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. 

How to let your boss know that you are overwhelmed and overloaded

It can be difficult to communicate that you need support - in any context but especially work. 

Short of having the word ‘HELP’ tattooed on our forehead, what can we do to communicate clearly that we need the support of our boss?

… read my article published in Body and Soul in news.com.au 

Work that works

So says PepsiCo with their new flexible working model, ‘work that works’... in this article

80,000 staff will never work a standard 9-5 working week again. 

“Instead, the business has empowered its managers to determine which of their team members are needed in the office and when, and what work can be completed remotely, on a project-by-project basis.”

Wow! It’s pretty big isn’t it. And yes, plenty of companies have been working like this for awhile (some for years) but for most leaders, this is new. 

This strategy has been 8 months in the planning and is rolling out across 200 locations. 

2.5 days in the office and it’s now all about ‘outputs’. 

Leaders will need to step up to higher levels of communication, engagement … and leadership! 

Good for employees? Yes, and PepsiCo says hybrid working is good for business too. 

As each company expresses publicly its hybrid strategy - or its ‘forever work from home’ strategy (hello Atlassian Twitter  Facebook  Unilever  Spotify  Square Microsoft Slack Google … and many more) - the competition for talent increases. And this could be some of the talent that’s currently working for you, with you. 

Don’t be complacent. What’s your ‘work that works’ strategy, PesioCo-style? 

Resisting the flexible future

It’s not that we have to work remotely, it’s that we are ‘clinging’ to office based practices. 

At least someone or some people are clinging. It may not be you. You might be good to go with a more flexible working arrangement. 

But clinging to old practices has happened for centuries. The new is uncertain. 

‘We’re not adopting new ways until we have proof that they work’, said a leader recently. ‘I’ll wait to see what the results are for others first, then I’ll consider whether I will adopt the new way,’ said another. 

These are examples of clinging. 

Waiting. 

Waiting to see. Watching others. Potentially you watch competitors moving first. And because there is greater flexibility on offer, many many more companies become your competitors …in the war for talent. 

The when, where and how we work are still clinging to location. 

And the meetings drain persists. 

There are absolutely better ways. I work with teams and leaders every day, helping them learn and experience new and better ways of working. We try things out, learn, experiment, get comfortable and do some new things. We do less clinging. 

This article in The Guardian by Alexia Cambon, Research Director at Gartner shares more. I’m keen to read her research, ‘Redesigning work for the hybrid world’. 👏🏽 

Let go some more. Experiment, learn and adapt with this change we are in. Less clinging.