How to have the best job ever

I saw a speaker at a conference a week or two ago; she walked on stage with some Bollywood dancing music pumping out loud … and she danced and danced! She used this as a metaphor for loving the work you do.

It was Diana Larsen, speaking at Agile 2014 in Orlando, Florida. Diana presented on how to have the Best Job Ever. Here are my visual notes to her wonderful and energetic keynote. I hope this gets you thinking about what you're doing and whether it's what you really want to be doing!


Diana's advice is to:
1. Do work you love to do (and you might need to think back to when you were doing work you loved)
2. Work with purpose - work that inspires, focuses and motivates
3. Care for your tribe - this is about collaborating. Working on working better together is the best team building!
 

I'm just back from presenting at and attending some brilliant events in Berlin, the Florida and Sydney and will share some of the great learnings, insights and thinking from these events with you over the next few weeks. 

For now, get thinking about how much of what you're doing is contributing to you having the best job ever. 

How to explain your ideas…

Product design company Zurb was in Melbourne recently at a session on ideation. These creative people spend their every waking hour creating; they're constantly designing products, websites and online services. 

But it's not always a smooth path... uncovering your awesome ideas so you can get your thinking 'out there' to people in the shape of a product or service. 

My visual notes reflect some of the hottest tips on ideation:

• Use stories (more engaging than boring zzzzz features and benefits)
• Set a time limit or 'time box' so brainstorming time is constrained 
• Get user feedback to inspire and generate new thinking
• Use a Sharpie marker to sketch out your thinking
• Keep your sketches 'lo fi' and rough
• Go for quality ideas not quantity

Then once you've got some ideas down, group them together in chunks or clusters so they're easier for people to see, understand and digest. 

Go ahead and encourage some wild ideas with the team this week! It's the actual process of coming up with ideas, the 'ideation', that gives structure to creative thinking.

In the words of Albert Einstein: "If I can't picture it, I can't understand it'. 

Looking for creativity? What's your boarding music?

Next time you're about to fly in a plane, listen. No, not to the engines... listen as you're getting on board.

Over the past week I've flown Melbourne to Sydney, Brisbane, Singapore and I'm now Bangalore, India ... at the Agile and Lean Software Development Conference.

With some airlines, when you step on board, find your seat and settle in, there will be some music playing over the speakers.

These tunes helps set the mood, calm anxious or busy travellers and create an environment in the cabin.

I love Qantas' music selections so much that I've contacted them over the years to find out the names of the artists and songs.  

In their reply to me, they named these tunes 'boarding music' and sent me a list of the artists and songs.

Boarding music.

Here's what's special about boarding music:

• It's not the music that plays on the radio channels on the aircraft 
• The tunes are specially selected by the airline 
• It's not instrumental zzzzzzz 'muzak' like in a lift or elevator
• They're contemporary sounds from a range of genres, which people may not have heard before.

So it's often this music I choose to play in workshops, meetings, at team and board (Ha! No pun) events and whenever I'm facilitating in a group environment. Music gives people thinking time, breathing time, shifts the focus, fills the silence and helps make for a creative environment. I think it's even better if it's not instantly recognisable!

• How could you use music to make your - and your team's -environment productive, collaborative and creative?
• What sort of 'boarding music' could you use at the start of an event, conference or meeting?

Way too many events start to the sounds of silence! (Yawn!)

Think about what will inspire you and the people you work with to do your best work and choose tunes wisely. 

Even better... how's this: you can create your very own cafe sound effects (because that's one of the most creative and productive environments) using a mix of these great sounds from Coffitivityplus your own playlist.

It will drive creativity and build an awesome environment to get good work done, in a conference or event, in the office or in your headphones.

Now... press play. 

A quick creative thinking tool

There's no need to make idea creation a big deal.

You don't need a quiet space or allocated time or a fresh notebook. You don't even need to think that you're partcularly creative!

I enjoy using Bob Eberle's SCAMPER model to help with creativity and innovation - no matter the situation.

Each letter of the word 'scamper' takes you through a different thinking process. 

Substitute. Combine. Adapt. Modify. Put to another use. Eliminate. Reverse. 

Take your problem, situation or current view and think of how you could substitute something...combine with something...adapt it...and so on.

I've used the model while traveling over the past few weeks, while problem solving, while brainstorming - alone and with others. 

This week I'm sharing the visual template I use in workshops to isolate some different thinking under each of the 'scamper' letters.

I write directly on the page and make little notes to segment my thinking, yet keep it on the same page. Teams and groups can work together through the model too.

Next time you have some ideas to create, some solutions to innovate or a new approach to curate, go and 'scamper'.

You are the punchline

As my home town Melbourne Australia kicks off the international comedy festival this week, I reckon you've got to ask yourself - "how much fun am I to work with?"

I'm not suggesting you kick off the day with an opening five-minute gig to warm up your colleagues, or deliver a 'lunch time laugh' gig over the public address system.

But I do think you need to 'play well with others' - and often that is about relaxing, laughing and seeing the funny side of things; seeing the funny side of what you've done. 

In this article from Forbes on workplace humour, the difference between false humility and humour that benefits others is a hallmark of leaders with humour. 

In short, you are the punchline. 

Your mistakes, failures, challenges and muck-ups. 

In training teams in facilitation, collaboration and visual thinking skills, I love to share mistakes and challenges. Like the time I tried to draw a giraffe (I have no artistic training by the way) and it looked more like a lama... or when I was guest speaking and left my lapel mic switched to 'on' when it should have been 'off' ... 

Today, these mistakes and challenges make great learning stories and bring laughter to the room, shift the dynamic and impact the environment in a positive way. 

As a leader you're responsible for the environment you're creating in your team. 

How much fun is it to work in your team? Can you handle the hecklers? Do you need some new 'material'?

<Insert applause>