At Voltage Control, we are Liberating Structures enthusiasts. Liberating Structures is a framework for facilitation created by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless, intended to provide simple rules that make it easy to promote inclusion and participatory decision making. At a high level, Liberating Structures consists of 33 microstructures designed to build trust and enhance cooperation and communication between teammates. In today’s increasingly hybrid environment, Virtual Liberating Structures will also become more prominent as more of the workforce elects to work remotely. Applying Liberating Structures virtually will also come with its own set of nuances. Learn how to utilize Virtual Liberating Structures to unleash engagement, provide space for good ideas, and address challenges your team or organization may be facing. 

What is the Liberating Structures Framework?

The Liberating Structures framework is built around improving coordination and promoting participation by including and unleashing all team members. The framework consists of a collection of structures or methods that are meant to introduce small shifts in the way teams meet, plan, decide, and learn. They put the innovation once reserved for experts into the hands of everyone within a team or organization. Each of the 33 microstructures is easy to learn. Regardless if you’re an experienced leader at the executive level or new hire at the entry-level, this framework can work for you and your team (with a little practice, of course). 

Most organizations in today’s business environment rely on what Lipmanowicz and McCandless refer to as “conventional microstructures.” These microstructures are structures that teams default to when meeting and organizing into groups. These conventional microstructures are either too inhibiting (i.e. status reports/updates, managed discussions, presentations), or too loose and disorganized (i.e. open discussion and brainstorming) according to Lipmanowicz and McCandless. They often are limited in the number of participants and the control is isolated to one individual or a select few–often the extroverted participants in the group. As a result, these conventional microstructures can routinely stifle inclusion and/or engagement. Liberating Structures, and Virtual Liberating Structures, provide more constructive alternatives than the conventional structures by including everybody regardless of group size, seniority or comfort level, and distributing control among all participants.

For more information on when to use Liberating Structures and solutions on using the best Liberating Structure for the job, download our guide here.

Why Virtual Liberating Structures Are Important

Liberating Structures offer an alternative way to approach and design how people work together. In today’s distributed workforce, Virtual Liberating Structures will become more necessary as teams and organizations won’t always be all together in the same office anymore. Even when in person, conventional facilitation and microstructures can be creativity’s worst enemy. They often end up in the exclusion of the more introverted team members in the room, lack organization, and discourage out-of-the-box thinking. It’s difficult to feel encouraged and engaged after a 30 minute PowerPoint over Zoom presentation followed by an unfacilitated brainstorm (in which a couple of the highest-positioned extroverts do most of the talking). 

When applied to virtual meetings, these drawbacks of conventional facilitation and microstructures only get worse. Little regard to the unique challenges of virtual facilitation and participation will result in frustration for both you and your team. Remote participants face more distractions, more technical difficulties, and less engagement than in-person participants in virtual meetings and/or workshops. You will want, and need, to put extra thought into inclusion, participation, and engagement to make the most of remote, virtual and hybrid communication. This is why Virtual Liberating Structures is such a great framework for remote teams. 

The framework’s advantages–participation promotion, creative empowerment, and cooperation improvement–precisely counteract the challenges of meeting and working together remotely. When everyone in the virtual room feels enabled to participate, virtual meetings will naturally produce more and higher quality work. Team members and participants are invited because they have something of value to offer, regardless of title or level. Consequently, it’s critical to empower them to contribute. Collaboration between participants will promote individual creativity by enabling everyone to build off each others’ ideas and inspire one another. The group is smarter than any individual.

The Liberating Structures frameworks’ focus on participation will make attention management significantly easier, especially in a remote and virtual environment. Liberating Structures, whether in person or remote, operate under the philosophy that every participant has a lot to contribute, which means that every participant is being asked to take an active role. Participants who are actively engaged and engaging are much less likely to become distracted and/or disengaged.

Virtual Liberating Structures Examples

We understand that adapting all 33 Liberating Structures in a virtual setting can seem daunting. That’s why we detail Liberating Structure activities to strengthen virtual collaboration in another post here. In summary, here are a couple of Liberating Structures that are applicable to the virtual work environment and can strengthen virtual teams:

Troika Consulting

This activity allows an opportunity for two participants to become consultants for a third group member (the “client.”) The first client shares a question or challenge, then the consultant has 1-2 minutes to ask clarifying questions. When time is up or the consultants are finished asking questions, the client will mute their audio and allow the consultants to spend 4-5 minutes generating suggestions and advice. The consultants will then have 1-2 minutes to share their most valuable feedback to the client. This activity builds trust between teammates and helps participants better understand each other’s strengths and areas of expertise.

