Introducing 'The Patterns' found in progressive org's
‘The Patterns’
‘The Patterns’ is a new series that will introduce ─ one at a time ─ many of the patterns found in progressive organisations. These patterns are covered in the New Ways of Working Playbook and broken down into sections on Theory to help you to get up to speed on the topic, and Practice to help you to… practice! Because practice is the blocker when it comes to New Ways of Working. There comes a time when we must put aside the business books/blogs/podcasts, take a brave pill, and practice the patterns found in progressive organisations with our team.
The patterns that will feature in this series include:
Healthy meetings, distributed decision-making, a culture of feedback, clear and fluid roles, a conflict engagement process, establishing team agreements, coaching, experimentation, psychological safety and complexity.
So without further ado, let’s start with the first pattern in the series… healthy meetings ✨
The Patterns #1: Meetings
First things first, here is a collection of the most helpful resources that I have found on the topic of healthy meetings.
Meetings are one of the number one frustrations felt by teams the world over. So progressive organisations use meeting structures that ensure that this isn’t the case in their teams.
”Time in meetings has more than tripled since Feb 2020. Nearly a third of meetings are unnecessary… There are 4 reasons to meet: to decide, learn, bond and do. If it doesn’t serve on of those purposes, cancel it”, Adam Grant (organizational psychologist).
Here are a few quick wins that you can try in your team:
Meeting check-ins - Always start your meetings with this quick-fire psychological safety hack.
Circle meetings - I know of no better way to encourage ‘conversational turn-taking’ and psychological safety, a key indicator of great teams according to a huuuge Google study into what makes a great team (and backed up by Harvard and MIT research!). This is a simple and seriously effective way to grow listening skills, trust, and psychological safety.
1-2-4-ALL - The foundational, simplest, are possibly best Liberating Structure! Immediately include everyone regardless of how large the group is. Generate better ideas and more of them faster than ever before. Tap into the wisdom and imagination of the whole group.
Lean Coffee - “The format for a Lean Coffee is very simple. This is intentional. It is meant to be the least structure necessary for a coherent and productive meeting. No more, no less” - Jim & Jeremy (the creators).
Retrospectives - Probably the simplest way to ensure teams are continually learning and improving. To break it down simply, you’ll be reflecting on: What worked well? What didn't work well? And what actionable things you can do to improve.
Meeting run sheet - A template to help you to design participatory meetings and workshops and to head into these fully prepared. There is a blank template, a host of meeting structure options, plus an example team meeting and workshop.
Links to step-by-step guides, auto generators or templates for each of these super helpful meeting structures/aids can be found in the Practice | Meetings section of the New Ways of Working Playbook.
I hope you find these useful, and I’d love to hear how you get on with them!
☕ If you find this useful and would like to support me to create more free stuff, you’re very welcome to fuel me with coffee: https://ko-fi.com/newwaysofworking
🌐 www.marco.work | LinkedIn | 📕 New Ways of Working Playbook