Digital is the canary in the coal mine
So what are functional and not functional ways of being together and collaborating in a digital space?
Here are a few insights The Collaboration Lab has captured during the very intensive experiential online year of 2020.
Back in the days English coal miners had canary birds in cages in the coal mine as an early warning system. When the bird ”croaked” the miners knew the level of poisonous gas was increasing and left the mine in a hurry. Being in a digital space amplifies our needs and reactions. We ”croak” much quicker. How can we learn from the heightened sensibility and quicker reactions in a digital work environment and apply the insights to both online and offline work.
Focus - Shorter, shorter, shorter is the mantra. People are even more allergic to dominant voices in the room, too long input etc. in a digital space. The attention span shortens a lot when being online. Design your collaborative digital meetings with variety! Breaks every hour, maximize interaction, much, much shorter input sessions (10 min tops) is great to make sure people do not ”croak” half way through.
Team development - The things we already know that make teams succeed becomes even more important when working remotely. Creating clarity on goals, roles, responsibilities, structure, culture and processes for continuous learning are more important than ever. If we put the effort and the time into creating clarity on the above areas the teams will get an inner stability which supports them to cope with outer instability and uncertainty in the external world. Our experience is that doing this work with teams online over time, with a single focus every time and with enough space in between sessions for integration, is even better than having 2 development days onsite. We have smart clients who instead of waiting for the pandemic to go away, before investing in their teams, invest more than ever because they know it will pay off and support remote teams.
We have smart clients who instead of waiting for the pandemic to go away, before investing in their teams, invest more than ever because they know it will pay off and support remote teams.
Distance bias - "If you have a brain you are biased" (David Rock at Neuroleadership Institute.). All of us are. Pretty much all of the time. Decreasing bias through awareness is only the first step. We need to design if-this-then-what plans and mitigating bias by integrating activities in our regular processes. One bias that kicks in when working remotely is the distance bias. Our empathy can decrease in correlation to geographical distance. How do we overcome distance? Socially connect more in depth and allow people to share ideas, feelings and opinions make our brains lit up and we experience that we come closer. This in itself decrease distance bias. As simple as a check in or having weekly reflections that is more about sharing rather than performing is a powerful tool to mitigate bias and avoid unnecessary conflicts.
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Meaningful meetings - Since we are more sensitive and ”croak” quicker in a digital space we need to make sure we design good enough meetings.
One easy checklist to use is:
IDOAART.
Intention – What is the intention, or purpose, of the meeting? What techniques would we use to best serve the purpose?
Desired Outcome(s) – What specific outcomes should be achieved by the end of the meeting? How can we plan for a pre, during and post meeting sharing documentation?
Agenda – What activities will the group go through, in what order, to move toward the desired outcome? Never underestimate conversation in smaller groups. Use break out rooms as much as you can! Do not forget - shorter input!
Roles – What roles or responsibilities need to be in place for the meeting to run smoothly online?
Rules – What guidelines will be in place during the meeting to make the most of an online meeting? Cameras on, sound off, raise your hand before speaking, nominate someone to share…
Time – What is the expected time for the meeting, including breaks, and at what time will the meeting end? Again, think shorter! If every meeting has it’s IDOAART we will have much more meaningful meetings online.
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Fika - Swedish concept of having a coffee/tea break and a good conversation, just socially connect and chat.
Creating meaningful meetings is key but sometimes the most exciting things happen outside of formal meetings. Some years ago MIT did a study on innovative companies. They found out that the importance of Informal, unplanned social connection and conversations was crucial for the degree of innovation. How do we bump into each other while working remotely? Find a way to do digital Fika!
We implemented this with great success in a global network of activists. They had so many ”fikas” and so many ideas emerged!
Space - We can design space in lots of different ways online. Inner space - include mindfulness, meditation, music… Or outer space - shorter sessions, having meetings with a specific rhythm and routine to increase clarity and decrease stress from uncertainty. We can also support people to design their days in healthy ways to prevent ”Zoom fatigue” or burn out from working remotely in unhealthy ways.
Dr Dan Siegel and Dr David Rock came up with a model they call "Healthy mind platter" (Referring to the platter model of balanced intake of food.). We invite you to explore how you can design your week using the palette of Down time (doing nothing, let the mind wander)
Focus time - reading/working/solving challenges
Connecting time - connect socially without any agenda, just connect and be together online
Time in - reflect, connect with feelings, dreams and thoughts
Sleep time - let the mind and body recover
Physical time - when we move the body we also strengthen mind
Play time - creative, playfully enjoying novel experiences
How does your platter look like to build resilience and avoid "Zoom fatigue"?
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The Black Swan - The theory of black swan events is a metaphor that describes an event that comes as a surprise and has a major effect. The Black swan of working remotely is a wonderful unexpected effect. More and more team members experience a healthy autonomy due to being able to choose when and where to work. But also because there is a greater distance between leaders and members. Perhaps a healthy distance. Leaders might engage less in habitual control or less of answering questions that the member could find out themselves. Less fingers in someone else’s cookie jar increase people’s sense of being trusted and therefore motivation and productivity goes up. Perhaps the current digital leap can help leaders to get out of the way of people’s brilliance!
“… Less fingers in someone else’s cookie jar increase people’s sense of being trusted and therefore motivation and productivity goes up”
Text by Åsa but insights and love from the whole The Collaboration Lab team. Happy landing of 2020 friends!