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

Some Seasonal Readings from Lynne Cazaly

How office nostalgia keeps us stuck

Some businesses and leaders just aren’t letting go of their return to office mandates and attendance requirements.

And we might be understanding some further reasons why they’re holding on so strong.

Memories, nostalgia, legacy and a sentimental history could be part of what’s keeping organisations stuck from evolving towards more modern work.

How? When so many people grew through their career working in an office — or a business or organisation that had a head office — changing that deeply historical mindset towards the office is what’s tough to shift. Memories of the good old days and the great times working in the office pre-pandemic could be a deep reason why some people/leaders/cultures are battling to evolve to newer ways of working.

Remote, flexible, asynchronous, hybrid and non-linear work are all part of the new way of working. Yet nostalgia can be strong.

Memory biases like Rosy Recollection, Episodic Memory, Recall Bias and Selective Memories all contribute to how we perceive the past and the present. And the way we see the office is a big one of those perceptions.

What to do?

🟨 Bring creative thought to combine old ideas into new original ones; be willing to experiment more with different approaches, pilots and techniques about modern work.

🟨 Don’t assume you’ve got it perfect and right after your first attempt at a hybrid model. Increments and iterations are part of new ways of working.

🟨 Look beyond leadership perspectives. Get more ideas and input from across the organisation. Consult further. Be willing to ask for opinions. No one view is right.

Being stuck in old ways of working comes about because of old systems, structures, mindsets and fears — masquerading as leadership, compliance and control. There’s so much more to new ways of working than how many days you return to a nostalgic office.

Read more in this Work Design Magazine article by Cynthia Milota and Jinger Tapia

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Move think rest

New ways of working don’t just change businesses. They’re helping change people and the way they think, work and lead.

If you haven’t changed much about how you work since … well, since you learned how to work, it might be a good time to.

New ways go beyond the obvious stuff that’s changed work recently like technology or even increased remote work.

Look deeper and you can begin to redesign the way you think, the way you interact or collaborate and work with others and the way you lead a team.

The idea of ‘movement thought rest’ or MTR/motor framework shines a light on how the go go go push push push of work is an old old old way of working. Yes, ‘pushing through’ is very much an old way of working or thinking about the work we have to do.

Old metaphors, methods and models of work are breaking down in favour of more modern concepts that bring greater sustainability, wellbeing and enjoyment … to the whole of life.

Read more in this article in Fast Company and think about how you could be making the old ways of working a little more modern.

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The dreaded middle

You might wince when you see a boarding pass for a flight that has you in the middle seat or realise the discomfort that’s ahead as you walk down the aisle.

Memes, stories and experiences abound on the tricky situation being ‘stuck in the middle’ can have: complex armrest rules, violated leg space, no quiet privacy, and gymnastics for getting in and out over sleeping peoples.

That’s indicative of other middle locations — particularly in today’s workforce.

The challenges of middle managers trying to survive the sandwich pressures of above and below have led to more stress, conflict, burnout, less satisfaction, layoffs, pay cuts, inflexibility …

The middle may have become more of a crowded cliff as lower levels have been pushed up into the space and higher levels slash and burn that which is below.

Research quoted in Fortune by Chloe Berger makes me wonder if the uncomfortable middle people might be rethinking who and what they want to be, where they want to be it … and how soon they can start making that change. The messy middle has become an even more turbulent space to be in recent times.

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When one is not enough. Jobs that is

Many people may well be drowning under the weight of the responsibilities of one job role plus … you know… life.

And a good many people take on a second job to fill gaps in needs, meet their basic financial commitments or to build for their future.

But there’s a whole other world of the ‘over-employed’ who are working their work gigs to the max.

These eye opening accounts of how people take on, juggle and handle multiple job roles, reveal the hacks, tips, hints and tools used to put one over the employer … while you take two or three for yourself!

With recent years’ rise in remote work, stories of dual (or more) jobs held by one person were rumoured and reported on — but now there’s more insight into how it’s actually happening.

Before you get all “that’s so wrong” or “good for them” about it, read more to see the situations, skills, roles and reasons this is happening.

It’s another trend in response to the evolving nature of work.

While the underemployed people in our communities struggle to find suitable, flexible and reasonably paid work, there are many who are rising through the multiple job roles ranks.

And while there are tips here on how to do it… there are also some handy insights on how to spot it if it’s happening in your team or business.

Read more in the article by Aki Ito in Business Insider.

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The BIG work change hiding in plain sight

As newer ways of working have reached many sectors and businesses, there’s still much to do. Many leaders still aren’t quite sure though, how to change work to adapt to the recent pressures of stress, burnout, flexibility demands and global pressures.

Lynda Gratton always seems to know just what to say! In this great article you’ll see some key points and suggestions about adopting new ways of working and redesigning work.

BUT … what about the HUGE point that could be getting in the way of change?

It’s right there… hidden in plain sight - that we can’t and shouldn’t be adopting or following the CEO’s default preferences for ways of working!

Yep, that’s a big status role in the organisation to influence and challenge … but well-being, productivity, engagement and success depends on it.

So many organisations find a shift to new ways of working challenging and full of roadblocks because of C-level attitudes and dated ways of thinking about work.

