Things are opening up but there is much insecurity about where the world is headed. Most of us are managing somehow, working somehow and this often remote.
In this Design Change newsletter, there is a short video with Dan Pink on how to create more honest exchanges before a team brainstorming session. His tip is great. I’ve done it and it really works! It’s about creating psychological safety as a basis for better performance. In the featured Havard Business Review article below, this safe space for empathetic leaders is the key feature to helping employees find stability and get work done. Champion of unconventional ideas, Adam Grant is showcased here in a video with tips on how to spark creative energy while working remotely.
The Virtual Global Design Sprint gave me the opportunity to be part of remote global teamwork first hand. After two weeks of collaborating along the AJSmart Design Sprint 2.0 framework, we sketched, iterated, did research and tested a cool Figma prototype. Amazing learning experiences along the way. Check out our fun tick-tock film below!
There is generosity; so many free tools available in these COVID 19 times! Last month I posted a link to Jake Knapp’s guide to remote Sprints, here another great remote guide by Toptal. I’d like to share as well Headspace’s offer of a free mediation app.
This super useful mediation app helped me to focus while preparing for the demanding online exam @scrum.org. I’m now a professional scrum master! I passed my certification exam with a high score of 95% and I’m ready to deepen my Scrum journey.
I hope you enjoy this May newsletter. And maybe pick up an insight or two that make your day a bit brighter!
Karla and the Design Change Team
Remote Teams - “Water cooler” moments have become precious.
When you and your team are working from home, clear communication can be particularly challenging. All the more reason why it helps to be deliberate about communicating mindfully. Here a list of tips and virtual warm-ups to make remote working more human-centered and productive.
Secrets are for sharing
Havard Business Review: The Secret to Leading Organizational Change Is Empathy. A a key concept from the article; it is how information is communicated to employees during a change that matters much more than what information is communicated.
How do you create a strong culture when everyone is remote?
In this 3 minute video, bestseller author Adam Grant and psychologist Ester Perel sit down and talk candidly. Remote collaboration improves when people are online at the same time for a few hours a day. Evidence: it enables “burstiness,” where interactions are literally bursting with energy and ideas.
Global Virtual Design Sprint
What is it? How can a global distributed virtual team collaborate successfully on a design challenge? And what steps does a team have to take to earn the trust of the others? This article recounts highlights and shares a link to our prototype. A landing page for refugees who love to code!
Tick-Tock Film by Team Tacocat
Ridiculous waste of time and extremely cool 30-second video :-)
Dan Pink rocks
Entertainment with a message. Best-seller author and sociologist Pink reports in this short video on how to use a simple evidence-based technique to set up conditions to create trust in a group. It’s about sharing the kind of situations that most try to hide.
Book of the month
What can excite a fresh, enthusiatic scrum master more than “ Pocket Guide” by Gunther Verheyen?
This pocket guide is the one book to read for everyone who wants to learn more about Scrum. The book demonstrates his core view that Scrum is about a journey, a journey of discovery, and even fun. He flags the agile stances; that adaptive planning to preferred predictive planning, and treating people as more important to success than what process was used.