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

Meaning of work/Not know and be ok/Art, Creativity & Science/Leaping this year

What does your work mean to you

It's always a good time to think about what you want from your work and what you work gives you.

Work, workplaces and the world of work is changing -- and continues to change. And you might need to adapt or change what you do for work or how you work.

Read more in this piece from Psychology Today and take another look at the meaning of work and how things might, possibly, be able to shift for you.

Not know and be ok with that

It sounds unusual but we can be bored and frustrated... and it can be ok.

We can be caught up with wanting to feel wonderful and put-together all the time, but there are benefits to these other states.

This is a reminder for me frequently; to not keep pushing and busy-ing but to let the uncertainty or unknown of boredom, irritation and frustration be a place of great things.

Read more in this article

The art, creativity and science of …

It’s summer here in Australia and for those who get annoyed by it … there can be ‘sand everywhere!!’

No matter your season, take a moment to feel the sand between your toes in this lovely read of the art and science - and creative uncertainty - of sandcastle making.

There are themes here of

▫️Philosophy

▫️Impermanence

▫️Uncertainty and that which is outside of our control

▫️Resources and sustainability

▫️Ingenuity

▫️Friction and

▫️Tension.

Thinking of making a leap this year

Career changes, pursuing that which you’ve always had an interest in, or just thinking it’s time for a change.

Making a leap into a new way of working can mean a career or job shift — and that can mean working for yourself, registering a business or taking a whole new work direction.

What are you thinking about work … and how might things be new for you this year?

This article in The Age shared some inspiring examples of what's possible and practical and implementable, not just what is a faraway dream.

Protect ideas/Do you Kanban?/Workshops in Sydney... and New Zealand/The Great Room

Protect the airspace around ideas

Sharing ideas with coworkers or colleagues can be an exciting time. You’ve had an idea and you want to verbalize it or explain it, explore it a little more. 

But some people have that unfortunate wet blanket ability to cut down and dismiss ideas in three seconds flat! Their techniques might not be the old clichés of ‘we’ve tried that’ or ‘that won’t work’. 

No, today’s idea deflaters are a little more insidious and subtle than that. Because the first thing you’ll notice is the inspiration you had for the idea has rapidly deflated and the focus is now directed elsewhere. The vibe has gone. 

It’s like the time, space and idea has been hijacked. 

Idea hijackers love to: 

▫️contribute immediately with something they know or have done, ahhh, also known as ‘interrupting’. 

This behaviour:

▫️deflects from your idea, and

▫️distracts with new information about something, somewhere or someone else. 

They might keep hijacking when they:

▫️ elevate the something or someone else higher, greater and better than your idea

▫️ provide unsolicited comparisons

▫️ rush to premature solutions and conclusions, and

▫️ move the conversation on to other topics. 

Boom. Slash. Switch. Sleight of hand and verbal misdirection. All the while, they’ve ignored that which was in front of them: you the human, and the idea you shared or expressed. Tune in to it. Notice it. The status shift in the conversation or interaction is observable and palpable. 

Idea slashers get away with their frequent whipper-snipper action as if it’s just how things are these days. 

No wonder people don’t feel safe sharing their thoughts and ideas, contributing or participating. Whether it’s ego, discomfort, narcissism, a desire to show their knowledge and power … whatever it is…It’s a perfect reason why collaboration and conversation often needs to be moderated, facilitated and ‘air traffic controlled’ to keep a watch for these rogue craft infiltrating protected airspace!

Rather than rushing to fix, shame or remediate the hijacker/interrupter, stand by and refocus the time, energy and attention of the group back to the original contributor. Redirect to the OG and re-explore from there. 

Everyone can have their turn and have their say. But to handle these types of situations requires nuance and subtle diplomacy. Offence is everywhere. 

These situations are exactly why today’s leaders need some new ways of leading.

-----

Live Workshops in Sydney

I'd love to see you at these half-day public workshops; tickets are now on sale for October dates

These are high impact morning workshops - all thriller, no filler 😉

🌕 VISUAL SENSEMAKING : October 17

Use these clever visual skills every day to sketch, scribe, think, lead & manage - the perfect communication and collaboration skills

🌕 ADVANCED TECHNIQUES IN FACILITATION : October 18

Lift your capability to design processes, lead groups and achieve outcomes. Handle challenging situations, people, groups and projects.

🌕 CHANGE TOOLS : October 19

Leading change needs clever, creative, adaptive tools. Use these 10 change tools to better engage, lead & impact change & transformation.

Get tickets via Eventbrite here

---

Great things in the great room

It couldn’t have been a better name for a conference room… the ‘Great Room’ at W Melbourne Hotel. 

It made me laugh with nervous expectation!

It was great because the room was full of glorious people from a great team at UniSuper. Great because they’d been learning, inspiring, advancing and working on their professional development. 

And then great for me because I had the pleasure of joining them for the closing keynote of the program. It was all primed for … greatness. 

We wanted to do more with that closing session than just the keynote speaker who … speaks. 

We went further with a facilitated experience to boost attention, engagement, connection and participation. 