Conversation Café

This is a longer activity that will make group discussion more structured and train participants to strike a balance between speaking and listening. Participants will break into small groups or breakout rooms in Zoom; one participant from each group will act as The Host, whose responsibility (in addition to participating in the activity) is to step in when another participant isn’t following a simple set of agreements. Within these groups, team members will move through four rounds of conversation:

• First round: Each group member will have one minute to share their thoughts or feelings regarding the given conversation topic.
• Second round: Each group member will get another minute to share their thoughts and feelings after having listened to what others had to say. Traditionally a “talking object” is passed around in person to signify whose turn it is to speak, but in a virtual setting, you will have an appropriate replacement.  For example, everyone mutes their microphones and participants use the “raise hand” feature in Zoom to signal that they’d like to talk next, or each participant is asked to bring a common household item to the meeting, such as a mug or a spatula, to hold up in place of one singular talking object.
• Third round: This is an open conversation in which participants can speak when they wish rather than taking turns. You may choose to continue using your talking object method (or “raise hand” feature) or to leave them in round two. This is likely where The Host will need to step in the most; ask them to encourage quieter members to talk and over-sharers to leave space for them to do so.
• Fourth (and final) round: Give each member a moment to share their biggest takeaways from the previous three rounds of conversation, round-robin style.

This exercise helps the quieter or more introverted participants build confidence contributing during virtual conversation, and the small groups make it harder for a participant to fade into the background (which is a bigger issue on Zoom vs. in-person meetings).

Additional Resources

We feel strongly that Liberating Structures has an approach to address almost any challenge you may have to overcome. Therefore, we developed a variety of resources to help support you as you navigate Virtual Liberating Structures for your team. 

We created interactive MURAL templates for the activities we use most often and hope you enjoy using them as much as we do. Note: find the template overview here.

We will be hosting a workshop on Virtual Liberating Structures later this year. Let our expert facilitators guide you to better understand and integrate Liberating Structures with your teams, both in-person and virtual. You will learn the principles behind why Liberating Structures work and experience specific structures that will allow you to tap into the room intelligence no matter how large the team. 

Finally, Voltage Control offers an online Liberating Structures course that provides you and your team with the key foundations in Liberating Structures to unleash creativity in your meetings through maximum participation.

Want more assistance helping your virtual team thrive?

Here at Voltage Control, we are exercising and sharing the best tools and techniques needed for teams to thrive in the virtual workplace, through productive meetings, remote work team collaboration, considerations for return to work, facilitation skills, virtual events, meeting culture, Magical Meetings, and design sprints.

The post Virtual Liberating Structures: More Important Now than Ever appeared first on Voltage Control.

Many of us have adopted the mantra “work hard, play hard,” as a method to construct our work and social lives around; “the harder I work, the harder I get to play.” While this can be an effective way to find balance in our lives and motivate us to get our work done so we can then enjoy ourselves, it lends itself to only allowing fun when we aren’t at work.

What if you could collaborate with your inner child to bring a playful mindset to work?

We argue that not only can you, but you should.

Not only do these examples serve as reminders to not take ourselves too seriously, but they also wake us up to the realization that we have lost touch with the genius found within our inner child. Why is this important?

To make the most of our creativity, we need to unlock our sense of playfulness again.

We all still have the inner child, we just need to access it. Luckily, there is a shortcut to do so: focus on verbs rather than nouns in our thinking and while we work.

Work in Verbs

As professionals, we usually focus on nouns more than we do verbs. In other words, we tend to assign tasks and work expectations with rigid words and concepts (adult brain) that limit our creativity and productivity (child brain). It can be difficult to keep our adult-minds from taking over more than they should. But with a seemingly simple change of language, we open ourselves up to more possibilities and overall success.

Let’s consider a few noun-centered ways of being vs. verb-centered ways of being:

• “We need to focus on [insert industry jargon and acronym].” vs. “Let’s imagine what is possible.”
• “We need the best product ASAP.” vs. “Let’s prototype together.”
• “This is what the user wants.” vs. “I am going to listen to the user’s needs.”
• “That will never work” vs. “I’m curious. Time to gather feedback!”
• “What about our competitors?” vs. “Let’s create magic for the customer.”
• “Our company needs better design.” vs. “Let’s all take 5-minutes to sketch a concept.”

Kids are masters at living in the verb. Just watch a few of them doing arts and crafts or playing on a playground. They are verbing more than they are nouning. They care less about being an official “artist,” and they don’t seem to even care about the final product of their creations. They are just “making art” or “building something.” There is an emphasis on the joy of the process, rather than obtaining a specific title or end result.

