Embracing Our Values: Always Learning in 2021

‘Always Learning’ is one of the core values here at INSHUR, and we like to approach it in the broadest sense possible. We don’t just like to refine the skills we need for our individual roles or any other pre-existing skills. Instead, we prefer to learn all that we can about topics both new and familiar to us. Such wide-range learning is a great way to expand your knowledge, and we’re big believers in the more we learn, the more we can achieve!

So to make sure that we really are always learning, we hold regular (internal) Always Learning sessions. Sometimes they’re hosted by our team members, but we’ve also had some great external speakers share their knowledge with us on occasion. And, in the spirit of Always Learning, we wanted to share an end-of-year wrap-up on our sessions of 2021, highlighting some of the fascinating things we learned along the way.

Understanding our Business

Insurance 101 with Jonathan Fosdick, Insurance Product Senior Specialist

The perception of insurance as ‘boring’ is a common misconception, and although we may be somewhat biased, this Always Learning session certainly proved that it’s just that: a misconception. Instead of insurance being boring, most of us just lack the foundational knowledge to really appreciate the industry and how it works. Although the majority of us will have some kind of insurance, for our pets, our homes, or our cars, not many of us have a strong understanding of how the insurance industry works as a whole.

Jonathan gave us a super-comprehensive intro to insurance in the US market, looking at different ways insurance is offered, different sales channels, and the many types of coverage. For those of us who don’t work directly in the insurance function of the business, it was a smooth introduction to what our Insurance and Claims functions get up to on a daily basis.?

Agile Delivery in INSHUR: How We Deliver with Jon Lawrence, Lead Scrum Master

This session was a follow-up to an earlier session on agile principles and how we use them in the business. In this first talk, we learned the difference between agile and waterfall approaches to getting things done and about the different ways that the Engineering teams apply agile principles to their work.

Jon provided a look at some of the key teams and their roles within our Engineering function, such as the Scrum, Product, and Development Teams. Applying agile principles allows our Engineering teams to deliver their work more efficiently, as agile is based on fast feedback, which is another key principle in the business. As Jon highlighted in his talk, importance is placed on delivering small incremental changes so that value can be given to customers, colleagues, and the business quickly and regularly.

Expanding our Knowledge on the World Around Us

Black History Month - Untold Stories & Inspiring Figures with Brandon Littles, Head of Claims (US)

In celebration of Black History Month in the US, we held a two-part series on Black history, hosted by Brandon, our Head of US Claims. In the first session, Brandon walked us through some hugely significant, yet untold, stories in Black history, such as the events in San Miguel de Gualdape in 1626. The Spanish colony was the site of the first revolt by enslaved people in mainland North America, though it’s little-known to most people.

For the second session, we asked the entire INSHUR team to submit a motivational individual from Black US history. They were then randomly assigned a person from the submissions to research and present on. There was no shortage of great people to learn about; from actress Cicely Tyson to writer and producer Shonda Rhimes to businessman Reginald Lewis.This was a great opportunity for everyone to take part, and it ended up being an insightful exchange of knowledge, as well as honor important stories and people in Black American history.

Becoming Better Communicators

Inclusive Language with Tina Phillips, VP of People

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are central to our company culture - as it should be for all companies. Tina, our VP of People, Talent & Culture, gave an interactive talk on what inclusive language means in practice, why it’s so important, and how we can all contribute to fostering a truly inclusive and people-first culture within the business.

The words we use and how we use them are key to our communication, so it’s essential that we all be mindful of our language, while taking into consideration the impact it may have on others. Some team members took this opportunity to share their experiences of how exclusive language has made them feel. This gave valuable insight into why we should be as inclusive as we possibly can with our words. We also spent some time putting this knowledge into practice, looking at more inclusive ways to say some everyday words and phrases, and doing some other practical work that helps us all to be more inclusive with our language every day.

Presentation Skills with Katarina Skoberne, Speaker and Listener

A lot of people fear public speaking, and understandably so. It can be particularly daunting to present to a large or unfamiliar audience but these days, a lot of us are expected to stand up and speak (on camera) with no prior training. With a background in business and advertising, Katarina came in to offer some really helpful tips on how to approach public speaking when performance anxiety (or stage fright) is an issue.

But these things are called ‘giving a talk’ for a good reason.’ It’s important to know where your talk is going and what it is exactly that you’re conveying (giving!) to the audience. Also key is knowing if you’re delivering your content in the right way - it has to be relevant and useful to the audience at hand and packaged well. This is where figuring out your presenter's voice comes in; knowing when to pause, which words to use, and what tone to employ is all a part of this. We walked away with a number of tips and tricks, including how to prepare for different audiences, the kind of script to put together, how to approach tone as a non-native English speaker, and more. Super useful!

Asynchronous Communication with Lisette Sutherland, Director, and Author

Most of us have had to adapt to working remotely in the wake of the pandemic. But this, while productive in many ways, hasn’t always been easy and a lot of us are still adjusting. Asynchronous communication, known as async comms for short, is something that can become a supercharger - especially if you want to thrive in a remote setting and even more so if spread over various time zones like we are. It means less reliance on in-person and in-real-time communication, is a catalyst for flexibility, and an enabler for various workstyles to come together in the most effective way possible.

