Culturevist and other (positive and respectable) C-words

Plenty of inspiration at the Culturevist event last night, in (positive and respectable) C-words.

Matt Partovi set up Culturevist just over a year ago, as a forum for Culture Activists.

He said he was 

"looking to find people who felt as passionately as I do about culture in business, to share ideas and challenges". 

He was happy if five people turned up to the first event: he reached over 80. 

And last night, the 9^th meet-up, 120 people took part, from all kinds of professional background and stages of life.

The theme was:

"Open Source Culture: What happens when everyone has a say?"

The format, five speakers with five-minute presentations, sparked stimulation.

Our hosts yesterday were ustwo, a global digital product studio with a particularly open and vibrant culture.

In ustwo's environment of structured-randomness - comfy sofas, drawings on the pillars, goldfish, and a tailor's dummy in a pink wig - we loosened quickly into an open conversation ourselves. Beyond the surface this was far more than the trappings of yet another groovy Shoreditch agency. 

Clarity and candour

Collin Lyons shared 11 key points of what makes the culture tick at ustwo, beginning with why you will never forget your first day as a member of the team

"Because you will be given the best welcome you will ever get, from everybody, all day". 

You are quickly, completely, invited in as part of the group.

The principle of openness and transparency runs through everything. 

"But it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Being this open means facing some tough issues".

In his next two points: 

- Hire for culture

- Communicate transparently

Collin shared the benefits of candour: deep principles with practical application and the commitment of all employees.

Perry Timms has tweeted notes on Collin's full list. 

Size is important for an open culture. There are around 200/220 people at ustwo globally, but a principle to have no more than 120 in any one studio. Clever, keeping just below Dunbar's number of 150, will help to keep a sense of Belonging and community. 

As always, when culture drives business success, it's not just nice: it has a point. For ustwo openness is essential for the demands of digital development. The work they do is fast, requires agility and constant iteration. The goal is to get things out and working, improvement rather than perfect and absolute. So if team members are not direct, or if small groups are huddled separately from each other, that will block the flow. 

Openness makes for  commercial health as well as personal reward at work, everybody thrives as a result.

Culture Hacking and Mapping

Esko Reinikainen @reinikainen of The SatoriLab 

introduced himself as a Culture Hacker who works for government helping to build culture for people who don't know what it is and don't want it.

A Finn based in Wales getting public bodies to change the way they think and interact: Esko surely has plenty of cross-cultural experience.

His specialism is how to narrow the gap between what we say and what we do. He gave an example of company whose claims of  

“We have an open culture”

were trashed in the daily reality of  

“My manager says if I know what's good for me I'll keep my mouth shut”.

Generously Esko has shared an example of the Culture Map, developed with David Gray, via twitter @reinikainen 

Coupling top-down with bottom-up

Laura-Jane Parker talked through experiences of nurturing culture at Direct Line after the split away from Royal Bank of Scotland: a tale of DeBelonging and ReBelonging. 

She shared the importance - alongside bottom-up development - of top-down leadership of values and culture. Culture belongs to everyone but leaders must, well, lead. As soon as leaders use the language of 'Us' and 'Them' the unity of culture is lost. The values are just nice words on a wall, not reality.

Commitment

Nick Matthews of Yammer's gave us three rules for openness

1) You really have to want to do it 

2) Choose your medium 

3) Leaders must lead 

He described commitment with no compromise. 

"If you want an open culture you have to really go for it".

Control and community

William Higham, a futurist from The Next Big Thing Company, pointed out how connected we are in almost every aspect of life: except at work. Organisations have much to catch up on to make culture and internal communication as connected as contact with customers.

He pointed us to two Cs for the future of corporate culture- Contol and Community. Control not just by those at the top, but in an agile way across the business. Community in a more fluid exchange of like minds and support, all connected.

Conversation

The quietly incisive Tom Nixon of Nixon McInnes suggested we all introduce ourselves with 

"What I need is..." 

so that we could match up conversations to offer appropriate support.  

It worked a treat. Plenty of evidence for David Gurteen's @Davidgurteen research on the power of conversations in business. 

(Un)Conference

And finally, Matt's specialism, a short unconference where people offered a subject and self-managed discussion in small groups.

Conclusion

Open source culture can make a powerful difference to organisations' success: and it takes commitment to keep it up.

One year in to Culturevist, there is an open conversation in this group. And, with the lightest-touch of control and intuitive culture, a clear sense of Belonging.

We even have some symbols (badges!) and habits - we like loose structure, fluidity and informal environments. We Culturevists share a purpose, and an ethos, we have developed a community and camaraderie. And we're keen to put our shared talents to mutual support and good use.