Kids at Work

I observed the child’s mind at play while briefly babysitting a friend’s child, James, while he went out to run errands. James simply sat for an hour doodling — emphasis on the verb, “doodling.” He did not care about a noun like “the final sketch,” or “the design,” which we as professionals seem to focus on too much. There he was, “doodling.” I could have hung his doodles on the wall or burned them in the fireplace — it would have all been the same to him.

For James, art and creation is a form of play. When we are playing, it is something we do for its own sake, rather than the purpose of praise, results, or politics. Kids are like monks in this way. They can focus solely on the activity at hand and become a more open channel for ideas and creativity. This beginner’s mind is unlocked. They are in the verb rather than obsessing on the noun on constraining themselves.

Play Increases Success

Just like children learn best when they’re playing, so do adults. According to a study by the journal Procedia–Social and Behavioral Sciences, “Fun and enjoyment could prove to be as beneficial and important as it is currently considered in children’s learning.” When we enjoy the task we are doing, we are then in a more relaxed mood and more receptive to the information we are learning or retaining. This directly translates to more achievement in the workplace.

Studies show that when you have fun at your job, you are more successful. Happier employees are 12–20% more productive in the workplace, according to a research by University of Warwick’s Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy. Having fun also improves communication and collaboration, according to Dimensional Research.

So how do we incorporate more of the child’s mind at work?

Quieting the Adult Mind

When leading meetings or facilitating workshops, I have found that the adult mind’s over-emphasis on nouns is what causes us to spin into arguments that prevent us from designing new solutions or innovating.

There is a time and a place for locking in our adult mind, but so much of our work deserves boundless creativity. We break down the walls when we embody a verb instead of holding tight to a noun.

If each person in the room brings their child’s mind when we do creative work, we are all able to explore ideas freely, without obsessing on how “perfect” the results might be. We are ready to go on a journey to find the right idea instead of trying to get the idea just right.

I start my innovation or design meetings with those images of kid’s homework because the point is to detach ourselves from the results. We can all take it a step further and have fun with the verbs we all love so much. Designing, making, collaborating, dreaming, laughing, caring, and playing like we are kids again.

Don’t we want these verbs in more of our meetings?

Want to learn more about incorporating the child’s mind in meetings?

Voltage Control facilitates design thinking workshops, innovation sessions, and Design Sprints. Please reach out at info@voltagecontrol.com for a consultation.

The post Bring your inner child’s mind to your next meeting appeared first on Voltage Control.

This is part of my series on thought leaders in the innovation space. Check out the end of this article for links to others in the series.

While I was CTO at Twyla, an online art start-up, my product team discovered Jake Knapp’s early blog posts and began using Design Sprints as a method to understand problem-solution fit. Later on, when Google Ventures led our series A, we had the good fortune of working directly with Jake, who facilitated a Design Sprint for us. (It’s an understatement to say that it was pretty cool to have the guy who literally wrote the book on Design Sprints shepherding us through the process. He even shared tweaks and updates he’s accumulated since the book came out.)

Even though I had previous experiences with Design Sprints, it was this moment when I really caught the Sprint “bug.” It was working with Jake and GV over those awesome five days that, in part, led to the creation of Voltage Control, my workshop agency where I now design and facilitate Sprints and innovation workshops for other companies.

It’s an understatement to say that it was pretty cool to have the guy who literally wrote the book on Design Sprints shepherding us….

If you’re unfamiliar with the impressive Mr. Knapp, here’s a bit about him: he spent ten years at Google and Google Ventures, where he helped build products like Gmail and Google Hangouts and where he created the Design Sprint process. He has since run over 150 Sprints with companies like Nest, Slack, 23andMe, and Flatiron Health. Today, teams around the world (including the British Museum and the United Nations) use the process to solve big problems and test new ideas.

Jake recently chatted with me over the phone, and we talked about Design Sprints (obviously), his thoughts on the innovation space and Make Time, one of his upcoming books.

The Power of Limited Time

Jake and I explored how he came to create the Design Sprint, and part of that journey illustrates the power of experimentation, as well as what we can accomplish when we intentionally focus and limit our time.

Early in his career at Google, Jake found that he could rewrite the rules: “I had been, up until that point, largely trying to apply other people’s frameworks to the way I did my work. But, about a year or two into my work there, I started to experiment a bit. I reached the point where I was frustrated with the results of the methods and techniques that I was using.”

This frustration, combined with a fortuitous week working with other Googlers, was part of how Jake honed in on the methodology. “I was working on what became Hangouts in Stockholm with two other folks. We only had one week. In that week, we cranked through and created a prototype, after having worked on it and gotten no progress for almost two years. We were time-boxed, and we were in the same room and focused. We got much more done.”

