Maintaining a winning culture. How the spaces we work in impact our performance and how we can create a space to win.

What makes a winning team? We all want one, whether it be the All Blacks or our own team at work. What a great time to be looking at how to maintain a winning culture as we have proved that how and where we work can change, leading to new everyplace working strategies but we are only at the beginning of the journey…

Sir Steve Hansen shared his insights into maintaining a winning culture and I was fortunate enough to share my views on workplace trends and creating a space to win first, which kept everyone tuned in as they waited for the main event!

The team is people.

As Steve says, “vulnerability creates trust” and “sharing becomes caring”.

Sharing more about who you are and getting to know your teammates as people means they can show up and bring their whole selves to work, whether that be in an office, or on a field.

He talked about a person’s identity having many facets, just like a bridge having many boards. If you only focus your energy on one board, for instance “work”, then the bridge isn’t strong but if you nurture all the boards, who you are as a person be that a mother, sister, daughter, awesome chess player, great organizer, then your bridge is more complete and stronger.

In applying this to creating a space to win, ask these questions about your team culture:

  • Can you team bring their whole self to work?

  • Can they show up for each other, trust each other and share?

Start with “What’s our culture”, develop ideas and thoughts and create a vision for your team space and refine it so that you can reach a decision that the majority support. This will confer ownership of the space to the team and along with that responsibility for maintaining standards as well as developing an etiquette for the space to uphold those standards.

Acknowledgement of a person’s individual cultural identity is important but defining the team’s cultural identity and what spaces can support it will be key to creating a space for a winning team.

We are seeing more and more with clients that teams are the drivers of the new ways of working that are emerging and that maintaining connection and culture within teams is really important, so models that structure days in the office together are becoming more common. Rather than a fully flexible model, this allows for decisions to be made that are based on “best for team” rather than the individual, which is how Steve says he managed the All Blacks.

It is, however, possible to have groups self-organizing within a framework that follows the vision, for instance teams could be self-organizing within a business  framework model for new ways of working but have a variance that suits their particular workstyle.

I loved what Steve said about encouraging  everyone in the team to be a leader, even if they are only leading themselves as this leads to greater accountability for everyone, not just the leaders, who need to the walk the talk every day and live the business vision if it is to be successful.

So, when creating a space to win for your team, answer these 5 questions:

1.       Who are your team? Understand them as people and as professionals.

2.       Where and when do they work best and what will they do when together?

3.       What spaces do they need to help them be productive, engaged and collaborative?

4.       What tools and technology support do they need?

5.       What will be the new guidelines for them to follow as a team?

Answering these questions will help you define your property and everyplace working strategy to enhance satisfaction, build advocacy and maintain culture and community.

If you would like a copy of my presentation or help defining your winning culture drivers and goals and the spaces that support them, please click here.

The future of workplace – Navigating your way to a new way of working

  The future of workplace – Navigating your way to a new way of working

There is a LOT of talk at the moment about the future of the workplace. Every day there are more opinions, more webinars, more helpful and some not so helpful insights into what the future workplace might look like and what its purpose may be.

I can share my opinion too, of what the future workplace is.

But that’s just it, it would be my opinion on THE future workplace, not YOUR future workplace. Your business aspirations moving forward beyond the impact of Covid-19 will be different to those of everyone else.

Flow@Home - How to amp up your work from home space to better support your wellbeing

With this unprecedented event of COVID-19 and everyone that can work from home doing so, now is a good time to take stock of how your work from home space is supporting  your wellbeing in three ways:

  1. Physical

  2. Mental

  3. Emotional

I have created a free online survey to see how your work from home space scores and give you some ideas on how you might tweak your space or the way you work to maximise your wellbeing.

This tool is adapted from Flow@Work which is a survey tool designed to assess workplaces of any size. Contact me for more details on how I can help you at home or your workplace at jo@theflowcompany.com.

