Designing our work experience

The image FAST COMPANY chose to lead this article isn't quite representative of the ideas discussed. They should have chosen something more like this ...

This article is about getting away from it all in order to work together and plan ahead. It outlines how to organise off-site sabbaticals, how to prepare for them and even gives you the debating points to counter the nay sayers who say you can't afford the time or the people.

Key points:
- Give everyone 3 months notice.
- Allow everyone to contribute the project ideas to be work-shopped in this lead time.
- Define project vision and scope in the lead time. Allocate team leaders to be responsible for this.
- Scope projects rigorously.
- The projects should provide value for your team and clients.
- Get away from it all, the hum drum, the distractions and the routine and go off-site.
- Make sure people get to have some fun.

Cohesive teams should expect productive efforts and innovation roadmaps for the years ahead. Troubled teams should expect some catharsis.

For the full details and case studies check out: Fast Company

In the previous post on this blog I pointed to an article which amongst other things was critical of brainstorming as an idea generation technique. This article was from the NY Times. It seems groupwork, derided by the moniker groupthink is under fire on other fronts with another article in the New Yorker.  this came to my attention via Bob Sutton, a Professor of Management who wrote a response."Why the Sharp Distinction Between "Individual" and "Group" Brainstorming is False in Real Teams".

He writes:

I wrote a post earlier in the week about how the claim in The New Yorker that brainstorming "doesn't work" is an oversimplification.  I gave various reasons:  Most of this research is done with novices rather than skilled brainstormers, only looks at one measure (quantity), and ignores how brainstorming is done and the impact it has in real organizations.  As I have been thinking about this research a bit more and of the brainstorming that Andy Hargadon and I studied at IDEO years ago, that I see at the Stanford d.school, and especially, that I've seen in recent weeks in some very skilled groups I have seen in action, something struck me:

The comparison between group and individual brainstorming that underlines this research is false, or at least irrelevant, because both happen at once when skilled practioners do it.

When a skilled facilitator calls a brainstorm, he or she usually gives the topic in advance and asks members of the group to do some individual thinking about it before the gathering

So the lesson it seems is, set some homework for participants before the brainstorming session. Read the rest of Sutton's post, including an intriguing desciption of a group session on the itchless haircut at IDEO here: bobsutton.typepad.com