Sync Async: NEW BOOK is on the way
Lynne Cazaly
New Ways of Working, Leading & Learning | Award-winning 10 x Author | Speaker & Facilitator | Next book: Clever Skills | Sculptural Artist |
Creative ways of working
Creativity doesn’t just belong to artists, painters and musicians.?
We’re all able to think and act creatively, even if we don’t think we’re very ‘good’ at being creative or that we aren’t ‘creative enough’.?
A great way to tap into more creativity is to apply it to how you work … or even think about your work.?
This isn’t about bringing paint brushes and sculpting clay to our work, although that could be helpful at times!?
It’s using creativity in a practical way.?
At work, creativity can mean :
??Finding another way to solve a problem?
??Using a tool or technique to uncover ideas?
??Putting two or more things together to make new ideas
??Discovering short cuts and clever ways of making things happen
??Pausing and thinking differently before you act.?
Applying creative thinking to our work can mean we have access to so many more possible ideas, solutions and options than if we just … work.?
Creative ways of working don’t take longer, in fact they’re usually behind the clever hacks and ingenious solutions that we haven’t considered, tried or applied.?
Beyond agile ways of working and new ways of working are a whole range of creative ways of working.?
You’re allowed to try them out.?You can start with you.?
You don’t have to wait until it’s mandated or legislated that you can think and work in a different way, a creative way.?
Adopting more creative ways of working can be some of the most liberating and productive ways of getting things done in these tricky times.?
Allow a little more creativity in… and you’ll get a heap more progress out of what you’re doing.?
Sync Async?- my NEW BOOK
There’s no denying work has changed in the past couple of years. Potentially faster and more than in the previous five or ten years!
The rise of remote work, work from home, work from anywhere, telework, work across different time zones and hybrid work (some people here/some there) continues to create change and challenges.?
What’s one of the best ways to respond and adapt to the changing world of work??
It’s to consider not just the work itself … but the WAY it gets done.?
Consider:
?? Do we really need everyone at the same meeting at the same time? (synchronous work)
?? Could some people contribute prior to, or after the meeting or begin working on tasks outside of a meeting? (asynchronous work)
A growing number of teams and businesses are learning and experiencing the value of deliberately working in sync / async ways.?
That is, some work is completed synchronously — at the same time with other people;?
and other elements of work completed asynchronously — at a time and in a way that suits them.?
I’m pleased to announce my latest book: YES, a new book is coming!
‘Sync Async : Making progress easier in the changing world of work’.?
In this book I give you:?
?? how, why and when to work in sync and async ways
?? tools for creating your team’s sync async strategy
?? ways to identify the type of work you prefer?
?? techniques to work in more async ways
?? how to make daily progress easier — get started on things that have stopped and accelerate things that have slowed.?
You don’t need to wait for a culture to change or for someone to give you the go ahead on this.?
You can start working better in both sync and async ways from today.?
There will always be too much to do and not enough time in which to do it.?
Putting practical sync async techniques to work can make your work easier … and the rest of life better.?
PRE ORDER the paperback NOW ‘Sync Async: Making progress easier in the changing world of work’?— released May 1, 2022
Creative hacks and short cuts
Shortcuts and clever hacks are some of the most ingenious ways of doing things in our world.?And the workplace hasn’t been immune to their creative effects either.?
Give people a problem to solve and they will absolutely find clever solutions!
Just like the innovation team at the global manufacturer who had a 174 line spreadsheet as their innovation tool.?
If the team had an idea and wanted to progress it through the innovation process to production, they were expected to follow each of the 174 steps laid out in those 174 lines.?What a way to slow — and stop — progress!?
We’re they clever people? Of course they were! And being innovative they found a better way to do it. A host of clever hacks and short cuts.?
They attentively worked through each of the steps and realized they needed only 38 of the 174 steps in the process.?
They hacked the process, worked creatively and accelerated and optimized the system.?
It wasn’t without worry though. Onlookers and observers felt sure they would fail and feared the worst that short cuts would be dangerous.?