You can find it here, just click the button below:

And here are my NZ Lockdown Top 5 tips for amping up the wellbeing in your home workspace:

1              Location, location, location

Where you work impacts how you work. If you are working in a dingy space with no natural light you will be less happy than in one with natural light and ideally views. Take some time to have a look around your home and see if there is a space that would be better suited to set up as your workspace. What worked on day one may not be great for you now. It might take a bit of time and discussion to work out how to make spaces as equitable as possible for everyone within your bubble and you may need to share to ensure everyone gets an opportunity throughout the day to work well. Try and make the space, comfortable, warm and as ergonomic as you can.

2              Distraction subtraction

So many ways to minimise distraction!

In your workspace, keep your work area clear and tidy, a clear desk really does help you have a clear mind, so take a bit of time at the end of the day to tidy up.

Create a top three task list and stick to doing them, one at a time, in order.

Turn your phone face down so you are not distracted by notifications and if you can, turn off all sound notifications, as these may be in the background for you but others may not be used to them!

Maximise your windows on screen so you don’t get distracted by what lurks underneath.

3              Routine negotiation

Now you have had a chance to find your new routine, have a think about it. Is it working for you?

Is it working for the rest of the people in your bubble?

Have a chat with them and see what you can tweak so that your routines work better together. Think about any behaviours that are driving you nuts, that your significant other may not even be aware of and negotiate some etiquette around them – for instance can you live without audible messenger notifications as a trade off for them not having Radiohead on at full volume?

4              Move!

We aren’t moving around as much as we would in an office as we go from meeting to meeting and from coffee to lunch. We may not have stairs at home.

Move while on the phone if you are not tethered to your laptop. Move while doing tasks you can do away from the computer. Move while waiting for the kettle to boil. Ideally do movement that gets your blood pumping a little, how about a plank while the kettle boils? And if you can stand to do meetings that’s a good way to ensure you get some standing time through the day.

5              Nature is Nurture

Not got a view out to a park or greenspace or the ocean? No problem, stick a plant on your desk. Not got a plant? No biggie, put an image of a plant or a park or a beach on your screensaver or print an image and pop it on the wall. Having a view out to Nature significantly impacts our ability to focus back on a task once our concentration is broken.

 

Energy Based Design: Creating a different energetic experience in the workplace

As a workplace strategist and designer, I believe I have a duty of care to create workplace environments that support people’s wellbeing.

I think that because people are the greatest asset for any organisation, so let’s value them as such.

Globally, there are more instances of stress related absenteeism, depression and long-term disability than ever before. This quote from The Mindfulness Initiative (an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mindfulness in the UK) 2016 report “Building the case for Mindfulness in the Workplace” sums the issue up well:

 “We spend more of our time working than doing anything else, and researchers have found that these hours are on average the least happy of our lives. Endemic stress in knowledge-based industries accounts for a large proportion of workplace absence and represents a huge loss of national productivity. Meanwhile, success in most organisations rely on the very things that unhappiness and stress erode – collaboration, creativity, cognitive flexibility and effective decision-making.”

Designing for health and wellbeing will also improve the bottom line. If we can create experiences that engage, empower and enable people to do their best work, we will all benefit.

The impact that the design of the workplace has on people’s experience and how it can impact their health cannot be underestimated.

Everyone has a different experience throughout their day even if their day appears the same as their co-workers. Same location, same layout, same tasks, same meetings but one person will describe a conversation or event differently to the next. We all perceive colours differently. How often have you had an argument about whether something is blue or green?!

We all have an energetic exchange with our environment, ALL OF THE TIME!

But its an abstract, its intangible, it doesn’t have a form, it’s a feeling, it impacts our physiology.

Everything affects our physiology, all external influences such as space, other people, what we eat and drink as well as how we feel internally. If we got stuck in traffic on the way to work, we will feel differently when we get there than if our commute was a walk through a park.

These experiences affect our nervous system, in particular the Autonomic nervous system which is made up of the Sympathetic (fight or flight) and Parasympathetic (rest and digest).