And then we went further … with a co-creation, contribution and euphoric wrap-up experience that would seal the learning and carry it forward into workplace action. 

Conference delegates need more than passive listening or clichéd games. They have contributions to make, ideas to share and insights to inspire. 

This is what I call ‘The Co-Creation Experience’ and it’s available now for great teams in great rooms at great conferencing events. 

Yes … please go beyond the pale stale dot point slide shows that are too often the default. 

Great things can happen at a conference gathering … if you plan for a great co-creation experience. 

And now I need a little lie down … 💤😄

---

Move this from 'Backlog' to 'To do'

Do you Kanban? 

Then join me for the Kanban Australia Conference in Melbourne October 9, 2023 - at the Jasper Hotel in Melbourne CBD.

It's a full day to connect, share and learn about the use of Kanban in Australia and neighbouring regions.

New tools, thinking and support to deepen our capability.

I'll be closing keynote speaker on 'The 3 Futures of Work'. And there'll be no photos of robots or AI, promise! 🤩

Get tickets for $275 - and it includes lunch. What's not to like? 

Pull it pronto into your To Do column, no ... straight into Doing, now!

Get tickets here

---

And I'm returning to New Zealand November 2023

Yes it's all happening! So many in person events, conferences and workshops are filling up in calendars everywhere. 

After running workshops recently in August, a return visit is planned in November 2023. 

There are 3 x half-day workshops

➡️ Visual Sensemaking

➡️ Advanced Techniques in Facilitation

➡️ Change Tools

Learn more / Plan ahead / Get tickets!

Here's the LINK

---

Innovation delusions/flexible work/new ways in HR/headphone buzz/creative thinking/drawing detox

For HR : new-ish ways of working

For HR people, teams, leaders, practitioners: 

It might be a little agile, a little NWOW, a bit of this and a bit of that - all designed to suit the team, who they are, how they work and what they need to achieve. 

I've worked intensely with several HR teams over the past year, building their awareness, capabilities and behaviours to work in new-ish ways. 

Get in contact if you're an HR professional, part of an HR team or are curious about how New Ways in HR can help. 

---

Out of the box... but not too far

What organisation doesn't want their people, teams and leaders to be innovative and creative? 

Yet when they do, or try to be, it can become 'too far' out of the box.

The thinking, ideas and suggestions can seem 

• too radical 

• too extreme  

• too costly

• too time consuming 

• too big a change or  

• require too much time and effort. 

The 'too much' ... not that far, WOAH, we didn't mean THAT creative or innovative -- is prevalent in many teams and organisations. 

It's a kind of 'we want your creativity but keep it in control, please.' 

And we may rush to criticise this response, but remember that brilliant creativity IS possible within a box, boundary or constraint. 

It's how many artists and innovators create such clever thinking and ideas; via a restriction or limitation - in time, resources, space, materials, thought or imagination. 

So yes, think out of the box, but it your thinking and ideas ARE a bit too far out there and it's too much for a leader, team or organisation to acknowledge, validate, support or endorse ... it's ok. 

Re-check the brief, the boundaries and the constraints. Superb creativity and ideation is still possible in a slightly more controlled situation. 

The key for leaders is they must specify or explain the boundaries. And if they haven't, ask 'em!

Then you can go WILD creating within that scope. 

Give me some boundaries any day and I'll create with wild fervour! Say there are no boundaries, that anything is possible - or omit to explain the scope - and I may be hesitant in case I push it too far. 

Even if you think you're not that creative, or that the organisation doesn't think far enough out of the box it is in, check the scope and boundaries that exist and then go wild. 

Push to the absolute edges and extremes of the boundaries. 

---

The delusion of innovation in the office

The debate to return to the office has escalated for some employees - and turned into a mandate or stronger for some. 

A number of reasons to return are presented by businesses, but it’s this one — better collaboration and innovation — that I’d like to explore. 

Because nothing has changed. 

Requiring people to come to a specific geography infers there might be better or greater collaboration and innovation happening there. But nothing has changed. 

Since the pandemic and the forced remote era, have businesses and their leaders set new processes, conditions, constraints, capabilities, situations or environments for making all this magical collaboration and innovation happen?

Yeah? No. 

A call to return to the office because it will ‘be more collaborative and innovative’ has seen employees in quiet offices and meeting rooms in online meetings trying to do all the innovation and stuff. 

But nothing in the environment has changed to boost, invite or foster it. It’s the same old tired grey meh. 

Collaboration and innovation relies on a process or constraint, a purpose or a reason to get it going and make it happen. 

Some teams are great at it, having forged a collaborative, communicative and creative culture of working together like this for some time. No matter the geography and whether they’re together or apart, in person or remote. 

But if nothing has changed about how leaders are setting up the conditions and situations for collaboration and innovation … it won’t … just … happen. 

If nothing much has changed in how a business facilitates, guides or supports collaboration and innovation, arriving into a same-old stale office situation will do nothing to make people magically start collaborating and innovating. 

It will do the reverse and make ideas and energy evaporate. 

Collaborations and innovation seem like great reasons to spend more time in person with colleagues in a workplace. 