“In that one week we cranked through and created the prototype, after having worked on it and gotten no progress for almost two years.” -Jake Knapp

What You Prioritize, Happens

Jake began solidifying the process he was developing. Eventually, he was able to bring the technique to other groups at Google. Part of this move was inspired by a role change. He had recently become a manager and quickly decided that he wanted to get away from the stereotypical managerial tasks: “fast as possible.” So, he carved out a new role for himself where he would help teams around Google through Sprints, as a way to bolster new projects or help teams who needed a “boost of design.”

While this design-centered way of working may be pervasive now, it wasn’t then; Jake was one of a small-ish group of designers at Google. “There was a clear demand for design at Google. Design was becoming very highly valued. But there just weren’t many practitioners.”

There were two key things that were instrumental in allowing Jake to take on this new role and spread this way of working. First, the support of his boss at the time, Irene Au. She enabled him to create a new, uncharted role: “Her faith in me and willingness to let me take a chance on that idea was a huge deal for the Design Sprint ever happening.”

“I was able to make [Design Sprints] the first thing that went on the calendar. The first thing that I blocked off, my first priority, and not just a side project…” -Jake Knapp

The second thing was how Jake prioritized this work and didn’t let it become swallowed up by other tasks. “I was able to make [Design Sprints] the first thing that went on the calendar. It was the first thing that I blocked off, my first priority, and not just a side project…”

Make Time

This concept of prioritizing the most important thing to you is a perfect segue into Jake’s latest endeavor. Jake and Sprint co-author John Zertasky are currently working on a new book called Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day.

While Jake’s previous book delved into game-changing methods that mostly apply to work-life, this book is more about how we spent our personal time. As Jake explained it: “It’s the end of the day, and you’re looking back. What do you want to say is the highlight of your day? It’s about doing the activities that really feel fun. It doesn’t have to be productive or work-related at all in order to be a highlight. It’s really important to know what our priorities are and to have the tools to focus on the things that are most important and to keep trying to nudge ourselves back to those.”

While this concept might seem unrelated to Sprints at first, there are definitely overlaps: “The idea is that you’re reverse engineering your day. In a way, it follows the same principles of the Sprint, where at the beginning of a Sprint and you make a map for where you’re going to go.”

Making time for things that matter has impacted Jake personally in concrete ways: “It’s been extremely game changing for me in my own life and my own day to day life and also just doing the things that I want to get done. Like writing books…” (He recently finished up writing a fantasy adventure novel and is starting to write sci-fi. Stay tuned…)

Sprint as Jumpstart

But let’s go back to Design Sprints for a moment. Jake and I also discussed a recent article by the CEO and Founder of Basecamp that outlines how they run product iterations in six-week cycles. I wondered what Jake thought about this.

We talked about how this may be an incredibly efficient, productive way to work, but it also might be inappropriate for every product and unrealistic for every company. Jake said: “Most teams cannot do that. They’re very far from being able to move with that kind of speed…Very few teams are at that level. Part of what makes the six-week cycle work for them is they really know their audience.”

However, for companies who want to take baby steps to operating at that level, the Design Sprint is a perfect gateway: “It’s a way to shake things up, but in a contained environment.”

Jake talked about what makes the process so dynamic for teams: “You get to practice a whole lot of new activities and a whole new way of learning. And I hope that for some teams, that starts to become an entryway into working in the way that Basecamp does. Maybe they can start thinking about everything they do as more of a learning experience, about getting to that tipping point. A big part of the Sprint is about focusing and figuring out what’s the most important thing we need to do first.”

“A big part of the Sprint is about focusing and figuring out what’s the most important thing we need to do first.” -Jake Knapp

Unicorns are Still Mysterious

Since Jake has led so many Sprints, I wondered what have been the most game-changing or innovative things that he’s seen come out of a Sprint. His answer may be surprising for someone who has worked with top Silicon Valley start-ups: “I am actually proudest of the things that are not that game-changing. The things that are innovative and game-changing, you don’t create them in a Design Sprint.”

We still don’t quite know the recipe for wildly successful start-ups like Airbnb and Uber: “They’re not cooked up by a consultancy. They didn’t get cooked up by a team of people who said: ‘We need to innovate, what are we going to do?’ They didn’t get cooked up by a bunch of people who had the science right. They came from somewhere else.”

Jake’s honesty about the relative mystery involved in building something successful is refreshing: “I think it’s important to acknowledge that we don’t know that much about where those ideas come from. Because one thing is: there’s a lot more ideas that people have about business opportunities than there are successful businesses.”

