S1E2 — Sharing is Caring

Hi this is season 1 episode 2 of Sharing is Caring from me, Sharon.

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Remote stuff

This week I ‘attended’ Jeff Patton’s Passionate Product Management course for the third time. I really enjoyed it again but sitting still four evenings running is a lot even with a break each hour.

On Friday 25th February I will be running a remote Liberating Structures experiment trying out a spacial tool with some structures which are more kinaesthetic.

I had lots of help earlier with a draft sticker design (thanks people of Twitter). What do you think? If you would like one when they are tidied up and printed please let me know via Twitter.

Not remote (for a change)

I have started to plan to attend some in person events, future Sharon will decide if I attend closer to the time but I am interested at this point. I have booked a ticket to Notwestminster which is happening next weekend on the 26th February in Huddersfield. I have attended the event since 2017. Usually I would be able to go over on the train and get home for dinner but now I am one of the people travelling and staying in a hotel. We’ll stay in Leeds and visit the kids and the in-laws at the same time.

Campdigital is back 23rd June. This is another of my favorite events. They have both an in person and virtual tickets.

What are your favorite in person events? Do you feel ready and comfortable to be in a room with other people?

Catching up

I had a chat (via video) with Adam who I have not seen for some time. We talked all things coaching. It was lovely to catch up with him.

Last week I asked for comments about remote and Hybrid working. I shared some of the responses in this post — Real experiences of going back to the office (or not)

I have begun to write up some details of a workshop I ran last week about how working remotely and hybrid is affecting people. Here is part 1 of our findings and the first of the challenges ‘The day is filled with meetings and there is no time for any other type of work’.

What have I saved this week

How COVID-19 Wrecked Our ‘Weak-Ties” Subtitle: ‘Randos make your life better’ is a really interesting post (and the best subtitle). I had not been feeling this until fairly recently but now I am really missing all of the bumping into people and it is having a real impact on my business. I worked full time in one office for a total of 10 months since 2012 and so I think that is why it has taken me so long.

People Are Going Out Again, but Not to the Office by Peter Grant of the Wall Street Journal talks about the high return rate of theatres and restaurants versus the office suggesting that it is not simply health concerns that are keeping people away.

This excellent HBR article ‘What Psychological Safety Looks Like in a Hybrid Workplace’ by psychological safety experts Amy C Edmondson and Mark Mortensen suggests a five step intentional approach to create a culture of psychological safety ‘that extends beyond the work content to include broader aspects of employees experiences’.

They are definitely worth following on Twitter too

This was an interesting observation “Many managers feel remote work disrupts efforts to promote a corporate culture and collaboration, but they aren’t applying much pressure because studies have shown that many workers are as productive — or even more productive — when they work remotely.”

My experience is that people are frustrated by the argument that they should return to the office to support city centre businesses.

I don’t think we will ever get back to everyone working in the office all of the time. A lot of businesses and public sector bodies were reducing the number of desks before the pandemic and most people who I speak to are not interested in going back to the commute full time.

The challenge is how do we make the most of the time we spend together and how can we work together well while apart?

If you would like to chat about any of the themes from this Newsletter, please get in contact.

Thank you for reading this far, I hope you haven’t been too badly affected by the storms this week. Here is a dog enjoying the wind.