The most important question in the workplace
Think back to the last time somebody asked you, in an office setting, how you were, chances probably are you swept all your true emotional whereabouts under the carpet and answered with a superficial ‘great!’. No further questions asked, moving on.
Collaboration is probably one of the most overused and under-delivered words of today’s working world. Companies talk about cross-team collaboration, government agencies talk about inter-agency collaboration, and even consumption is getting collaborative. But what does that word really mean? Collaboration, in my mind, is a process of attentive listening, seeking input, respecting diverse viewpoints, coming to a consensus of best approach and jointly deciding on action.
So when the focus of your workplace is on true collaboration (as opposed to what it says in your company charter), how do you go about creating the right pre-conditions for collaboration? Building trust and empathy is an important part — learning what it is that individuals contribute, what their background is and their passions in life are.
So asking ‘how are you?’, and going beneath the surface, becomes all the more important.
If we know very little, or only very superficial things about our colleagues, how will we ever get to a point of a trusting relationship?
As autonomous individuals and teams under the Enspiral (here’s a short video that briefly explains how Enspiral works) banner, we share work, hardship and good times. It’s the culture underlying all of that, that keeps it all together. At Enspiral, we — a non-hierarchical and values-based network work on some of the most wicked issues of our times. Topics like democracy, collaborative decision-making, wellbeing, education, transparency, food systems, media, and climate change are our bread and butter. As a high-trust place where work gets done (yep, some call it workplace) we need to work on our culture explicitly, to make sure we have the right preconditions for collaboration. Despite collaboration hailed to be ‘at the center of organizational success’ it’s often easier said than done. I see trust as a precondition for collaboration. We operate under the premise of showing up as your whole self — bringing to work all aspects of your personality, history, aspirations, strengths and flaws.
It’s revealing your own vulnerability that often takes a relationship to a new level — whether that’s in an intimate relationship, with a friend, or with a colleague. By bringing our whole selves to work, we’re able to be accommodating, build on strengths and overcome weaknesses together. It builds trust in the process, which makes genuine ego-less collaboration a whole lot easier.
And for us cultural technology is a the centre for building trust — an intervention by design (as per the definition) in the realm of customs and social behaviour. Here are a couple of practical things that we use to build trust:
Check-in circles
We sit in circles a lot. It’s a respectful setting to have a conversation, where every face is seen, and as such minimises people talking over one another. Before the agenda-ed work of the meeting begins, we go around in circles and everybody has the chance to speak uninterruptedlyabout how they are. We talk about how we feel (for real), whether we’re agitated, stressed, full of energy or feeling a bit sleep-deprived. We also talk about why we feel that way — has your baby been crying all night, did you have a great evening the night before, a promising email or a lovely text message from your family abroad? By telling our colleagues more about what goes in our life, we are increasingly able to form the whole picture of a person, and see them in the context of their life, rather than merely the office version of who they are. Whilst this may reveal more weaknesses in front of others, it also helps build empathy. It can also create a greater ambition to overcome those weaknesses more explicitly and as a team — rather than individuals battling on their own with issues they’re struggling with.
Afternoon Teas
When everybody works hard, and often on their own projects, people can be absorbed in their own worlds. But making sure we have conversations aside from our computers is important to all of us. So one of our more recent interventions is Tuesday Tea — every week, at 4pm we host a round of tea, open to friends and people curious to learn more. For half an hour or so, people stand around, catch up and meet new contributors to the network. Dress-up optional!
Retreats
Comms platforms like Slack are great, but can’t replace real-life interactions with people you work with. So twice per year, in winter and in summer, we take off to the hinterland of Wellington to a retreat centre, where we take three days offline to connect, recharge and strengthen our culture. Semi-facilitated, they leave enough space (conceptually and physically) for people to do their own thing — walks, river swims, naps etc — and come together for workshops, food, and Open Space.
The Banana Suit
In recognition of people’s birthday, we wear the banana suit. Why? Because it takes away the awkward ‘oh, I didn’t realise it was your birthday’ thing, and it’s fun. Obviously, it also reminds us, not to take ourselves too seriously. Humour is an important part of our social fabric, and plays an role when you work on big issues… so in a way it can alleviate the pressures of our work.
We’re in the process of documenting and open-sourcing the cultural tech we apply, and it will be available on GitHub as a central repository, as well as a bunch of other places. Enspiral member Sam Rye also ponders how we can best open-source cultural tech in this article.