“There’s a lot more ideas that people have about business opportunities than there are successful businesses.” -Jake Knapp

While he might not be able to hand out the exact ingredients for building the next Uber, Jake’s Design Sprint process is still highly transformational when done right. It’s incredibly effective when teams really follow through with the process. “What’s impressive in the Design Sprint is when you see an opportunity and you use a Design Sprint to execute on it well — smart, rational, reasonable execution. Because you saw all of the ideas on a level playing field and the decision that was made was clear.”

Learning from Jake has been powerful for me and I hope you enjoyed a sneak peek into our conversation. I’m looking forward to hosting Jake this fall for a Make Time workshop. Stay tuned for updates!

If you want to read more articles with perspectives from innovation experts, check out my articles about Kellee M. Franklin, Gary Hoover, Peter Nicholson, and Kerry Rupp.

The post The Guy Who Created the Design Sprint appeared first on Voltage Control.

A little over a month ago, Candice Digby from General Assembly reached out to me about hosting an event on Productivity. Productivity is a topic that is near and dear to me. Candice and I talked about how staying on top of everything in our busy, digitally-driven lives is a huge challenge for most of us. Many people are challenged by how to balance fielding work demands, being attached to our smartphones, and staying on top of wellness, all while trying to excel in their careers.

I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to curate a diverse set of experts using different techniques and also throw some voltage control spice into the mix. We wanted to touch on the fact that it is no longer enough to focus simply on “time management” while encouraging folks to think about how we manage their attention and focus, their projects and actions, our choices and habits.

I prepared an interactive session that presented five different perspectives from five different productivity experts. They each look at productivity differently, so attendees were able to learn from each of them and decide what worked best for them. My desire was for them to walk away having identified specific tactics to improve their personal productivity and well-being.

“I curate tech and educational programming regularly, but Douglas and Control Voltage went above and beyond to create an interactive evening with a wide variety of subject experts to both inspire and inform our audience. Everyone walked away having learned something new, including me.” — Candice Digby, Co-Founder and Programming Lead, Austin Design Week.

I kicked off the evening with Impromptu Networking, to get folks out of their seats and talking with each other. The audience was invited to stand up and find a stranger. Then they shared with each other what they came prepared to learn at the event. I let them all network for about 10 minutes and then called their attention to begin the talks. Then, each speaker gave a 10-minute talk followed by few questions from the audience.

“If you want to become more effective and stress-free in work and life, this is for you.”

– Hank Wyman, Business Development Hustler at Trustwork

Speakers

Nathan Ryan — Comprehensive Calendar

Nathan Ryan is an entrepreneur, business leader, and organizer. For more than a decade, his work has been influential in the creative industry, where his experience includes the collaboration with and founding of startup organizations, to multinational enterprises. Today, Nathan’s work is all about people. He is focused on helping leaders and their businesses gain clarity and alignment in their organizations through his consultancy, Blue Sky Partners, as well as community-based tech and entrepreneurial policy efforts in his home of Austin, TX, where he lives with his wife, Amanda, and dogs, Max and Rory.

Nathan Ryan walked through an exercise focused on maximizing the first few hours of your day so you can do your best, most focused work. This exercise involved examining your current morning routine and time-blocking a more effective and efficient one.

“Each presenter had a really actionable focus to their talk, and I took a lot away from each one. We also had a good discussion at my breakout session about how to time-block your morning to make sure it sets you up to be most effective throughout your day. 13 out of 10 would recommend any event Douglas, and Voltage Control puts on.” — Nathan Ryan, Co-founder/CEO, Blue Sky Partners.

Stacey Harmon — Get Things Done

Stacey Harmon is a productivity coach on a mission to empower you to be effective in a digital world. She is an Evernote expert ​and GTD® practitioner ​with a flair for systems and organizing. These talents are expressed through her company, Harmon Enterprises, which offers Evernote training products, workflow designs, and coaching for those looking to optimize their productivity and improve their lives.

Stacey oriented us to the five steps of mastering workflow as defined by productivity thought leader David Allen in his transformative book Getting Things Done — The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. She also demonstrated why Evernote is a brilliant tool to support a modern GTD® practice.

John Fitch — Rest & Reflect

John Fitch is addicted to prototyping and firmly believes in the power of rest. John is Venture Partner at Animal Ventures where he leads all venture developments. AV partners with some the world’s most successful companies to understand how their supply chains are evolving and form small startups to build Blockchain, AI, and Industrial IoT prototypes to prepare them for Industrialization 4.0. In between AV venture projects, you will likely find John resting and reflecting on a mini-sabbatical. His podcast Time Off studies the importance of rest, unplugging, and balance in today’s modern world. You can reach out at www.john-fitch.com

Busy is your enemy. There is no such thing as multi-tasking. You can get more done by working less. Rest is the secret to success. John shared a few excerpts from his podcast Time Off as well as the inspiration for Animal Ventures’ work-rest cycle.

