Async Secret Weapon, Jump on a Chopper

Workish Episode 3 features:

Return to office tensions, Integrating AI at work, Replacing managers with coaches, Neuropsychological safety at work, Attracting GenZ talent, New Zealand in person workshops

Improv. It’s more than ‘yes and …’

Ask someone about improvisation and they might say, ‘it’s all about saying ‘yes, and …’ or ‘hey isn’t that when comedians make things up’ or ‘oh my favourite show is ‘Whose line is it anyway’. 

Yet improvisation is so much more than this and has such wide application across different parts of our life. 

While there are many philosophies, principles, schools and practices for improv, know this... 

it is possibly one of the greatest capabilities to have in these times of uncetainty, change, challenge and pressure. 

I’m a fan of improv - learning about it from Impro Melbourne over many years, performing it at different events and shows and reading widely about it. 

But perhaps the greatest application and use of improv has been in my everyday life. 

Sometimes the sh*t hits the fan. At different times in life, things happen, and you’re confronted by the stuff of life that is painful, difficult, tough or challenging … to say the least. 

How do you cope, handle or deal? 

The learned principles and practices of improvisation when applied daily to life can help. 

Don’t dismiss. Don’t laugh it off. Don’t think there’s something wrong with you. 

With an improviser’s mindset you’ll be able to tackle, respond and cope. Well. This is possible by using improv tools, principles and practices that help us:

▫️adapt

▫️be creative

▫️trust ourselves, and 

▫️move ahead. 

These benefits make improvisation way more than a skill for the stage. 

Read more about it in this article from Psychology Today about Keith Johnstone.

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TEDx Melbourne - a night of AI

5 x AI speakers … at TEDxMelbourne. 

An insightful bot view into artificial intelligence in creativity, health, education, the future. 

Jon Yeo shared the comprehensive and detailed process of the last 6 months, coaching and curating the artificial bot speakers and their content, tone. 

The extensive prompts, iterations, output, experiments and lessons were outlined. There were many questions and comments from the room of 100% human attendees! 

Some quotable quotes: 

- This was a complete experiment. We didn’t know what we’d get out of it. 

- If it’s boring, blame the source material. 

- Does art require a soul?

- It’s not human. Do we want it to be human? Are we ok with that if it is? 

- It’s more binary than granular. 

- The law of averages exist in large amounts of data. 

- Who gets to choose the deployment of AI?

- It’s an intelligence … but it’s not artificial. What kind of intelligence is it then? 

… and thank you to the sponsors and volunteers who helped make the event happen. 

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On Asynchronous Work

Watch this session I presented for the Remote Agility Framework community on my book Sync Async: Making progress easier in the changing world of work

Over the past 18 months I've been working with several Human Resources teams, helping them boost their capabilities for the new world of work. 

That means, newer ways of working, working in different ways, trying new things, evolving their processes and ways of thinking. 

Join this complimentary session if you're an HR professional and would like to learn about new ways in HR. 

It's on July 20, 2023 from 2 - 3pm AEST. A recording will be made available. 

The session outline : 

As the world of work keeps evolving, there's so much that's changing in every workplace. 

And Human Resources practitioners are so often involved with that change: initating, guiding, advising, championing, advocating and innovating. 

So committed to the support of people in the organisation, the HR function can often be left behind in capability development and innovation ... while the rest of the organisation forges ahead with the new and wonderful!

Newer ways of working are sweeping the world and bringing changes to workplaces across every sector, field and industry. 

🌕Is your HR team evolving and adapting to be able to respond to the changing world of work? 

🌕Or are you using the same tools, methods, practices and process of the past?

🌕What is the cost when the HR team aren't leading -- or at least up with -- the evolution of new ways of working? 

⭐️Case studies and insights⭐️

I'll present case studies from working directly with HR teams, what capabilities they've developed ... and why.

Join this complimentary masterclass and I'll share the new ways of working that HR teams are adopting to ensure they're able to handle the changing world of work. 

Registrations are free; sign up here

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. 

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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. 

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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

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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? 

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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