Working Better is Working Smarter

Larissa Hämisseger

Based in Switzerland, Larissa Hämisseger, has a background in the business working in the fast-paced startup environment, where she is constantly in contact with people that work long hours on a daily basis. She is also a yoga instructor, teaching about, different health practices in the workplace. She is convinced that we are able to change everything in our lives that doesn't serve our highest best interests.
That's why she, sees a huge value in applying these practices in the business environment. Because both, organizations and individuals, have to play their part in creating stronger organizations with healthier and happier people.Here she gives her views of being healthy in today’s work environment.

MCE : There is so much being written and talked about stress at work. Do you think that we need a new approach to looking after ourselves better in our workplaces?

Larissa Hämisseger (LH) : There are so many approaches out there. Instead of coming up with a new one we just have to become more disciplined in following the existing ones. For example, the very simple one of taking breaks to find a balance between tension and relaxation within the working hours is a very valuable approach.
However, let's look at one of the still most mentioned approaches: work-life balance. Let's be honest, that one just arose because work was perceived as too negative (stress, pressure, too long working hours, etc.). So suddenly we came up with the idea of taking clear breaks from working in the evening, during holidays or weekends. However, this concept does not take into account making the hours at work less painful and even fun.

We gained more knowledge about what creates a healthier work environment though a strong and healthy company culture. Policies and exemplified behavior by the leaders such as no internal emails, not having to be reachable at any hour of the day, and especially supporting the employees in taking brakes do help.
Yet, we all choose for ourselves how we are living our lives and the organization is limited in supporting the people. If you are unwilling personally to change something about your stress level, it will be much harder for the organization to support you and vice versa.


MCE : If you had a choice what would you say are the three most important things to get right about looking after yourself at work?

LH : guess it's the same you do in whatever area in your life.
First , being very conscious about your stress level is crucial yet many of us lost this ability. Get to know your body and don't ignore the signs that make you notice when a short break is necessary, or when a situation needs to be changed. Interpersonal relationships, for instance, need to be healthy, everything else makes you sick. So never ignore these signs and unhealthy situations but act on them. They arise for a reason.
Second, very basic but very important: get enough sleep, eat healthy and drink a lot of water.
Finally , Remember you always have the choice. Having piles of work to do is less stressful if you stop thinking about it and just focus on the task you are working on.


MCE : We all seem to complain about so-called ”digital overload”. Any tips for dealing with that or should we just make a rule to switch off once or twice a day ?

LH : First of all, don't complain because it's always a choice.
It's a challenge to wake up and not check your phone immediately, or wait for the bus and not reading the newest posts. But why bother to take a minute of doing nothing? Well if you are a 100% healthy, completely happy, not stressed, have great sleep and are doing what you love, then don't bother.
During the day switching from and tuning into different channels in a short time creates sensations of stress. Focus on one device and one channel at a time and keep breathing.

I would say the most important thing though is to set the rule to not check your phone as the last thing you do before bed and the first thing you do after waking up. If you manage to have a more healthy evening and morning ritual, without rushing and without any brain stimulation, you are doing a pretty good job. If that is hard, choose one day in the week where you apply another ritual than checking your phone.

MCE : Give us an example of a “good way” to switch off and the kind of benefits you get : e.g. better ideas, more creativity, happier employees ?

LH : As mentioned before taking conscious breaks from your task does not only help your stress level but fosters your creativity, thus your ideas and your solutions. By stubbornly staying at a task for hours you will most likely not deliver the best solution, it's frustrating and you had no time for human interactions. There is two ways of taking breaks: one is moving completely away from your task, having a chat with your colleagues, play some foosball or even go for a run or read a book. It helps you to look at your task from another angle and maybe more inspired.

Yet you can also take a break by becoming very conscious about the situation you are in and all that is related to the situation by centering yourself and looking at everything objectively, called mindfulness. Taking a few moments every day to just observe your breath (basic mindfulness exercise) can make a huge difference if practiced on a regular basis. It brings you back to the moment and helps you to act consciously instead of out of rage, tension or any other sensation. Not to mention all the other even scientifically proven benefits, mindfulness meditation has, such as more focus, better creativity, and healthier relationships.

Doing Things Differently

Based in the Bay Area of California, Susan Stucky has had a long and varied career as a thinker, consultant and philosopher on how why, where and when people learn - especially at work. As the debate about the future of work rages onwards, we asked for her thoughts on what’s coming next. A “sneaky peek” around tomorrow’s next corner.





MCE: We hear a great deal these days about the need to be creative at work. From your point of view, are we more or less creative in the workplace; are we teaching students how to think creatively?

Susan Stucky  (SS): First. Are we talking about doing things differently - or doing different things; or doing the same thing in different ways; or doing it in different places? Why does it have to be new to be considered creative? Something that is creative in first grade in school isn’t necessarily in sixth grade? Some idea or thing seen as creative at an established firm isn’t at a start-up. 