They often ‘know what’s best’ from their ‘experience’ - but that experience is rapidly becoming out of date and gained in a different era of work. I see this so frequently when I speak to senior leadership teams about new ways of working. I spend time guiding them through the ideas, evidence, methods and shifts they need to adopt to change and redesign the way their organisation thinks about work. And sometimes that’s a tough gig.

Attitudes and beliefs run deep.

And they want to minimize the risk, know that it WILL work before they adopt new ways.

But new ways are very much a new way of

▫️Thinking

▫️Working and

▫️Leading.

And it’s tough when that thinking gets blocked at the top.

We can help break through the blockades of dated experience that could be hindering how your organisation thinks about redesigning work.

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Don't be the dull, ineffective one who leads

A meeting leader can often help find a path of progress through a meeting, is able to handle the agenda (or even no agenda!), the behaviours in the group, the barriers to progress, AND the obstacles to having a productive and successful team session.

That's a lot to juggle; no wonder meetings continue to be dull wastes of time. So it's possible .... that we could be leading dull, droning, ineffective meetings. Well, somebody sure is!

Lifting your leadership here -- where people get together to do work -- can make a huge shift in performance, engagement, morale and communication.

Join me live online, for this professional development session.

Build your facilitation skills session so your meeting leadership becomes more:

🌑professional

🌒collaborative

🌓effective

🌕productive.

Oh, and let's add creative to that too, as I'll include a range of creative ideas to boost any dull meeting or gathering.

More details here on dates, times and pricing.

And if this is something your team or organisation needs, let me know - I can deliver it inhouse, remotely too.

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Getting started

If you’ve got plenty of ambivalence/meh and not enough motivation, perhaps this way of thinking and working can help.

Notice the difference between

🔆 motivation : that longer term energy and drive that keeps you going

🔆 activation : the tactics that get you started on something, and headed toward motivation.

I’ll frequently hack my activation for work by:

🔆gathering ideas when they pop into my head

🔆brainstorming some possible content for a keynote as soon as the enquiry comes in

🔆following my curiosity when I’m thinking about a topic and

🔆choosing the nicest task possible from a list of things to do for a project (like playing around with the book cover design over researching a dry topic.)

Momentum is joyous when you’ve got it. Just ask a kid on a swing.

But if you haven’t got it, how do you get started?

Find the thing that will get you going. Once you get going — activated — you may feel some more interest or purpose and energy for the work — motivated.

As we learn more about how we think about work and how we work best, the difference between activation and motivation can become enlightening… and mighty empowering.

The ‘meh’ feeling is nothing to feel bad about. Look for the things, tasks, hacks and tips that activate you … towards finding some motivation.

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3 Mentoring spots available

As the end of year approaches I’ve got availability to work with 3 people 1:1 in mentoring over the next 6 months of 2024.

If you run your own business, run your own practice or are keen to build and grow, let’s talk about getting 6 x 1:1 sessions (+ other support, clever ideas and resources including my book writing program) locked in.

Message me about the first 6 months for 2024.

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

Warmer and more human please

Along with everything else they’re juggling, leaders are on notice to up their humanity and reality. 

With remote work and online meetings creating a wierd kind of ‘digital disconnect’ between many leaders and their teams, it’s a good time for some newer ways of connecting. 

Some recent data reported 32% of people said communications from their leadership team during these difficult times felt ‘cold and impersonal’. Ooooh the chill!

And 31% felt leadership showed a lack of empathy for people’s personal lives. Oh the burn! 

Some businesses are trying new ways of connecting. Rather than expecting everyone online at once for a synchronous ‘town hall’ or ‘all hands’ presentation, internal podcasts are being added to the comms list. 

And 39% of those researched said they want their leaders to ‘explore more personal means of communication, like video’. 

Explore. 

That’s a nice way of saying ‘have a go’, ‘try it out’, ‘see what might work for us here.’ 

The fear of failing, looking foolish or crashing and burning can be a big turnoff for leaders who have kept their game face on, stilted, straight and ... are they frozen? Is their camera frozen? 

No. They’re just cold, still, impersonal. 

Ouch! 

Warm up. Open up. More humanity please. 

Better engagement from the leader first... before expecting engagement from the team. 

Read more in this article by Jessica Davies at Digiday.

Look out for your own overload

In a day full of meetings, calls, work and learning ... information overload can really come for us. That overload feeling doesn’t always hit with the same speed or intensity though.

There are different types:

- Lookout for the slow creeper.

The cumulative effect of overload builds up during the day. With no break between meetings, we keep loading up! We’ll be full soon and no more will fit in. It hits at about 4pm!

- Lookout for the fast flier. When a topic, meeting or presentation hits us and we’re done, overloaded. Too many slides, too much too soon, so complicated. Boom! Full.

Both situations need not be a surprise to us. We don’t have to be caught out or shocked that we become overloaded. It happens slowly or rapidly; and we can always be prepared for it.

A powerful way to manage load is to ‘empty the truck’. Rather than trying to carry all the information yourself, externalise it. Get it out of your head and into something else ... onto a page or into a notes file.

Our days of ‘I’m here soaking it all up’ are done. It’s simply not an efficient way for us to work with information. Save the soaking for baths, movies, socializing and relaxing. Aaaah!