Our ways of responding to stress haven’t changed in terms of our physiology. When we are stressed, we trigger the sympathetic nervous system which is fight or flight   - the same response to messing up an excel spreadsheet or being late with a deadline that we would have had back on the day when attacked by a lion!

These responses spike our adrenalin production then we “comedown”, thus our energy peaks and troughs through the days depending on where we are and who we are with as well as what we are doing.

If we look to the East and Yogic philosophy, there is a belief that we are all connected energetically to everything. There are three qualities, or states of being that exist in all things, these are called the GUNAS – Rajas, Tamas and Sattva.

Rajas is busy, extrovert energetic, frenetic, passionate – think red bull and never switching off your phone, always being online.

Tamas is heavy, dull, lethargic, burnt out – think red meat and hangovers, depression.

Sattva is a state of harmony, clear, calm, peaceful, restored – the green juice of the three. No crash is possible in this state as its sustainable.

Humans can influence their state of being by considering what we eat, working less, exercising more, calming the mind, taking time out to restore our energy.

Think about your energy level right now, is it high or low? If its high, could you sustain this level of energy throughout the day? If its low, how would you typically bring it “up”? Would the answer be coffee?

As we move through the day, our experience of what we are doing, where we are doing it and who we are doing it with will impact our energy levels in either a positive, negative or neutral way. This impact on our nervous system depends on how we are feeling which could be stressed, relaxed or tired, to name a few.

So, since we spend most of our waking time at work, lets consider whether its helping us to feel calm, or whether its having a negative impact.

Do you think your energy is being affected by your environment? Look around – what do you see? Are you inspired by the space you are in? If so, why? If it’s not lighting your fire, why do you think that is? Is it possible for you to change your energy or move to space that helps you shift it?

Wouldn’t it be great if our work environments helped us to manage our energy levels? By designing space differently, we can create experiences that allow us to rest, recharge and energise when we need to.

Think of your home, you have different rooms with different atmospheres for sleeping, eating, studying and socialising and we find it easy to use these spaces as we are familiar with them

Just as we can gain energy from other sources, it can also be taken from us that way. Ever had a friend who, after meeting with them you feel down or exhausted? They are typically focussed on the negative and taking your vibe down their level. Equally, if we eat and drink only low Prana (energy) foods, think French fries, alcohol, coffee, we are putting our bodies into a stress response which has a short-term gain but no long-term benefit.

We are looking for solutions for our workplaces that have a POSITIVE default setting and the way we will achieve this will be to engage the people across all levels of the business find out what’s important to them on an individual and team level.

Once you have got to know your people a little better – you can start to create an environment that flows with different energies so that that people can move through their day taking and giving what they need to maximise their wellbeing which enables them to give of their best.

Everyone is different and some spaces that make some people feel comfortable have the opposite effect on others. Some people get energy from being in a crowd, some need solitude to gather their thoughts and recharge.  That’s why it important to get to know your people.

Once you know your people you can start to create a spatial design solution that helps can them manage their energy by creating experiences in the workplace that people can use as and when they need to:

to be present, to be calm, to rest, to recharge, to connect, to focus, to collaborate, to create, to energise, to move.

I call this Energy Based Design, a way to create different energetic experiences in the workplace and I will be sharing more about the principles and how to apply them in future blogs.

First impressions count…creating a positive experience from the get-go

First impressions count…creating a positive experience from the get-go

It all starts here….

Your lobby at home says a lot about you. Is it welcoming and stylish or cold and draughty, devoid of character? That might sound a bit harsh but if your lobby isn’t inviting, why would people want to visit?

The lobby is the point at which you first engage with a visitor, just as it is the first point of engagement with home for a family member. How it feels and how it represents you sets the tone for the interactions that follow.

When it doesn’t feel like work it means you’re working it!

It’s my birthday today and I’m working!

Big deal I hear you say, but if you know me well, you’ll know I never work on my birthday, haven’t for years. So why today? Well, I’m working because what I am doing doesn’t feel like work, simple as that.