“The event proposed several new methods to approach your work and productivity. Active rest, morning routines, new forms of complexity, or looking at Evernote were a few of the ideas. I hope that the audience is experimenting with which productivity approaches allows them to ship better work.” — John Fitch, Venture, Partner Animal Ventures

Kimberly Watson-Hemphill — What is Lean Six Sigma and why should you care?

Kimberly Watson-Hemphill is the CEO of Firefly Consulting, a boutique consulting firm, based in Austin, TX, focused on innovation and operational excellence. She is also on the faculty of the Acton MBA in Entrepreneurship, where she teaches operations. Prior to starting her company, she was a partner at Accenture and a VP with George Group Consulting. Her most recent book, Innovating Lean Six Sigma, was published by McGraw-Hill in 2016. Her previous book, Fast Innovation, hit Business Week’s Top 10 business booklist.

Almost everything in life is a process. In this introductory talk, Kimberly introduced us to the foundational ideas of lean and six sigma and illustrated how they work in everyday life.

Daniel Walsh — Comedians, Writers, Developers: Productivity Is Complex

Daniel is an entrepreneur, product development coach, and solutions engineer. He is a passionate advocate for Lean, Agile, and system engineering methods and practices with 20 years of engineering and product development experience. Prior to founding nuCognitive, he was an engineering manager and senior consultant at Intel Corp. He has dedicated his career to developing new products and bringing them to market. His current areas of focus include organizational transformations, innovation, product management, and managing complexity.

Why is productivity easy to measure in some situations and difficult in others? There are many different heuristics for measuring productivity, and the choice among them depends on the context of the situation. Daniel invited us to think differently about productivity measurements in complex situations.

“Productivity improvements are a canonical challenge for organizations and individuals alike. I had a great time discussing how to measure productivity and set outcome-oriented goals for complex and uncertain situations” — Daniel Walsh, Founder nuCognitive

Breakouts

Immediately following the presentations, I invited the speakers back to the stage, and the speakers took turns pitching their breakout sessions. The speakers split up into different areas of the space, and the audience met with the speaker of their choice. These breakouts allowed the attendees to engage directly with the speaker and explore the material in a more detailed and hands-on manner.

Nate Ryan

• Participants listed out the most common attributes of their morning routines (even when they didn’t think they had one, they discovered they did)
• They Distilled, added and subtracted activities, so the list was comprised only of those that made them most productive throughout the rest of the day
• Then time-blocked their mornings for a full week.

Stacey Harmon

• Stacey guided participants through a hands-on activity that helped them understand the different types of knowledge work.
• She then had them reflect to identify opportunities to improve their productivity using ​a Getting Things Done construct.
• After individual reflection, participants shared in pairs and then with the entire group.

John Fitch

• Guided the group through “making time” exercises with their actual calendar
• Then took group’s devices away, so they were fully present with a few brainstorm activities
• Handed out examples of effective people’s calendars and had them select one that could maybe work for them as a starting template. Discussed why they chose that option.

Kimberly Watson-Hemphill

• We Learned the lean six sigma basics with the famous card drop simulation.

Daniel Walsh

• Self-organized in groups of 3 to 4 people
• Developed a productivity measure for a primary care doctor, a stand-up comedian, and a software team
• Shared responses for each case

“The big takeaway from the evening was not to create the right process by which to be more productive, but to be intentional and iterative in our approach to applying our best efforts to the tasks at hand.” — Reagan Pugh, Founding Partner, Assemble.

The post 5 Methods to Improve Your Productivity appeared first on Voltage Control.

A Design Sprint is a focused, five-day process to quickly gather insights on your users, prototype ideas and validate them. I could regale you with countless anecdotes about the benefits of Design Sprints; but there is also some solid data to back it up as well. According to IBM, design thinking research can lead to a 75% reduction in design & delivery time, often reducing an 8 month project to 3 or 4 months. Additionally, they have found that the number of defects goes down by 50% with this type of up-front work. (If you want to know more about Sprint generally, check out my article here.)

While most documented examples of Sprints are for consumer software products, the techniques apply to other products and services. For example, they are a great way to conduct the initial discovery or ideation phase of any project. They are also an effective tool when pivoting or at each gate in a stage gate project. It’s also an effective way gather requirements.

If you’re interested in a Sprint or want to hire an outside facilitator to run yours (it’s always a good idea to bring in fresh eyes so you can focus on outcomes, not process), but are having trouble convincing yourself or others to invest, here are my thoughts on why Design Sprints are a no-brainer investment for any company.

