 Welcome to the Colour;Noun newsletter! It’s colder than it should be and it keeps pouring with rain, so it must be May. There is a sneaking suspicion that summer actually happened, between 12.28pm and 12.41pm on the 16th, in which case the next thing to look forward to is Hallowe'en. Of course, having contacts all over the world as we do, it might seem strange that we open this newsletter with comments about the weather. This could only get more typically British if we had suggested you make a nice cup of tea first, and then gave you instructions about how to make a Perfect Cup of Tea*. Talking about the weather is a convention that everyone (here at least) is comfortable with as an opening conversational gambit… and we’re thinking a lot about conventions at the moment. It’s undeniable that there has been a prolonged period of pausing the rhythms and tropes of modern life. It’s often said that it takes 21 days to make or break a habit. The research says that isn’t true, but there is no doubt that behavioural change happens when a change in routine or habit is begun and maintained for a significant period of time. Having in person interactions is one of those.  Getting back together again What was once the ongoing routine of small team meetings, larger group strategy get-togethers and annual conferences have been online now for a long time, and people have become habituated to them. While this has undoubtedly cut down on travel costs and pollution there have been a number of studies that suggest that video interaction is not good for people psychologically and it stifles true engagement. The problem is that in working remotely, people have got out of the habit of seeing each other. It's a perfect time to start getting people back together, but with so much having changed over the last year, it's important to spend time reconnecting and recharging for the future. We're running "reboarding" workshops , designed for teams to re-engage and kick off their return to the office. Find out more here.  Making the most of your return to live events We are all too aware of the pitfalls that can befall a badly designed event, so if your recollections of team meetings or conferences is one of tedium, overlong presentations and PowerPoint, PowerPoint, PowerPoint this is the chance to break that habit and establish something new. Do you want to create an event to remember? Using what we've learnt from designing and facilitating events, we have put together a guide to help you get back into live events and think about them differently. Read and download your free copy here. We’re pleased to say that more and more people are having the confidence to book events and considering ways to engage people in the content in fresh ways - in fact, we are busy working on one right now, where we’ve swapped building slide decks for building go-karts to make some important points about collaboration in a senior leadership team. We do like to do things differently, after all… We’ll tell you more about it next time, but right now it’s time to put the kettle on and watch the rain. *If you put milk in while the teabag is still in the cup we cannot be friends. Need help with your events?
If you're looking to reconnect your team, kick off a return to the office or simply get everyone together, our engaging breakout sessions, team building and team development sessions are available - we will help you design and facilitate memorable conferences and events. If you'd like to talk through your event plans, book your free event chat here.
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Do you remember that “Back to School” feeling?
I can recall a twin sense of unfairness and inevitability when the big signs in shops advertising everything from pens and pencils to shoes to trousers and blazers seemed to appear only a couple of weeks into the summer holidays. It wasn’t that I hated school – quite the opposite – but the sensation was unavoidable that the informality and freedoms of the summer break would be replaced shortly, probably on a chilly morning in September, with the routine of getting up, getting ready, going out and submitting to the strictures, routines, requirements, expectations and workloads of the return to school. Yes, there had been a break, but the return would be going back to exactly what had existed before. In adult life, many people still admit to that “Sunday afternoon, getting ready for Monday morning” feeling… but, like many things, that has been adapted into something else by the enforced, prolonged restrictions of Covid-19. There have been many light-hearted comments on social media about “not wanting the pressure of seeing people in person again” when all this is over. While this is - in most cases - a joke that exists as a counterpoint to the reality of missing pre-pandemic interactions, I believe that all flippant remarks such as this one have a grain of truth in them. Which brings us to the impending feeling of “Back to School”, or, in this instance, “Back to Work”. As the pressure mounts to return to something like normal, people will be required, for at least a couple of days a week, to abandon their assorted “home offices” and the freedoms that these have brought, for their work communities. For many organisations universal remote working is neither practical nor desirable as a long-term solution. It will certainly have its place, and it is a welcome variation to the tyranny of expectation of five-days-a-week-in-the-office culture that was so prevalent before, but, as Caroline Fairbairn of the CBI said last year, your can’t innovate the future of your business from the sofa. Hybrid working might become more universally accepted, but people need to interact with each other, to share ideas and socialise, albeit in a work setting. So, if people are reluctant to return, or are returning with anxieties or concerns, what can you do to help them, and how can you turn the experience of the past year to your advantage? At Colour;Noun, we believe that the answer is reboarding. Historically, many businesses have mechanisms in place to reintegrate employees who had been away from work for a long period, whether through sickness, sabbatical or maternity leave. In addition, new starters are routinely onboarded, to introduce them to the company culture, get them used to the expectations of their role and help them apply their skills and experiences in a worthwhile way so that everybody benefits. It is our belief that smart organisations will see, in a period of reboarding, the potential in incorporating the experiences and insights that have been gained over the past year to benefit everyone and make positive transformations to the work environment. To understand why we think this we would like to point you in the direction of Antifragile -Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. The buzzword that has dominated the Covid response of many businesses is resilience, but resilience sets its standard, and its optimum achievement, to be bouncing back to a state that existed before. A rubber ball is resilient and will return to its previous form… but some things improve as a consequence of being stressed: muscle growth, broken bones, even the evolution of life itself to name but three. One of the key points of this concept is embracing the setback. Exercised muscles hurt, broken bones come from trauma, and evolutionary changes occur when some organisms adapt better to changed circumstances than ones that do not survive - but the essential point is that they come back from stress better than before. Everyone has been changed by what we have been through. There have been many stresses to business and society. Attitudes have undoubtedly been altered and new ways of working have been trialled and adopted. Embracing these changes – discussing them and unpicking the lessons that they hold - can make a huge difference to the experience of work and make that “first day back at school” feeling something to be excited about, rather than daunting. It may also make your business better and fitter than it was before. Are you looking to reboard your team? Read more on our reboarding workshop offer here.
