The LookUP List: Trouble in Paradise
5 things to check out, a LookUP update, and some ways to go deeper
As we’ve seen in past months, the standard reaction to ‘Trouble in Paradise’ in the workplace of late has been ‘get them back to the office’.
Tried, trusted, a known quantity.
But what happens if we try to redesign our world of work around what our teams want and need, a human led approach? This month’s LookUP List gives you some inspiring resources to think differently about designing the world of work, whether it’s reading, listening, or new experiences.
We also give you the latest on what LookUP have been up to; and finally there’s a full resource list for those of you who really want to get stuck into this months topic.
And if you’ve missed this months content on Trouble in Paradise and work cultures; find the original piece here and a framework to get started on driving change here.
Right, let’s get started!
The List:
(1) Read this: a seminal piece on the new world of work
This piece by Andy Spence, founder of The Workforce Futurist Substack, was originally written in 2020, but it’s gone viral again of late (sometimes people’s thinking is just ahead of their time). We particularly like their concept of creating a new social contract, and that the world of work cannot be separated from the rest of our lives, “the future of work is the future of society, we cannot disassociate the two”.
It describes the new groups of The Decentralised Workforce and the difficulty in wholly predicting the new world of work.
(2) Watch These: Humanocracy also has supporting videos (the style might not be your taste, but the content is excellent)
The theme for this particular video is ‘Every job can be a good job’. It talks to the overriding theme of the book, that organisations need to spend as much time on humanising the management model as they do on other types of operating models. The book says we need to end bureaucracy, and that it’s more important now than every to build better jobs “there’s a basic belief that something is broken in the machinery that turns effort into achievement”
(3) Investigate this: dive into the world of SubStack and the future of work
The world of SubStack is eclectic, goes deep on impossible to find niches, and is a rabbit hole waiting for your attention. We love it. The world of work is one of the topics that SubStack excels at. Our favourites? We particularly liked FullStack HR , FemStreet and NotBoring.
(4) Listen to This: The Squiggly Careers Podcast and Singing to create connection
The Squiggly Careers Podcast is an excellent listen, no matter which episode you pick. But, we particularly like Episode 377 ‘How to Create Team Connection’ in which they talk to musician and author James Sills about his book ‘Do Sing’ and his experiences of working with teams all across the world.
Big themes we enjoyed:
The power of our being out of comfort zone together
Creating connection through the parts of us that have been silenced
Talks about the opportunity for synchronous activity being important to engage our social brain
For example, why is it so often that teams go and do a strategy day, and then go for dinner or drinks afterwards? Why not do the dinner & drinks first, and then approach the tough stuff, fully bonded and engaged with your peers? Such a simple perspective shift, but a great one.
(5) Visit this: Self Space - Everyday Mental Maintenance hits the High Street
Whilst wellness schemes in the office have been shown not to have the impact that most organisations would desire, supporting your teams through the future changes of work with the appropriate focus on mental health isn’t something that sits on the ‘nice to have’ list. Self Space are taking an entirely different approach to an industry shrouded in secrecy and taboo.
“In a world which can feel a little upside down, it’s not surprising that sometimes we don’t feel ok. Everyday mental maintenance is an essential part of thriving, and not just surviving”
Working with organisations like Depop, Havas, Claridges, Oatly and more, they provide one to one therapy, therapist led workshops, talks and training. Their focus is not getting to the point where therapy is dealing with crises, but looking at it as a route to self improvement. They have outposts in Soho, Shoreditch, Manchester, and Borough and received 2.6m Euros in funding earlier this year to expand their vision.
Next week we have this month’s live session for our paid subscribers. This month it’s a LookUP BookLab session, hosted online on the evening of the 5th June.
If you’re interested in joining, we’re going to be letting a select number of our free subscribers come for £10. DM us for details, or if you’re a paid subscriber and you haven’t signed up yet, get involved!
LookUP News:
We’ve been busy running sessions with lots of new agencies, media owners and brands, on everything from StoryTelling for Pitching, Collaboration, and Annual Planning.
One of the things we wanted to do when we started LookUP was to give back in some way. Redundancy is an issue close to our hearts, and new announcements seem to appear weekly.
So we’re very excited to announce two events where we can help people in this situation.
Our first, partnering with LinkedIn and Major Players, is happening on June 12th, and amazing places went in 2 hours!
So, we’ve followed up with a second. This one is hosted online, but has a similar format: a StoryTelling Workshop to hone your own story, hosted by LookUP; and a panel discussion featuring Major Players and NABS to help give you advice on tackling redundancy. Book your place here for free if you’re facing this situation.
Next month’s theme to support this event and beyond is ‘Old Dogs, New Tricks: how to develop a learning mindset to stay relevant’. Make sure you sign up not to miss it, and hit us up in the note if you’ve got any questions or themes you’d love us to address.
Go Deeper:
If you want to really get to grips with this month’s topic, here’s a longer list of resources, enjoy!:
Belong: Find Your People, Create Community, and Live a More Connected Life (Radha Agrawal)
Agrawal creates a new hierarchy of needs which positions community as being at the heart of every layer. She says that we are at the top of the foodchain because we are the best at collaborating, whether it’s through storytelling, skill share, or community building.
Struggle: The Surprising Truth, Beauty, and Opportunity Hidden in Life’s Shittier Moments (Grace Marshall)
Grace Marshall’s flips adversity on its head, looking at the concept of struggle, which is often seen as negative, and showing that it can in fact be an opportunity for growth, learning and transformation.
The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging (Charles Vogl)
Charles Vogl is a well known expert on all things community, and we were lucky enough to interview him for a former project. He has that knack of creating principles that are so simple and insightful that you feel like you should have known them already, but it’s actually that he’s able to joint the dots in a unique way.
Remote Not Distant: Design a Company Culture That Will Help you Thrive in a Hybrid Workplace (Gustavo Razzetti)
Razzetti talks to the 5 key mindset shifts that workplace culture needs to make to adopt hybrid working successfully. Intentional design, Impact over Output, Forget traditional work/life boundaries, Collaboration beyond synchronous, and Delegated Decision Making.
Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building (Claire Hughes)
Hughes talks about 4 principles to scale people behind organisations: self awareness, knowing when to speak up, know the difference between leaders and managers; and your operating system.
Eat, Sleep, Work, Repeat (Bruce Daisley podcast)
Bruce Daisley is one of our experts this month, and rightly so. He is one of the foremost thinkers in the work culture area; and we highly recommend his podcast. Also check out his latest books: Fortitude, The Joy of Work, and Eat, Sleep, Work Repeat.
Hybrid Hacker Substack: How to Manage Remote Teams
Re-learning core skills in leadership was a constant theme in our research. Managing teams remotely is an entirely different area of capability, one that has to be learned. This resource is an excellent POV on this area.
The importance of Emotional Intelligence: FutureMinds Substack
A Harvard Business review article highlighted that emotional intelligence accounts for nearly 90% of what sets high performers apart from peers with similar technical skills and knowledge; and how digital is eroding this capability. This article digs deep on this issue.
Humanocracy: Creating Organisations as Amazing as the People Inside Them - Gary Hamel
We’ve spoken about this one a few times; and whether you love the style of the book or not; the content is really compelling as are the case studies of success stories that have embraced decentralisation.
Happy Reading! Remember that as well as the Lists and Newsletters, our paid subscribers get access to:
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Thanks again for your support, Caroline and Matthew