“It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

— Steve Jobs

Benefit #1: Get User Feedback Before It’s Too Late

Sprints help build products people will actually use. Have you ever worked on a product or project that never went anywhere? Or that your users just didn’t like? What if you could increase your confidence in product-market fit? A Design Sprint can help you do just that.

In a few short days, a Design Sprint will lead your team to the creation of a rapid prototype that you can test with your users and get immediate feedback. Compare this to the time and effort it takes to build a new feature (or entire product!). With a Design Sprint, you never have to worry about getting user feedback too late. Get it quickly and make more informed decisions that will lead to greater success down the line.

Benefit #2: Visibility & Alignment

One of the many things I love about leading Design Sprints is seeing diverse, multitalented teams come together to take on their challenge; it often breaks down boundaries between different parts of an organization. This starts on the first day of the Sprint, when the team digs into the user insights and research together. By unpacking all of this information as a collective, the entire team suddenly has visibility into the same data points. These insights are incredibly important to aligning the team on a common goal.

Alignment is also encouraged by the small and focused team that works on a Sprint. In my Sprints, I typically try to limit the direct participants to seven. (However, there ways that we work to involve more of the team when necessary.) Team alignment is so important for speeding up development and design post-Sprint, as well as improving communication. Everyone will understand the same business goals from the start. An added bonus to all of this is that your team will leave your Design Sprint more bonded and connected by a highly meaningful and impactful experience.

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Benefit #3: Foster a Culture of Innovation

Many companies today are looking for the innovation silver bullet and how to provide the structure and tools that will allow their teams to discover the next big thing. Design Sprints are a great tool to insert into your innovation program. They are well suited because they are lightweight and deliver infectious outcomes.

Many clients already know they should be rapid prototyping but due to a variety of reasons they aren’t currently doing it. Often, it is because they are victims of the status quo and simply stuck in their old ways of doing things. They fear the level of effort it may required to adopt these new rituals. When management invests in a Design Sprint, it sends a clear signal to the team that they have agency to take on these type of innovative methodologies in their work.

There’s another aspect to how Design Sprints can foster innovation. They’re an excellent way to identify members of your team who are engaged and forward thinking and maybe even ready to take on a new challenge or leadership role. And, having gone through the Design Sprint experience, these people will be equipped to lead one themselves and/or bring these tools to their own work.

Benefit #4: Less Risk, Speed & Momentum

Think about a recent decision where you lost time and money because you went down a path that wasn’t quite right. With the help of a Design Sprint, you’ll encounter these scenarios less often. If the price tags of the potential failures or the potential successes are high, it might be worth experimenting with a Sprint. (To find out more about this, check out this article.) Through the process, some of your hypotheses will be validated, others won’t. You’ll know if you need to pivot and in which (correct) direction.

All of this means you can save yourself months of design, engineering and development costs. You’ll be able to get your product, idea or feature to market faster because you’ll be focused on the right thing.

A related benefit is that you’ll come out of your sprint with a ton of momentum surrounding your project. You’ll have a clear North Star and team excitement around the idea. You’ll even end the Design Sprint week with a concrete prototype that will serve as a visual spec for your development team. Having this prototype will help you communicate your ideas and will be another way that you’ll be able to move faster as an organization because of your Sprint.

Benefit #5: Focus

The amount of work that can be accomplished by a small team in a five day Sprint is incredible. You’ll be amazed at how productive your team can be when they have the structure of the Sprint to guide them. I truly believe what happens in a week-long sprint is easily equal to 3 or 6 months of work.

A lot of this has to do with focus, with lack of distractions. Your team is usually pulled in so many directions on an average workday. But in a Sprint, we can be (and should be), focused solely on the task at hand. At the beginning of a Sprint week, I usually tell everyone to turn their phones off and put their computers away. This mindfulness to the challenge, to our co-workers, and to coming up with a new solution, is one of the keys to encouraging new thinking.

Final Thoughts

Design Sprints can appear overwhelming, both in financial cost and opportunity cost. But what’s the real cost of continuing to do things the way you’ve always done them? Ask yourself some of these questions: What’s the cost if your project is less successful than it could be? Or if you don’t have product-market fit? Or if you build the wrong thing? Considering that Design Sprints radically reduce risk, remove orthodoxies, reduce time to market, and accelerate innovation, I believe you can’t afford not to do it.

Want to find out more about planning a Design Sprint? Read Design Sprint Resources & Planning Tools next.

The post Why a Design Sprint is Always Worth the Time & Money appeared first on Voltage Control.