But times had also changed since that l-o-n-g list was first formed … and added to over the years.?
The team worked together and apart: in meetings and workshops together, and on specific pieces of the task on their own.?
They worked in both synchronous and asynchronous ways on what they called their ‘innovation streamline’.?
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Sometimes they were together in meetings and at other times they worked independently — at the times and in the ways that suited them.?
It was a liberation of sorts, of freedom, flexibility and choice: when and how to work on tasks. And they achieved a mighty successful outcome.?
Leaders, teams and businesses that evolve take greater notice of how a team works together AND individually. There are wonderful efficiencies in these newer ways of working.?
The thing with a new or creative way is that it’s often not new for everyone. But it is always new for someone.?
Why not inspect your own processes, tools and methods.?
Maybe there are more steps there than you really require. Perhaps there is space for some new and creative ways of thinking and working.?
Seek and you can find some short cuts, hacks and clever solutions too.?
Involve or Untangle??
Doing more work asynchronously is one of the best things you can do in today’s remote working environment.?
If you are in your own practice or business, working as a freelancer or consultant, or you hold a role in an organization… this is for you.?
You can choose to work in different ways and begin to release the pressure and expectation that you are always available for meetings.?
There are tools, apps, techniques and methods to help you get started on tasks and progress them with ease … rather than sitting in on a meeting.?
These techniques can help you either:
?? INVOLVE yourself further, deeper into work that is relevant and valuable for your role;?
or
?? UNTANGLE or remove yourself from work that is irrelevant, repetitive, wasteful or of low value.
Too often our default behaviour is to ‘go along’ with the call for more synchronous work … and so we get more and more INVOLVED.?
Meeting requests and invites are a prime example.?
We’re invited to meetings and workshops that share no clear purpose, agenda and timings, process or outcome — and we stay in meetings that are passive, boring, uninspiring and poorly led.?
But when we decide to do more work asynchronously, we can ask for and clarify details — to determine whether we need to actually be at that meeting.?
It’s no longer about fixing meetings.?
Working in more asynchronous ways can help us UNTANGLE from wasteful, repetitive and low value work.?
We can choose to contribute in other ways — prior to or post a meeting or use tools, methods and apps to work in different ways.?
If you’ve wondered ‘how did I ever get caught up in this?’, it’s a sure sign you could choose more asynchronous ways of working.?
You’ll have greater flexibility of when and how you work, and it will help you achieve better outcomes in your business, team or organisation … with a lot less frustration.?
Work is continuing to change. And so must we.?
Instead of defaulting to ‘accept’ a meeting invite (synchronous work) … what if you worked in another way (asynchronous work)??
The power in sync?
Getting people together at the same time to meet, plan, work or discuss sounds good enough.?
If your schedule is already smashed full of other meetings and conversations, yet another synchronous piece of work might make you groan.?
And potentially make you more ineffective.?
But continuing to default to working?in this way doesn’t just have problems of inefficiency or ineffectiveness.?
Many of us would have experienced the power that’s present in meetings.?
As a facilitator for over 15 years, I’ve worked with hundreds of teams and groups, helping them make progress and work well together.?And in every group, every single time, there are always power dynamics at play.?
Status, power, influence, pressure, coercion, politics — they’re all there.?And they can have a detrimental effect on how safe people feel to express what they think.?
To say ‘just speak up’ or to ask ‘why didn’t you say so in the meeting’ shows a lack of understanding about psychological safety.?
Consider how you will gain people’s input, engagement, participation and contribution — before, during and after — a synchronous, in real time meeting.?
Because async can be safer.
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There you go!?
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Lynne.
Lynne Cazaly?helps individuals, teams and businesses with new and creative ways of working.?She is an international keynote speaker, multi-award winning author and a master facilitator.?
She has authored 8 books:?
For speaking, training, consulting and facilitation enquiries, message here on LinkedIn or go to?www.lynnecazaly.com
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