But if nothing has changed in how leaders lead collaboration and innovation … it’s just … not … happening.

New ways of working need new ways of leading - not mandates and force.

---

The latest Workish episodes

Workish #4 with Lynne Cazaly 

This episode features: What's behind the fear toward AI; What might be greater than wellbeing at work; The new fusion of 3 things in the workplace; Solving the challenges of learning; Boosting your diversity, equity and inclusion understanding ... and, some Randomness

Workish #5 with Lynne Cazaly 

Do you have a toxic culture of niceness /How to stop the 'where are you working from today' questions / How to keep in touch with the office buzz ... and one thing that could be killing it / How you could be missing out on coaching, development or feedback / A cool choice for increasing employee retention and flexibility

---

Extracting creativity from reality 

You know those reality shows on cooking, baking and making — you can love ‘em or hate ‘em — but there’s so much to learn from them. 

And it’s not how to make a buttercream something or be a crowd favourite!

Each episode centres on a themed challenge. Plus it’s time-based as well, to help build the pressure, performance and interest. 

Look beyond the characters or the game and you’ll see so many brilliant skills and capabilities at work.  

Skills and techniques like:

🌀Listening - to a story, brief, background or feedback 

🌀Understanding - the situation, challenge or problem to solve 

🌀Ideation - of options, answers and making elements for the task  

🌀Imagination - to find alternate methods or techniques 

🌀Problem solving - when you’re bringing your idea from a conjured mental image to reality 

🌀Slicing - not just the cake but breaking the seemingly insurmountable task into smaller steps 

🌀Emotional regulation - dealing with anticipation, disappointment, nerves, doubt or dashed expectations 

🌀Crisis management - when something unexpected happens, fails or breaks 

🌀Persistence when a task seems impossible within the constraints

🌀Scaling - for quantity or visual impact

🌀Optimism - in the face of wanting to give up or run away.  

We may not be certain what a particular skill or capability looks like until we see it demonstrated. These creative programs are packed full of skillful flavour … skills that apply to work and life.

Watch how people think, understand and act in an environment that demands changing and adaptive innovation. 

What skills have you seen people display to solve the challenge and make the thing? 

📺 What to watch? 

Check Netflix and see programs like ‘Is it cake?’ or ‘Bake Squad’. 

---

The comfort blanket of headphones 🎧 

Do you use them, you know, really need them — headphones — for silence, concentration and focus?

Or as described here, are they ‘a way of insulating oneself against the hell that is other people’. 

From the bustle and buzz of the pre pandemic workplace to the isolation of remote work: the silence and quiet of just a lone voice or three at home has potentially given us a greater need for the comfort of quiet. 

All the noise cancelling time. 

I wore them walking around a shopping centre the other day to create my own ambience and vibe thank you very much. 

Boarding a plane and we may don the ear blanket asap. Or pre boarding if you really want protection from all the peoples that will be squashed together inside the metal. 

Zoning out from others’ podcasts or streaming choices? Pass me my comforter… I mean my AirPods. 

Debates aplenty here with: 

▫️ear damage and etiquette 

versus 

▫️focus and creativity. 

What say you? Hey… you, *waving*, talk to me will you. 

What do you think about headphones at work, in life, in sleep, in a shop, at home? Do you need … you know, really neeeed? 

Read more in this article.

---

Drawing is the best digital detox 

Read more about how and why to detox and why drawing, sketching, getting into something a little less bright-light, might be just what you need

---

Designing for flexible work 

Some brilliant insights in an article on flexibility for workers — not just parents who might want time off during the week, but older workers who might want a chunk of time off to travel. 

And this often overlooked benefit :

“By sharing their knowledge, skills and life experiences, our older team members often become great mentors to their younger teammates.”

With life, industry and trade experience older workers are valuable to the team … and customers. 

Flexible recruitment processes, flexible rostering and a reduction in hours when on the path to retirement, are all smart benefits that demonstrate a broader understanding of what it means to be flexible. 

Read more here from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age

What your creativity is trying to tell you

When you’re distracted from a task or chase bright shiny things, do you reprimand yourself and wish you had more discipline? 

At times we do need this focus and attention. 

But how about following the distraction… ok, not right then, but later? 

This distraction could be your creativity trying to alert you to your clever thinking and ideas. 

Here’s what to do: 

Make a ‘side note’ — a note in the moment of the distraction from the main task path you’re on. Jot it in an app or notepad — and return to your original task. 

Then later … allow time, space, a moment to explore, wonder and be curious about your notes about the distractions. Let yourself follow them up, deliberately chase the brightness and see where it takes you. 

You may think ‘I’ll never get anything done’ or ‘I never have time later’. 

But these thought associations we may see as distractions are often examples of curiosity and creativity trying to pop up throughout our day. 

Instead of squashing, hitting or ignoring them — or being angry at yourself because you can’t stay on task — invite the distraction or thought for long enough to capture it in a side note. 

It’s a note you can follow up, chase down or wonder about later. Or not at all. 

Creative and ingenious thought is there; give it somewhere to land when it rises rather than labeling it a distraction or bad. 

It’s actually very good, creative good.