After a long period of home-working - and for many, home schooling - this summer will see a return to live events, conferences and away days.
We have huge experience of working on all types of team meetings, so we've created our "7 ways to get the most out of your return to live events" guide, which shares some of our thoughts, tips and insights. ​Give it a read below!
 Welcome to the Colour; Noun April Newsletter Spring has come to our corner of the UK in its usual fashion. At a certain point the hedges that have been bare for months suddenly acquire a green hue, daffodils and crocuses pop up and the sun shines. This is the point where Howard forgets to apply sunscreen for the first time, and, just as he remembers, the temperature plummets and it snows. You would think he would be used to it by now, but it’s an annual event, like Christmas. This spring feels different though. This time last year we were having conversations – using a then much under-used tool called Zoom – with other friends in the business about “how long do you think this will last?” The optimism of “late summer” or “September” morphed into “beginning of 2021”. In conclusion, the answer to that question is undoubtedly “much too long” … and yet, it feels like things are slowly changing. Events and meetings are being talked about and people can start to make plans to reconnect their teams after a long period of remote working. This newsletter is going to focus on that feeling of positivity and offer a few thoughts about what you can do.  That "first day back at school" feeling We all have routines. When was the last time you completely changed your hairstyle or how you get ready for bed? Routines are comforting, but sometimes their origins lie in long-forgotten imperatives or motives. The world of work is the same. “It’s always been like that…” But it doesn’t have to be. Nobody has been through this kind of forced dislocation from routine in decades and the number of debates and polls on LinkedIn about how many days people want to work from home in the future indicates how they are beginning to reimagine the workplace and their role within it. Despite that, as social animals who often have to collaborate on complex projects, there is still an imperative to have a focal point where our efforts can be co-ordinated. The question is, what can you do differently, now that there has been a pause in the routines, rhythms and tropes of work? The scope is limitless, from changing working hours and practices to full-blown structural reform, but the window to make adjustments before the old ways creep back is small. We have a lot of experience of working with teams and how they interact, so whether you want to examine how people communicate, revamp your processes, introduce your new idea or question your whole business hierarchy and structure, don’t hesitate to get in touch!  I’m new here. Can you help? It’s always an interesting time when you start a new job or take on a new role. First impressions are important and can set the tone for all future interactions. We once had dealings with someone who never recovered from turning up at his new posting wearing brown brogues and smart jeans who greeted his already sceptical engineering team by saying “Hi dudes!” We’re not in the business of offering wardrobe advice or the correct way to address people, but if you have switched roles or jobs in the past year you might want to think about what you want to achieve, how you want to be perceived and what tone you want to set for those around you. The one piece of advice we would offer is that sidling onto the stage with a half-hearted “hello”, attempting to be approachable over an awkward workplace buffet lunch or kicking off your tenure with a PowerPoint presentation introducing you and your key ambitions in the role is hardly the most dynamic way of announcing your arrival. Everybody always starts a new role with the best intentions and frequently they come in with new ideas that they think will make a massive difference, but, equally frequently, their enthusiasm or ability to engage others with their vision is not converted into meaningful action. We have lots of tips to help you get your message across, but here is one that we will give you for free, all wrapped up in one word. Context. People love context. Context is real. It’s immutable. It’s easy to talk about. For instance, I could bang on for hours about the environmental challenges that are facing the world at the moment. I could produce figures for carbon emissions, graphs demonstrating temperature rises, statistics for how many tons of plastic are being dumped in the ocean every day. It is much more comfortable to stay in that realm of context rather than attempt to inspire people to change their activities or behaviour. Unfortunately, the same is true with people who want to engage people with the flagship initiative that will kick off their new post. They kill people with the context of why the change is needed, without moving swiftly on to what they want to do and how people can be part of that change. If you have taken up a new post at a time when the only contact you have had with your team has been over Zoom, you might want to start thinking now about how you can make a real difference by inspiring people in the right way at the right time.  I would, if I could, but I can’t… can I? If you are planning a company get together or an away day, whether it’s to reconnect people or to launch your new business plan you might, like many people, be keen to avoid what is known as “Conference 101” – the standard fare of coffee-welcome address-presentation-presentation-lunch-presentation-presentation-wrap up-finish that far too many people envisage when they talk about such events. The problem is, with Conference 101 you know what you are getting. It might be desperately dull, but it’s safe… which brings us to the next topic in our run-through of event planning: permission. Our latest blog looks at how to make your return to live events special. Read the full article here.  Colour; Noun at the Miss Jones PA Summit We are very excited to have been asked to host a session at the Miss Jones PA Virtual Summit next week. It runs over two days on the 29th and 30th and features workshops, speakers and exhibitors to help people in professional services to connect, network and develop their skills. We will be running a session introducing people to the benefits of using Applied Improvisation to confront limiting beliefs, see opportunities in challenging situations and give an insight into what true collaboration looks like for teams and individuals. Tickets can be purchased here: https://pheedloop.com/EVEZZRALRLJLL/site/home That's all for now!
Keep your eyes peeled for more thoughts and ideas around events, engagement and team development in the coming weeks... And if you're looking to shake up your return to live events this summer, get in touch! |