I’m sitting in a supportive, creative co-working environment that inspires me. And I’m spending time developing my business and brand in alignment with my goals and principles.

I don’t have any ‘work’ on at the moment in the traditional sense of the word. I’m using the space created by this to develop my ideas, reflect and reset, define what’s important to me and make sure I’m on the right path.

Being self-employed stretches you - you find the edge of what comfort means to you then go beyond it as with the discomfort comes learning and growth.

Allowing myself to have space and time without filling it with a contract is uncomfortable for me, but if I am to follow my plan to remain at the leading edge of my field, I can’t be side tracked.

Staying positive and open is key to allowing the next ideas or projects in, if there’s no room then nothing can enter and grow.

So, I’m sitting back and feeling what it’s like to Learn instead of Earn, to Research instead of Search and to trust that I’m right.

What is it that you’d like to give space to so it can start to flourish?

It could be an idea or a project you’ve been putting off as you’ve just not had time to give to it. What can you do to create that space?

Think about something you do now that doesn’t serve you, time or energy-wise - can you bag it, i.e. stop doing it completely?

If you can’t get rid of it completely can you buy it? Think about buying time by getting rid of a task that you don’t enjoy that you can pay someone else to do it to allow you that extra space and time.

Or in this age of circular economy why not barter it? Bartering with someone that has a skill you need, and you can help in some way could lead to double mutual satisfaction and future partnerships.

Create some space and see what happens, you may be surprised at what grows…

When it doesn’t feel like work it means you’re working it!

 

All of me: why it’s good to bring your whole self to work

Do you bring you whole self to work?

Do you feel you can, or do parts of you stay at home waiting patiently for your return so you can shrug back into them and be yourself again, comfortable in your skin?

Are you an introvert outside of work, but an extrovert while you are there, or vice versa? How does that feel?

What does it actually mean, “bringing your whole self”?

If you have a supportive, inclusive culture at work, then you will feel comfortable just being “you” which means you probably show up and all of your character is with you, allowing people to connect and ‘know’ you.

Or you may work in an industry where you perceive that certain behaviour is expected of you, so you adopt certain communication and interaction styles that may be at odds with how you are at home. Having worked in construction industry for 25 years, I was someone that felt I had to be slightly aggressive and impersonal to make my way in a male dominated industry. Note that this was my perception of the industry, not necessarily how it was. It didn’t do me any favours but what it did do was create a work persona which was extroverted and had a reputation, not necessarily for the good stuff. It didn’t align with my values and didn’t allow people to know the real me, so it didn’t sit well with me.

It may have worked for the Baby Boomers to have a work self and a home self, but it isn’t working for the next generations. There is no work life balance any more, it’s a work life blend. The lines have irrevocably blurred and will only blur further. The latter generations want to feel a sense of belonging and connection but surely this is cross generational, who doesn’t want to feel connected and that they belong? That they are valued and seen and most importantly, can be themselves?

If we can show up as our authentic true selves, we can connect. Our passions outside of work become known inside, building trust and community. Knowing what your team did at the weekend, and with whom, discovering what is important to them and what they are passionate about will help them feel valued.

Research shows that people with purpose in their life are happier and more fulfilled. This also applies at team and organisation level, if you get to know what lights the fire of your team you will be able to co-create great experiences with them at work.

I used to think that it wasn’t productive to connect when now I feel it is probably the most productive thing we can be doing. Getting to know one another as people, creating social networks, building communities.

Ask yourself whether you are different at home than at work? Now ask yourself why….is it because your work environment doesn’t support you bringing your whole self to work?

Think of a job you really liked and why you liked it – was it the people?  Was it the fact you could be yourself and felt valued for just being you? Was it the culture, the way they did things? Consider what was good about it and whether you can recreate even one element of that in your present workplace.

If we can’t bring our whole self to work that then how can we make meaningful connections and start to enjoy the place where we spend so much of our waking life?

Being your authentic self at work allows you to be all of you, all the time, which can only be a good thing.