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Collaboration Culture Leadership

We are perfectly imperfect.

Image describing the connections between people

Everyone is different. Perfectly imperfect. We learn differently, we communicate in different ways, we have strengths and weaknesses…and furthermore, there are things we don’t even know about ourselves yet. It is this diversity, these mysteries that make us interesting. All organizations are a melting pot — introverts, extroverts, direct and indirect communicators, process-driven and creative thinkers alike.

One of the cornerstone principles of The Mesh Method is that everyone – no matter their role – has something beneficial they can share with others. I have seen Sales/BDRs work well with Senior Engineers and Support agents working well with C-Level executives. Before every session, there is an uneasiness that stems from a fear of being different, of being judged…of being wrong. This is common, not just for every Mesh participant, but for everyone.

The Mesh Method is built on a foundation of trust for this reason. All participants begin with similar doubts, unsure about how their skill sets match, but with the help of a moderator, realize that they are safe to freely share their thoughts and express themselves. Being honest is encouraged and being wrong is welcomed.

By the end of each session, we have identified new learning opportunities and have picked up new skills from one another. These range from small wins like hotkey shortcuts, to larger ones like identifying ways our work impacts one another.

It is transformative.

Over the course of time, the ideas from these sessions interconnect and start to strengthen the core of the entire organization. They create deep bonds with people that wouldn’t ordinarily interact, they build trust-based relationships at scale, and they provide comprehensive solutions to tough challenges – many times, outside of the session. The sessions act as a spark of creativity.

When we share a mindset of let’s work to strengthen one other, problems become puzzles. All puzzles have solutions – and we, in our perfectly imperfect ways, are the pieces.

Categories
Culture Leadership

Stuck in the middle with[out] you.

When you’re excited to read a great book, do you flip to the middle and start reading? Of course not. You start at the beginning. The past few weeks have seen a glut of posts that claim to know what it takes to be successful at remote working. Most of them skip past the most important components – the Preface to our story:

  • Having the right ecosystem.
  • Establishing the right culture.
  • Hiring experienced leaders to guide this effort.

Want to position your business to be successful? Stop trying to make remote work fit within an in-person mindset, immediately. Embrace change, and start looking for people to lead this effort who deeply understand and embrace the foundations of remote learning and collaboration.

According to a recent poll conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM):

  • Seventy-one percent of employers are struggling to adjust to remote work
  • Sixty-five percent of employers say maintaining employee morale has been a challenge
  • More than 1/3 of employers are facing difficulties with:
    • Company culture
    • Employee productivity
    • Leave regulations

Now more than ever, organizations need leaders who are committed to creating and maintaining a thriving remote collaboration culture, one that emphasizes problem-solving, learning, and adapts to change.

Companies often prioritize terms such as velocity, efficiency, metrics, and process, but they take camaraderie for granted.

Pat Patterson, author of The Mesh Method

GitLab produced a great compendium on this topic, which led with:

ESTABLISH A REMOTE LEADERSHIP TEAM
Rally a team of experts who have remote work experience, can
communicate nuances, and serve as resources to others. A core
part of this team’s role will be to document challenges in real
time, transparently prioritize those challenges, and assign
directly responsible individuals (DRIs) to find solutions.

https://about.gitlab.com/resources/downloads/ebook-remote-playbook.pdf

There are a ton of qualified candidates on the job market right now, and odds are, you can find someone who possesses the right combination of experience, empathy, charisma, and sound decision-making.

Categories
Collaboration Culture Leadership

The ebb and flow of brainstorming with purpose

The ebb and flow of brainstorming

Educators talk about the importance of injecting convergent and divergent thinking into learning frameworks. Divergence pushes you to reach for ideas, while convergence allows you to take all of these ideas, reflect upon them (“fact-check”), and create actionable steps that lead to progress (fig. 1A). Two sides of the same coin.

fig. 1A: A simple model conveying Convergent vs Divergent thinking

The Mesh Method uses convergence and divergence as the means to initiate actionable brainstorming. Actionable brainstorming is a concept that ties ideas to value. Value is determined per-session, based on each unique challenge.

Participants are first asked to define a problem to solve (Discovery). Once the problem is understood, they are encouraged to free-flow ideas and test theories related to solving the challenge (Brainstorming or Divergence). This is done in a structured way, designed to give equal opportunity to contribute and listen. When the brainstorming session ends, the moderator (a non-participant in charge of monitoring and refereeing) asks the group to create some next steps, assigned to each participant (Value or Convergence). These action items may include, for example:

  • Contacting the customer about a specific concern
  • Writing/updating documentation
  • Submitting hotfixes for code review
  • Sharing findings during a team meeting

…and so on. The potential paths are endless, and possible due to sharing perspectives and knowledge transfer.

Divergence and convergence go hand in hand. If you follow a process that favors one over the other, you are either:

  • Confusing activity with accomplishment, or
  • Limiting your potential positive outcomes

However, when combined you have a powerful tool that helps solve challenges comprehensively.

When you have established a trusting climate where it’s safe to be wrong and everyone is encouraged to brainstorm ideas, you can implement an approach that blends the ebb and flow of divergent and convergent processes. This leads to brainstorming with purpose and incredible value.

Categories
Culture Customer Experience Customer Success Leadership Support

Live your [work] life as an optimist.

I tell my kids often that they should live their lives as optimists. To be an optimist, you have to believe that no matter how crappy or awesome a day you’re having, tomorrow can be better.

Waking up every morning, leaving the past in the past, then looking in the mirror and telling yourself “Okay, let’s see what this day has in store,” is a great way to set the tone for all the upcoming interactions you are about to have – with family, friends, co-workers, customers, lawyers…you name it.

As a friend recently told me, “Life is not supposed to be boring.”

This definition of optimism makes perfect business sense, especially in Customer Success roles. Having a genuinely positive attitude and a willingness to collaborate is a critical component to successful organizations because there is an interconnectedness between the attitudes we bring to work every day and the potential outcomes of decisions made as a result. In short: it directly impacts the customer experience.

“I have always believed that the way you treat your employees is the way they will treat your customers, and that people flourish when they are praised.”

– Sir Richard Branson

With negativity comes anxiety, and with anxiety comes stress…and studies show a direct link between stress and poor decision making.

Positivity and negativity are contagious. In psychology, this is a phenomenon called emotional contagion. Some people are more susceptible to having their mood swayed than others – but a well-constructed collaborative business ecosystem mitigates the risk posed by negativity by offering a constantly evolving source of support.

…reducing your anxiety levels might be the first step to starting a life-changing domino effect that empowers you to perpetually make better choices.

Christopher Bergland, Psychology Today

I like to say, “everyone is entitled to a bad day”. However, the next time you’re having a bad day, just remember – you never know who you’re inspiring, and tomorrow has a chance to be better than today, no matter what. Chin up.