Isn’t “creativity” just another phrase for "do more with less.” 

Isn’t it just another corporate mandate?  “Be Creative! 

“Here in the Bay Area we talk about innovation more than creativity, so we come down on the side of “new”.  But one important thing to realize is that all so-called new ideas and things are built on existing ideas and things, even if only in opposition to them.  

And that innovation and creativity are actually, fundamentally, social. The lone genius isn’t alone really. He, or she aren’t alone.
Or are we talking about “the creative class” as in the Super Creative Core (innovative, problem-solving) or the Creative Professionals (classic knowledge workers)? 

The Creative Professionals are mainly the ones who did school work well and had connections.  The Super Creative Core are the ones who maybe didn’t do so well in  school, aren’t socially adept necessarily and know people who aren’t afraid of marketing, including themselves. Are we teaching that?  Not really so much. 

But people, including children, are learning it. From the environment around them.  

MCE: California still seems to be the land of “start-ups”.  Is it something “in the air” by the ocean or is it just easier to try and fail.. Are you not a serious player until you’ve failed a few times?

SS: All those myths are bandied about, and it is worth remembering that just because something is a myth e doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Except for the fact that San Francisco is the happening place now and Silicon Valley is now the Bay Area, Anna Lee Saxenian’s conclusions in her 1994 book Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 still ring true.  

She called Silicon Valley a protean place — a shape- shifter changing”through patterns "of collaboration and competition”.  The whole Bay area is stuffed, literally stuffed, with people.  Those of us who remember a Palo Alto where you could drive to the city (San Francisco, of course) in under an hour now take public transit.  The freeways have those big white busses ferrying commuters from San Francisco to Silicon Valley (still a lot of jobs there). 

In 1994, the commute used to be the other way around.  More to the point, people still go to work in offices some of the time.   Having lunch is still important and there are oodles of Meet-ups that work like pop-up stores for ideas and networking.   

Most people in your network or someone else’s are really ready and willing to talk with you — I was told they would and they do.  Here, if you offer to meet in person, they will often take you up on it.   After all, they may need to talk to you sometime in the future that’s how the world goes around

MCE: You’ve spent a lot of your career thinking about how people learn. Have we got any better at that. What’s the big barrier?

SS: I’d like to think that corporate training has largely disappeared for one simple reason.  That we have finally realized that formal training does not guarantee that people have learned what is being taught is what they need to learn. 

I’d like to think that the rise of social media means that we understand that learning is fundamentally social. I’d like to think that “open office” plans mean that collaboration will be enhanced.  But the first and third are cost-saving plays primarily. Closeness does not necessarily mean collaboration. 
And the middle one — I’m afraid that social media and social media analytics means it is easier to find people like “us" and ignore people who aren’t like us . It means we find ideas and things that people like us like. 

The good thing is that people like us all over the world now have access to much of what is codified and explicit. 
If they want to know it they will.  But knowing is not the same as doing or putting what you know into practice, especially in a firm or a start-up. 
And the barrier to all that?   The way we think about learning.

MCE: The digital agenda is just “business as usual. Any thoughts on coping with the digital overload that seems to be swamping us like a tsunami? Is there a default “off” switch we need to activate at some point?

SS: Are we talking screen-based living and working?  Personally, I keep hoping that as screens become more distributed, that they will eventually fade into the background.  Kind of like wallpaper.  They can serve to remind us without being “in our faces.  The kind of digital I am worried about is the prevalence of too much information   and so little awareness of the context and implications of it. And that means us too. – All of us wherever we live or work anywhere. 

Getting fired is GOOD for Leaders

It’s strange the things that trigger your ideas and attitudes about leaders. I'd just been on a train to Paris, catching up on a month’s worth of reading (I’m the kind of guy who tears out pages from business mags and newspapers and squirrels them  away to catch up when I have the time). It’s messy, totally non-digital, deeply uncool, but it works for me. Often some of my best ideas come from reading some ink-smudged newspaper clipping months out of date.

In the midst of rapidly skimming through 30 or 40 pieces I’d collected, I was suddenly struck by one thing. Most of what I was reading was about failure, specifically CEOs who’d crashed and burned - usually taking a large slice of that year’s profits in severance settlements with them. “My goodness,” I thought, “there’s an epidemic out here. It’ worse than top-of-the-league soccer managers. CEOs are getting it from all sides, are we learning nothing about squandering all this talent? ”

I was still musing on this accident-prone CEO syndrome when I arrived to meet a client. Well, not a client actually, but hopefully soon to be one. I’ve known him for years. He’s just arrived into the hot seat of a large transportation firm. Lucky to be there, I thought, got fired about six months ago. Messy corporate divorce, but he looks OK – confidently exuding the air of man in charge of his personal destiny.

We shook hands, and I sat down across from his aircraft carrier-sized stripped pine desk. As I opened my folder, all my carefully hoarded clippings I’d been reading on the train, spilled, embarrassingly, to the floor.