Well done Matt and Culturevists: we set out to chat and have built a community.

 

Join the next Culturevist event

http://www.culturevist.com/about/

@culturevist 

Does your organisation have a strong sense of belonging?
Talk to us about how to create effectiveness from Belonging.
 
isabel@belongingspace.com
www.belongingspace.com

Happy Twelfth Night: here's to a fruitful year ahead

Happy Twelfth Night to all.

This is a day when many traditions overlap.

What a great symbol of belonging to the human race and our relation to Time.

The Pagans had it first. Some gloriously raucous traditions to liven up the gloomy days after the Winter solstice, all the focus on bolstering fertility. Wassailing around Apple trees for a good harvest next Autumn, grabbing young maidens for dancing, all heralding the start to a year of fecundity.

'Wassail' is credited to both Old Saxon and Old Norse. Either way it means the same:  

'Be thou hale' or 'Good health to you'.

In the 18th and 19th centuries Twelfth Night was a big party, with an elaborate crowned Twelfth-cake. Baked inside were hidden a bean and a pea and the lucky guests who found them were crowned Twelfth Night King and Queen. And the one who found a twig in the cake was the Fool.

New Orleans has made Twelfth Night another excuse for parades and masquerade balls. 

In London, Theatre troupe The Lion's Part took hundreds of revellers time-travelling at the Bankside on Sunday afternoon, with the Green Man emerging from the Thames to bring fertility, Wassailing around the Globe Theatre and a traditional Mummer's Play.

In Christian tradition Twelfth Night is Epiphany marking the visit of the three Magi, bearing gifts for the child they recognised as God the Son in the vulnerable form of a human baby. Epiphany meaning "manifestation", from the Greek ἐπιφάνεια epiphaneia. 

For Catalans tonight is the celebration of Tres Res. In a bizarre tradition, a little wooden puppet (a character like Santa) poohs out presents for the children. Ah, the joys of cultural diversity.

For the Eastern Orthodox Church it's Christmas Eve this evening. Καλά Χριστούγεννα Kala Christoyenna to Greek friends.

In Jerusalem and Bethlehem the Orthodox Churches - Greek, Syrian, Coptic, Armenian, Romanian - are preparing. A cross-cultural celebration amidst a map of conflict: a modern Great Mystery.

In modern times it has become bad luck to leave decorations up after Twelfth Night. Time to chuck our tired Christmas tree out and box the gaudy baubles away. (Uphelpfully, a little confusion about whether that is actually on the 5th, being 12 nights from Christmas Eve.)

All these traditions mark an end to the festive revelry and the start of a new year: hoping for fruitfulness, mindful of challenges.

In his ‘Twelfth Night’ Shakespeare gave us a romp of laughter and sadness, as the characters learn to chase and cherish love. 
Feste the fool reminds us of the transient nature of happiness and uncertainty of the year ahead:

Present mirth hath present laughter;

What's to come is still unsure.

Twelfth Night: a host of rituals to celebrate the turning of the year, symbols of belonging to our many different communities.

May it mark a new manifestation and a fruitful year.

Christian, Pagan, or whatever tradition you belong to:

Be thou hale.

Does your organisation have a strong sense of belonging?
Talk to us about how to create effectiveness from Belonging.
 
isabel@belongingspace.com
www.belongingspace.com

New Year's Eve in A&E: Belonging in action

Few work environments have demands as intense, or camaraderie as close, as an Accident & Emergency unit in any town's main hospital. Success or failure of the staff rests heavily on a tight sense of belonging and easy professional exchange between them.

I spent much of New Year's Eve in A&E. Not for drunken behaviour. For my Mum who needed urgent care.

There's nothing much you can do as the supportive relative, the impotence can be frustrating. As my mother dozed my attention was distracted by watching Belonging in action around me.

The experience is alien, but the scene is familiar from all the telly shows: the cast of characters moving in and out of the central square, Command HQ; the bays around the side, the blue curtains; a couple of policemen chatting with nurses, hands in pockets of their protective vests, looking casual but a clear eye on whoever was being sewn-up behind them.

Camaraderie is high and, as in other critical work environments observed in this research on belonging, here it is much more than just 'nice' - it is essential to doing the job well.

Interdependency is visible. Each person moving quickly with purpose - but not racing, no panic.

Communication is clear and direct. The handover from ambulance team in two minutes. Scale and urgency of need assessed quickly. Priorities constantly rebalanced. Shared understanding of what's happening, why, who needs to do what.

