Belonging and the challenge of remote-working (live from the British Museum)

Work doesn't only happen at somewhere called work.

Many millions more people now work in remote or dispersed teams, hardly ever sharing an office together.

Today, with a bit of time for deep-thinking and writing, I'm experiencing one of the belonging challenges we help companies with: 

How to connect people working independently.

Here's my office this morning...

 and the view from my office...

Sitting writing at the British Museum - home to the symbols of belonging across thousands of years of human history - reminds me how important it is to nurture a sense of belonging in the 21st Century.

Keeping in touch is easy. But, as a colleague reminded me the other day

"As you build more people around you in the team, how will you build your own sense of belonging?"

We've seen some great examples of companies whose teams work across territory, disciplines and time zones. Technology is a great friend - all kinds of groovy ways to link up and chat.

What we've learned is the importance - still - of face-to-face contact. For many companies, the weekly catch-up has become a ritual of belonging.

As one tech-based company shared with me recently:

"We just use Skype or Google hangout, and find a time slot that we can all work around. It makes so much difference to see people, have a bit of that informal chat, as much as the organised stuff. 

We don't over-agenda it. We cover what we need and have a chance to talk as colleagues."

And investing in proper meet-ups has proved well worth-it. For ustwo, a global digital product studio that started in Shoreditch and now has offices in New York, Malmo and Sydney, the annual get-together is a must-have.

"It's absolutely vital that we meet up at least once a year. ALL of us. It's a really special time. All these great people from different places. 

It's intense. We talk a bit about the business, we do all kinds of activities together, we hang-out, we laugh. 

And then, in the busyness of our projects together, when we pick up the phone or Skype, it's all so much easier."

So I'm sitting (in the British Museum Members' Room, now that rain has stopped outdoor writing), reflecting on the benefits of being more connected - people here from all corners of the globe, wielding phones and iPads, linking up all kinds of conversations, sharing inspiration, making possibilities happen.

But as families gleefully grab their selfie sticks, rather than ask a stranger to take a quick photo, I wonder: is human kind in danger of become so cellular that we lose the art of nurturing communities?

As much as technology transforms our facility to connect, let's hang on to our human ability to do it well.

Creating a sense of belonging sounds simple but the challenges can be complex. 

We help make it easy.

www.belongingspace.com

info@belongingspace.com

Beware the symbols of belonging that mean exclusion and hate

Quick quiz: what does this flag represent?


It's the state flag of South Carolina.
Why does that matter?

Because this isn't.



How powerful are our symbols of belonging.
Why was it so hard to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Statehouse in Charleston? 

It's not even the South Carolina flag.

But the dogged devotion to 'Confederate pride' meant that belonging to past associations overtook a century and a half of history and emancipation. And ignored the symbolism of the flag brandished online by the accused killer, after the massacre in Charleston of nine African-Americans churchgoers.

Much is revealed about how attached we can be to the symbols of belonging in the commentary from inside the debate of South Carolina State Representatives, in this article - revealing the extent of Republican filibustering. Michael A. Pitts introduced more than 60 doomed amendments that stalled the vote for nearly 15 hours. 

Jenny Horne, a petite blonde Republican - a descendant of Jefferson Davis, the Confederate States of America’s President during the Civil War - called time. She poured shame on the debate for lacking the “heart” to respond to the massacre.

“I have heard enough about heritage.  

Well I am a descendant of Jefferson Davis, OK? But that doesn’t matter. Because it’s not about Jenny Horne!”

The debate still went on. 
Yet more fuddling with amendments.

Till Representative Joseph Neal, an elder statesman of the caucus, an African American and a close friend of Senator Pinckney, one of those murdered (and, like him, also a pastor), expressed his weariness:

“I sat and I listened, all day long with great interest, and empathy, for what was said. I understand you loving and supporting your ‘heritage.’ But ‘grace’ means that you ought to also love and support mine. It’s not a one-way street. 

My heritage is based on a group of people who were brought here in chains. Who were denigrated. Demagogued. Lynched and killed. Denied the right to vote. Denied the right to even have a family."

He summed up the divisiveness of the flag - a symbol against those who are deemed NOT to belong as much as for those who do. 

"That flag that stands outside has stood as a thumb in the eye of those families in Charleston who lost loved ones, and we all know it. 

And the response that this body should give is a moment of grace to those families. Not just grace to the Confederate dead, but grace to those who are suffering right now, who’re still alive.”

Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter, called it out, no-nonsense:

“If you’re not trying to stall, then what’s the problem?"

It took 15 hours to agree, by 94 votes to 20 - to lower a flag that had originally been raised in conflict against the United States. In Charleston Bay, April 1861.

The Confederate flag was finally folded away. A longstanding symbol of 'Southern pride', along with exclusion and hate. But the conflict of division and belonging still flies in plain sight.

It's 150 years since the Civil War ended. Jefferson Davis was captured May 1865. Though the message took a while to get through. Apart from the final drama of the ship CSS Shenandoah, accounts say the last shot was fired on 22 June 1865. The massacre in Charleston was 17 June 2015.

Heritage, and the symbols we choose to hang on to, can guide behaviour even more than statute.


The USA's noble motto is a heck of a belonging challenge.

E pluribus unum 

'Out of the many we are one'

South Carolina had better give some real meaning to its own flag. Or commission a new one.

It's time to nurture a shared sense of belonging.

Creating a sense of Belonging sounds simple but the challenges can be complex. We help make it easy.

info@belongingspace.com

A gift from Gaza on a train to Eaglescliffe

On the train to the North East at the weekend I helped a 14 yr old girl, on her first journey on her own in England. She had just arrived from Gaza. 

Her brother helped her on at Kings Cross and explained she was travelling alone and spoke little English. Would I keep an eye out for her? Happy to help - and it turned out we were both getting out at the same station. 

When I greeted her in my very few words of Arabic her nervous silent face transformed into a huge warm smile. As she settled into the journey, reading her book, she was self-contained, quietly confident.

She kept looking out of the window, amazed:

"It's so green!" she said "It's so open!"

She was born in Belfast and has a British passport. Many Gazans have no passport.

"I was meant to come last year, but you know..."

I said I only knew from the news on telly, which is not really knowing. I asked how it is now.

"We are living in hell."

She said it straighforwardly. 

"But I will do my best to make it better.  

I belong to Gaza AND the world. 

We all share this world. I pray for peace."

As we pulled into the station, she gave me a gift - a small hand-embroidered glasses case.


I am happy to have it, I gave nothing in return other than sharing her prayer and hope.

Creating a sense of Belonging sounds simple but it can cause complex challenges. We help make it easy.

info@belongingspace.com