Lost Office Collaborative

On Monday, the Richmond Region Tourism team held its retreat at the gorgeous Lost Office Collaborative where we learned how we best communicate using DiSC assessments. The experience, led by consultant Shannon Waffen who specializes in working with destination marketing organizations, was impactful as we learned more about each other. It was a true joy to see the alignment around our purpose and impact in the community. We wrapped up the day touring and playing at The Park RVA where several people showed off their mini golf and duckpin bowling skills. If you haven't been to either of these places, I highly recommend. I am so grateful to work with this wonderful group of people every day!

Do something unexpected for your team. ?? We just launched 3 new Fall team offsite experiences to re-energize creativity, build chemistry, and re-set priorities! Visit our site for more details.?

Still buzzing from our incredible June event with Disrupt RVA — an event series with a mission to radically change work for the better. We helped bring together 35 business leaders to brainstorm speaking topics for the big event later this year. It was a great reminder that companies should never underestimate the power of an event ???????????? the event. Working with stakeholders to co-create topics, goals, and even agendas can amplify the relevance and impact of your next big meeting. Thanks Ed Cook, PhD and Roxanne M. Brown of The Change Decision for inviting us to create with you! We couldn’t have asked for better collaboration partners — or more engaged and thoughtful attendees.?

Join our team of hard-working, fun-loving, work revolutionaries!

As a Richmond-based business, hosting June’s InnovateLocal event was a special one. 80 local professionals came together to learn, grow, and collaborate — the heart of what we’d envisioned when we founded Lost Office. Thank you Nancy Thomas of InUnison! You and your team are amazing! And hats off to Matt Williams of Brand Federation for a dynamite keynote to kick things off. We love working with partners to host impactful collaborative gatherings in our community. So, if you're interested in creating something memorable with us, drop us a line!?

Do you have a place to bring your teams where you can work out the really thorny issues? Alongside the James River in Richmond Virginia there is a special space that exemplifies what I mean when I speak of "habitat". Sometimes I get push-back by the Edgar Schein purists who say that "artifacts" have little weight in organizational #culture. ?? I say - humans are inextricably linked to their surroundings. A space can evoke excitement, productivity, or trust. A truly engaging space can even elicit belonging. Mark Brown, Christian Markow, and Alexis Spain showed a profound awareness as they facilitated moving more than 30 of us from space to space, room to room, in order to get at the issues dominating workplaces today, and how we might disrupt them through #thoughtLeadership and direct #engagement. DisruptRVA ?? One space suggested a focus on productivity, process: Roll up your sleeve and solve problems. ?? The next space connected us with technology: It's a tool, how can we use it to bring about the future we hope for, and avoid the future we fear? ?? The last space was human. It felt like a library in someone's home: Five other strangers who had never met before that night begin exchanging in a way that only friends with shared experiences would. Alysse Ballou - contributing "perspective" - finding how the stories weave over each other to sum up how a collective in a work environment can grow. Together. Roxanne M. Brown closed the night by posing a profound question: ? "What if everyone in the company, on every team regardless of its individual function, was focused on doing one thing? And they all knew what that thing was because the purpose of the organization was so clearly communicated at all times? It begins with us thinking that something can be different. And then making it that way." ?? ?? If your company is within driving distance of Richmond, you owe it to your teams of people (not to mention the sustainability of your mission and purpose) to utilize what Lost Office Collaborative has created. (visit their page in the comments below. Their photos are much better than mine ??) The science behind "habitat" - careful consideration of everything from light, color, sound, movement, even the food - gets planned into this experience. Think ?? Learning & Development workshop meets ? Event Planning on steroids. Tap the expertise of its founders to craft an experience that facilitates the kind of #designThinking that draws from the experience and ideas of your people like never before. Imagine the questions that come out of it, begging for an answer. Imagine the impetus toward applying answers to those questions. Visualize the engagement that sprouts from such a #Growth Laboratory. ??Engagement creates belonging. ??Belonging builds resilience. ??Resilience means you and your mission will stick around a long time, and affect the most people possible.

Does your leadership team need space to have a different conversation? The Flat at Lost Office Collaborative is one part hi-tech board room, one part 1960s style conversation pit. We designed it to physically change a team's posture so they can have deeper, more honest conversations. And, if you need help designing a more inspiring day of conversation, give us a shout. Our team can help as little or as much as you need. We offer experience design, coaching, facilitation and hospitality to help leaders across the globe change the way they collaborate.

Thank you Richmond Grid for helping us share the Lost Office Collaborative story! If you're a team looking to solve a tough challenge, or just need some time together to create, give us shout to experience the new way to collaborate. https://lnkd.in/e-GmXxMg

A lot of team offsites are missed opportunities. But they can be transformational collaborative moments, filled with breakthroughs if we build in the right catalysts. We share thoughts below on design strategies that can put your team into a highly productive deep work state. #collaboration #futureofwork #offsites

Is workplace loneliness impacting your company's ability to collaborate? Heck yes, it is. The recent article from Te-Ping Chen at The Wall Street Journal shares great data on it's impact. But the mandate of getting people back "in-person" has big flaws. "...there are diminishing returns to time in person, says Philip Arkcoll, founder of Worklytics, which analyzes workforce data for Fortune 500 companies. Coming in once a month provides a significant boost in ties; two or three times a month adds a little more, Worklytics data show. Once or twice a week results in a smaller increase, though, and working in-person four or five days a week makes almost no difference." Prioritizing and designing collaborative and relational experiences don't just relieve loneliness, they supercharge team chemistry, creativity and critical thinking... all necessary ingredients to your company's productivity and growth. https://lnkd.in/eqM9WbEw