Designing our work experience

Firms are holding training sessions to teach employees the basics of what's known as visual note taking. Others, like vacation-rental company HomeAway Inc. and retailer Zappos, are hiring graphic recorders, consultants who sketch what is discussed at meetings and conferences, cartoon-style, to keep employees engaged.

Doodling proponents say it can help generate ideas, fuel collaboration and simplify communication. It can be especially helpful among global colleagues who don't share a common first language. Putting pen to paper also is seen as an antidote to the pervasiveness of digital culture, getting workers to look up from their devices. And studies show it can help workers retain more information.

LinkedIn is pretty good at finding relevant content ... which is how I came across this article from the Wall Street Journal on sketching. I have seen and posted a few images of Facebook HQ where there are blackboards and whiteboards everywhere. Seems like the trend is being encouraged elsewhere, helping concentration, collaboration and idea generation. Not only that, companies are employing graphic facilitators (also referred to as sketch artists, or graphic recorders) to annotate conferences and meetings so people don't "zone out". The UX/CX world employs this kind of technique when "envisioning" but I wonder if it will take off as a mainstream trend here in Australia for company meetings. Hope so.

via Managing Distraction: How and Why to Ignore Your Inbox - Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dell/2012/04/19/managing-distraction-how-and-why-...

Tools of Engagement

Engagement involves a broad range of disciplines and tactics. A comprehensive study of what motivates people in business conducted in 2002 by the International Society of Performance Improvement for the Incentive Research Foundation identified the following key factors:

• Leadership – the ability of the organization to articulate a vision to its constituents.
• Communication – the ability of the organization to convey its vision to its constituents.
• Capability – the ability of an organization’s constituents to do what is asked of them.
• Buy-in – the willingness of an organization’s constituents to do what is asked of them.
• Support – the degree to which people feel recognized by the organization.
• Emotion – the state of mind people have related to their work or relationship with the organization.
• Measurement and feedback – the degree to which constituents receive feedback for their contribution and to which the organization analyzes results and adjusts accordingly^[13].

Businesses use a wide array of tactics to address the above issues, including:

• Leadership training and coaching
• Print, direct mail, and electronic communications, media, meetings, and promotional products
• Training and professional development
• Recognition, reward, and incentive programs
• Statistical process controls.

The expertise, products, and services related to these various practices comprise the emerging field of Enterprise Engagement. Bottom line: Much more research is needed to better understand how these various elements affect customer and employee engagement, and financial results.

It strikes me as so unusual that Enterprise Engagement has sprung from marketing, but considering the past role marketing agencies have played in organisations it makes sense. Read the complete entry for great references to pivotal articles and a comprehensive summary of the topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_Engagement.

The great team at Behance have delivered another thoughtful piece inviting us to consider, or perhaps even audit how we work.

Petrhaps categorise the reading of this article into Planning: http://the99percent.com/tips/7151/The-5-Types-of-Work-That-Fill-Your-Day

At work ... the effects of prolonged sitting.

My previous post included an image of a standing desk at Faceboook HQ, and a while ago I posted a story about a seemingly wacky treadmill desk. What I thought was a fringe trend of tech firms has hit the mainstream at Sydney's Commonwealth Bank headquarters as well as Macquarie Group, GPT Group and Jones Lang LaSalle, Jonathan Swan of the SMH reports.

Doctor endorse the health benefits, and bean counters can cost the savings of the associated hot desk wireless office. Read all about it and a Sydney University study on it at smh.com.au

Looks like the treadmill desk has made it into the offices of Facebook HQ. I also noticed that the space has realized the central mechanism of facebook -- the wall -- in a physical form, with blackboards, whiteboards, and marked walls everywhere.

View the whole gallery over at SMH: http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/technology/technology-news/inside-facebook...

For up to five hours the night air circulates through the 10-storey building, gradually cooling the wave-shaped concrete ceilings that have absorbed the heat from a day of human and computer activity. It makes sense - who doesn't open the windows at night to cool down their house after a warm day? - but it is revolutionary for a modern commercial building.

...

The office floors are open plan and the lights are set at 150 luxe, compared with 350 to 400 luxe in a conventional office. While some council staff have requested stronger lighting for their work, the gentler lighting is said to have a calming effect on the behaviour of people - one council manager says he no longer feels as though he is working in a 7-Eleven supermarket.