“What’s that?” asked my host.

I quickly explained my dinosaur-like way of staying in tune with the times. As it was a very informal meeting, and I’d met him before, I also wished him luck in his new role, boldly referring to his last job and how I hoped it would work out well. He smiled at me. “Well after these last months, I reckon it’s not going to be too bad, at least I know how to play the game now.” He added, “You see I’m qualified. Got the t-shirt, been there done that. “

My host, then went onto describe in fascinating detail how he lost his job, how the forces massed against him had combined to bring him down. Over the next 30 minutes he itemized in detail what had happened, what he learned from each twist and turn and how he had got out clean, certainly richer but a whole lot wiser as well. By the end of it he had come across as a very professional operator, one I’d be happy to vouch for as a man who’d keep his head in any crisis that came along.

Finally, he sat back in his chair and said, “ So you see Rudi, getting fired taught me all I needed to know, to stay on top- it’s been my finishing school my post graduate business degree.  I’ve an MBA from the best school money can buy, a stellar track record, but now I know how to play the game better than anyone else.” He went on, “I Can deal with boards, investors, analysts, the media, over-ambitious lieutenants. None of them concerns me now. Quite frankly, you can’t be a real leader unless you know how to recognize and deal with all those things happening to you every day. Now I know how to build loyalty in my team   (I was just too busy before); avoid the sniping of the financial analysts (never bothered to take them seriously – now I do); ignored the media (I make sure I’m seen, heard and my image is polished like the brass plaque outside our HQ).”

Was taken aback by his words, and his enthusiasm, “ So what about the caring leader,” I asked, “ is it all just a fiction; are we led to believe that a CEO who takes care of his people is THE real leadership model we  should aspire too? “

He stared at me for a good 20 seconds, saying nothing. Then he smiled and finally said, “That’s what the book says that’s what all the management courses preach, but that isn’t real-life. Quite frankly, the reason I’m worth this huge salary they’re paying me is for one thing. I’ve been fired – I survived and I learnt all the lessons better than anyone else.  I have been shot at but now I’m bullet-proof Now when I come to choose my successor I know  where I’ll be looking. “

He got up to leave, shook my hand warmly and opened the door for me. “Walk you down to reception,” he said, got to do my daily tour, keep the people pleased by knowing I look pleased too.”

So is it true, can you really get better as a leader by experiencing the seamy side of corporate existence? My betting is my new friend – and he’s a new client now - has got it right. So, go get fired, learn from it and be the leader you should have been all along!

This column on leadership and organizational development is written exclusively for the IEDP by Rudi Plettinx, Managing Director of Management Centre Europe, the Brussels-based development organization. Have a comment or a question? Connect with him via Linkedin. 

Six Ways To Create A Motivating Workplace And Encourage An ‘Extra Step Culture’

What is it that makes one workplace productive, filled with energy, enthusiasm and a shared commitment to a common purpose, while others appear lacking in those qualities and, instead, finds workers instilled with a sense of frustration and boredom? 

The answer lies in ‘motivation’. A motivating environment is one where people are willing to work at their full capacity, give their best, and enjoy what they do, without any external push. It is an environment that ignites the will to do and the passion of shared goals.
Simply enjoying what you do creates momentum and it is the role of the leader to make sure that the work environment is full of positive energy and a can-do culture. 

Here are six different ways to help promote this type of working environment for our teams and ourselves: 

1. Link work objectives with the personal values of your team member: If individual team members feel that what they are doing is of no value, they can become unmotivated. It is the role of the team leader to help workers see the value of what they do and how their role helps the team reach key objectives.  

2. Communicate, listen, engage, offer feedback and define expectations: Reach out to team members for their feedback and how they feel about their role and shared objectives. Actively seek suggestions and opinions. 

3. Give team members space to work: Avoid becoming involved with every detail of the task at hand. Demonstrate that you trust and respect decisions by giving team members autonomy in their roles; coaching and mentoring, when necessary. 

4. Be fair and promote equality: Be equitable in the treatment of team members, especially when it comes to incentives and payment. Praise achievements and promote high performers. Likewise, be consistent when it comes to dealing with those who create a negative atmosphere, or perform poorly. 

5. Avoid routine and bureaucracy: Add fun and excitement to the work environment, wherever possible. People spend more time at work than they spend at home, or with friends. Lightheartedness breaks the routine and promotes enthusiasm and productivity.  

6. Dedicate some time each week on team building: Just a few hours each week spent on team-building exercises can dramatically boost morale and performance. 

Your team members deserve an open, positive, inspiring environment in which to develop their skills and grow in confidence and ability. By following these six steps you can motivate your people and transform the workplace into a positive environment where people can really enjoy their work. 

  

About the Author: 

Samir Bata

Samir Bata's expertise in Management and Leadership has been built in 26 years in key positions in sales, marketing, general operations management, and business development. In addition to his management and leadership expertise, Samir is also a Senior Associate at MCE.