Lisette Sutherland, Director of Collaboration Superpowers and author of Work Together Anywhere, is an expert on async comms. She gave us a brilliant talk on what async comms really means, how to best implement it in a remote (or hybrid-remote) work environment, and the importance of being conscious of how we’re spending our time. An async-first approach means that meetings are more purposeful and efficient and written communication is the default, which allows teams to develop processes and schedules that are best for them and how they like to work. It’s all about flexibility and efficiency.

Assuming Positive Intent with Jon Lawrence, Lead Scrum Master

These days a lot of our internal communication is written. Whether this takes shape as an email or a Slack message, we’re often writing messages instead of talking ‘face-to-face’, i.e. via Zoom or in the office. It can be difficult to determine tone from a written message, not only within the context of work but also beyond, meaning that it’s far too easy to misinterpret a message and then operate based on that misunderstanding. Instead, there’s real value in assuming positive intent because then we ourselves act with positive intent, making little room for negative or difficult interactions at work.

With a colourful Jamboard, a few examples, and a little bit of roleplay from the audience, Jon delivered a really insightful talk on just how important assuming positive intent really is, especially within a hybrid-remote company like INSHUR.

Investing in Our Mental Health

Mental Resilience at Work with Dr. Kennette Thigpen, CEO of Welltrust Partners

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on our mental health - feelings of being overwhelmed, anxious, and fatigued are more common than ever before, as the pandemic has disrupted the lives and routines we were so used to and has left many feeling isolated. Dr. K’s presentation highlighted why it’s so important to start prioritising mental health the way we do physical health. You wouldn’t ignore a broken bone, so you shouldn’t ignore any mental health challenges either. Linked to this is destigmatising mental health: working to remove those unhelpful feelings of shame or embarrassment that experiencing poor mental health often brings.?

We were offered some great tips to sustain mental resilience, such as finding your purpose (as intangible as that is), learning to refuel and recharge, and practicing gratitude and positivity. She closed her session by asking us all to share our ‘one thing’ (or someone) we’ve been grateful for throughout the pandemic. Furry friends, photos of loved ones, and children’s colourful artwork were just some of the lovely things our team shared.?

Building Strong Mental Health When Life Makes it Difficult with Maryna Omelchenko, Tech Entrepreneur

In her talk, Maryna walked us through what the age of social media has done to our brains, and how it’s fuelled addictive behaviours around technology. She really highlighted that we’re living in an extraordinary time, not only due to the COVID-19 pandemic but also with our ever-growing reliance on technology. We all spend far too much time glued to screens: whether it be a work computer or a personal smartphone, and this can have major detrimental effects on our mental and emotional health, and even our physical health.

At the same time, we’ve also seen increased rates of mental illness: namely depression and anxiety, along with feelings of loneliness. Maryna provided us with some useful tips on how to combat this, talking us through the benefits of life coaching, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), and psychotherapy. This proved to be a safe space for a lot of our team members, who took the opportunity to share some of their own personal experiences with mental health difficulties, offering a really cathartic experience by the session’s end.

Improving the Ways We Work

Productivity Ninja with David Daiches, COO

Productivity is something that we’ve all struggled with at one point or another, especially with many of us working remotely, and specifically working from home, where it can be a lot harder to be productive as compared to working in an office, side-by-side with your colleagues. In this session, David shared some of his favourite resources for productivity, including 'How to Be a Productivity Ninja by Graham Allcott' and 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People' by Stephen R. Covey.

Time and attention management is crucial - once we have these under control, it becomes much easier to tackle that lengthy to-do list and manage projects. David led a great talk on this, encouraging us to start small (you can’t climb a mountain in a day after all!) and aim to develop new habits by attaching them to existing ones. With a little bit of effort each day, and perhaps a book on the topic, productivity can become much easier and the to-do list can look a little less daunting.

Feedback with Bojana Ninkov, PeopleOps Partner (US)

We place a huge emphasis on the importance of feedback as a central tool in both our professional and personal development and think of it as the ‘ultimate gift - especially candid feedback that comes from a place of genuine care but challenges us directly. In order to give and receive this kind of feedback we hold bi-annual 360 feedback loops company wide and encourage everyone to also give feedback in real time across all verticals.

As we were heading into our second feedback cycle of the year, Bojana led an engaging session on exactly why we hold these cycles, why some feedback myths are exactly that: myths, and how to deliver constructive and actionable feedback that is both specific and helpful and comes from a place of care. She also took us through Radical Candor, which is the concept of caring personally and challenging directly rather than being brutally honest, something we subscribe to and strive to weave in wherever possible.?

We’ve had some really incredible and educational Always Learning sessions over the last year, and we have our talented team members and external speakers to thank for this. In the spirit of Always Learning, I hope you found this article insightful. Check out some of the related resources below if you’d like to continue learning.

Books

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
• How to Be a Productivity Ninja by Graham Allcott?
• Work Together Anywhere: A Handbook on Working Remotely - Successfully by Lisette Sutherland
• Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott

Videos

• Kim Scott on Radical Candor
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Animated Book Summary
• Win Chesson: Why Gender-Inclusive Language Matters

Articles

• The power of assuming positive intent by Claire Lew, CEO of Know Your Team
• Productivity isn’t about time management. It’s about attention management by Adam Grant

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