Tag: culture

Partnering

The subject of connections has been on my mind a lot lately. I’ve blogged about it a lot, and yakked about it a fair bit too. Without People – You’re Nothing.

And I’m not just a writer and a speaker, I’m a doer too. I love to help people connect and collaborate better, and I often find that opportunities to do this kind of work are even better when I’m partnering with someone.

For several months, Meg Peppin and I have been talking, listening, sharing and exploring opportunities to collaborate more closely. We think our work experiences are similar and different enough to add value and excitement to what we do for us and our clients. Perhaps even more importantly, we feel the values that we share make for a great place to work together from.

If you don’t already know Meg – here is a link to her ‘Halls are Made for Madness’ blog, and you can check her out on Twitter here.

It’s one thing to think and talk about it, quite another to make it happen. We’ve not been in any rush, patiently impatient, and a new client has asked for some help to facilitate conversations around collaboration and workplace culture. We have happily agreed to help and so it is that we (Meg, myself and the client) are really pleased and excited to have some interesting work to do together.

Currently it’s not our intention to work together all the time however we will share more news soon about where we think we can help people create the best opportunities to make work better.

Real Work + Proceed Until Apprehended = Collaboration

Back to Back Meetings

Back to back meetings

Back to back meetings. Oh joy. Most people appreciate that back to back meetings and long meetings are a great way to kill productivity and boost terrible decision making, yet in a culture of presenteeism and busyness they not only survive, they thrive. For example, I recently spotted an online exasperation when someone found out they were booked in for back to back meetings from 8am until midnight. I agree this is an extreme example but how anyone – even the brightest spark – can be expected to be capable of good performance and sound judgment after that lot is anyone’s guess. Yet it goes on, a lot.

Important Stuff

‘We’ve got loads of important stuff to discuss.’ Really? Well good for you – and if it is that important then do your stuff some justice and make time to deal with it properly. You don’t cram a good meal chock full of too many courses then try and wolf it down in double quick time, that way lies indigestion and worse. So why treat your important work any differently? I’ve never understood the logic behind the maths of ‘this stuff matters so let’s rush it.’

Time Travel and A Tactic for Having Better Meetings

I was giving a talk at Louisiana SHRM conference a few weeks back when the subject of time travel came up. I suggested an extremely simple tactic that is often cited as a way for having more effective meetings. Why use this tactic? Well as HR leaders, in fact leaders of any kind, you help to influence and shape culture through leading by example. Here’s a two minute clip from the talk complete with a free technical blooper for your enjoyment.

I’ve got some important meetings later today, including a catch up with Joe Gerstandt and an interview with Jo Dodds on Engage for Success radio. I’ve planned in a gap between these two sessions so I can devote my time and effort to each one separately. In the meantime, seeing as it is such a nice day, I’m going to practice the flexible working message to the max and indulge in a short mountain bike ride. Right now.

Have an excellent day.

Social HR Leadership and Cultural Clues

When I was in Louisiana recently I was fortunate to meet up with Nisha Raghavan, aka Your HR Buddy. Nisha kindly asked if I would be interviewed for her blog and I happily agreed. Her post, including the interview was published this week.

Despite the fact I look a lot like a convict who has just got out of bed (note to self, buy a hairbrush) – I wanted to share the video interview here, which Nisha describes as follows:

Doug talks about using social tools to create opportunities to collaborate and co-create things more innovatively at your workplace. He urges us to share our passion which is really an interesting way to connect with each other and inspire one another. He says ‘With the growing use of social tools we have a chance to re-humanize work and put people back at the heart of work, not the other way around. We can use transparency, systems thinking and even our vulnerability to create powerful places to work’.

In addition if you choose to listen, you’ll hear about my growing interest in art meets work, and my long held belief that we’re all of us capable of much more than we first believe. Experimentation is a vital ingredient in life. There’s also a reference to my New Year’s Evolution and a couple of other things too. The interview lasts sixteen minutes and fifty seven seconds so why not grab a coffee first, and I hope you will find something useful in here. Thanks again Nisha for the opportunity.