A great example of active internal communication: in this setting of electronics, bleepers and gadgets, the old-fashioned Whiteboard is still King. Clear basic information, simple code of symbols. Immediate, responsive. Hand written, reassuringly human.

Community is strong too. A sense of belonging to the hospital, and of belonging to Middlesbrough. But overriding all that, this team belongs to A&E: a specific world with a distinct code.

It's transient for patients but absolute for staff. They go to the edges of A&E to handover, but don't really leave. Other figures come in and out briefly.

"You see that lady in the suit, she's Hospital Management. She's sorting out the beds. Your Mam has a priority symbol, she'll get a bed."

Status is interesting. Though medicine is a notoriously status-driven profession, other than the-lady-in-the-suit-who-came-from-upstairs, in the A&E team it was hard to see status. The focus was more on each person doing their part with a clear definition, the tasks and team members interconnecting smoothly. There was a guide to the different coloured tunics, but there was no overbearing body language or tone of voice that said 
"I'm frightfully important" or "I'm lowly and humble". 

Team members showed clear respect for each other, their roles all important and well-defined.

The nurses express this politely to families, in the positive and with specifics:

"I'm helping with [specific task], I'll be in and out, ask for whatever you need. The doctor [points to specific person and names them] will be round in about fifteen minutes to assess the next steps. It looks like we'll need [specifics]. You'll be here three of four hours"

This is so much more useful than the negative and generalised comments you often get "That's not my job" or "I don't do that" or "We don't know how long you'll be"

By late afternoon the team was busy bolstering forces and kit, with all the precision of a military briefing, ready for the New Year's Eve onslaught. Assigning areas for later

"That's for trauma"

"Keep that section round there clear for paediatrics and geriatrics"

"Up here round the back for the Drunk Tank"

(Later in the evening that last phrase inspired a singalong with my sister and brother of 'Fairytale in New York' by the Pogues)

It all felt a bit like M*A*S*H, waiting for Radar O'Reilly to say the helicopters are coming in. And suddenly a tannoy message did indeed say

"Trauma in five minutes"

It meant arrival of patient rather than cueing an incident in five minutes, but the non-bodied voiceover had a surreal sense of a flight-control centre for mortals.

The doctor pre-empted any concern that we risked being stuck in A&E in all the lairiness of New Year's Eve.

"I've already ordered a bed, you're on to XRay soon, we'll have it done before the shift change"

We've learned a lot about hospitals this year, and how to be a good advocate for our parents: shift change is an important rhythm.

Time to move to XRay. I picked up our bags, reassured Mum, thanked Laura our nurse, and thanked Rich our porter for pushing her as gently as possible and watching out for bumps.

We moved down the corridor, left then right. 20, 30 yards.

And what a different world. No-one to explain. Mum left on a trolley in the corridor. Rich hung around, a little uncomfortable.

"I'll just mind here awhile, make sure you're all OK"

Sure enough, we weren't.

The radiographer couldn't find details or request form, then found documents from a previous visit 
"Aw you're alright, it says here no more XRays"

I pointed to the sheet 
"That was 10th December. Back in today, new thing to deal with."

And the killer phrase of Unbelonging:

"Well I can't tell you about that. We don't assess patients. We just do the XRays. I'm not part of all that. We're separate."

20, 30 yards.

A separate world.

The strong sense of belonging in the A&E team had embraced us also: we felt safe. Now we felt disconnected, insecure.

Mum: "Are you causing trouble Isabel?"

No, just my best efforts at empathetic, diplomatic, stalwart lobbying.

Radiographer reconnected with A&E, came back with Rich and a smile. We got the XRay and the bed. And compassionate care from the nurses.

But what if one of us wasn't up in our hometown at that point?

This is why patients need advocates.

For all the elderly who do not have family immediately with them we need to provide a network of well-trained professionals. So that patients can belong and get the care they need.

My sister and brother joined us, after a long car journey. The best tonic for all of us after a tough day as Mum settled on the ward.

And so we three spent our first New Year's Eve together in our hometown for 30 years. Enjoyed a fine Northern tradition: out for a curry and people-watching:

"Oooh, he's heading to A&E before the night's out."

We saw in the New Year together, first-footing by telephone with our respective families, exchanging greetings with neighbours.

It's been a year of debelonging and rebelonging.

Wishing you all joy in 2015.
May it bring you life, love and laughter.

Do your teams have a shared sense of belonging and accountability?

Talk to us about how to create effectiveness from Belonging.

isabel@belongingspace.com
www.belongingspace.com

07792 433680