One of my favorite exercises is to identify unproductive things that we can eliminate from our routines. I often talk about lack of focus being the number one killer of startups. Continually checking off noncritical items from a todo can feed your brains pleasure center, but it also contributes to a lack of focus. Ultimately this behavior can lead to the downfall of your company or your project.

“If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old” — Peter Drucker

There are two methods I like to use for identifying things you might eliminate from your task diet.

The Calendar Audit

In the Effective Executive, Peter Drucker reminds us that the key to success is the ability to “get the right things done.” Focusing on the right things is impossible without avoiding what is unproductive. When working with executives, he would ask them what their most important priority was at the moment. Every executive quickly rattled off their most critical tasks.

Drucker then had them shift their attention to the executive’s calendar. Invariably, the executive was spending 20% or less of their time on these critical functions, and the other 80% of their schedule consisted of less essential tasks.

“Tell me what you value and I might believe you, but show me your calendar and your bank statement, and I’ll show you what you really value” — Peter Drucker

Take a look at your calendar and see what it tells you about yourself.

TRIZ

TRIZ is my favorite structure from the liberating structures repertoire. The purpose of TRIZ is to stop counterproductive activities and behaviors to make space for innovation. If we were to ask ourselves, “What should we stop doing to make progress on our deepest purpose?”, We often overlook or dismiss things because of our bias, assumptions, or politics. TRIZ makes it safe and comfortable for us to be vulnerable and therefore allows us to expose more of these counterproductive behaviors.

Here’s how it works:

1. Pick a goal or objective you are currently focused on
2. Write down anything you can do to make sure that you achieve the worst result possible towards your goal or objective
3. Review this list and circle anything that resembles anything that you are doing today. Be brutally honest!
4. Go through the circled items and determine how you might take steps to eliminate these activities or augment them to be more aligned with your goal or objective

I invite you to challenge yourself to explore what you might stop doing.

“There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.” — Peter Drucker

Voltage Control facilitates innovation workshops and we specialize in Design Sprints. Contact Douglas at douglas@voltagecontrol.co if you are interested in having us facilitate your Sprint, coach your team on how to run an effective Sprint, or are curious to learn more about how to adapt Design Sprints or other workshop techniques to help your company grow.

If you are in or near Austin, come visit us at the Austin Design Sprint meetup. Each month we have a guest speaker share their experience participating in a Design Sprint. If you would like to be a future speaker please email me.

The post Stop Doing Things appeared first on Voltage Control.

Like many entrepreneurs, I’m constantly on the hunt for ways to improve my effectiveness. I’m always happy when I hear a new tip that might make me a better consultant, collaborator or teammate. And, who is better to learn from than successful CEOs in my own backyard? I interviewed ten, Austin-based CEOs and top executives about their daily routines in order to glean which habits and rituals have supported their success.

While there was a lot of diversity in my conversations, one thing was crystal clear: building a high-performing company is the result of consistent habits. In particular, I identified seven distinct habits that I would like to share. These CEOs, representing industries ranging from tech to higher education, offer actionable advice that you can use to improve your career (or life), regardless of your role or seniority.

Habit #1: Be Early to Rise

Unsurprisingly, I found that it all starts in the morning. The most consistent thing I heard from the CEOs is that they start their days early. Jen Grogono, President and CEO of uStudio, sets her alarm for 5:30 am and spends time relaxing and reading before the rest of her family wakes up. Suzi Sosa, CEO of Verb, works out at 5:30 am in her home gym, gets her kids off to school and then enjoys an hour to herself before work. A normal morning for Jean Anne Booth, CEO of UnaliWear, starts in the dark, usually around 4:30 am! What struck me about these stories is that getting up early isn’t about diving headfirst into work. Instead, the morning hours offer these hyper-busy execs a moment to wake-up, breathe and set the tone for the day.

“It’s easy to get caught up in the barrage of emails, Slack messages, texts and calls, so a couple mornings a week, I start offsite at a coffee shop. I catch up on bigger things, important reading or action items that require attention.” — Autumn Manning, CEO of YouEarnedIt

Habit #2: Don’t Be Afraid to Unplug

“Every day, I try to find time to pray and be still, even for just a few minutes. The secret was relocating my cellphone charger.” — Jan Ryan, Director of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at UT Austin

Whether through structured meditation or not, every CEO also expressed the need to unplug and disconnect from work. Jean Anne Booth meditates briefly everyday using the Unity Church’s Daily Word publication. Eva Bunker, a former CEO who is currently on sabbatical, sees her meditation practice as an antidote to the barrage of chats, texts, emails and calls that can fracture her attention. The CEO of Bold Metrics, Daina Linton, finds her meditation through exercise and says that, “Ballet is my meditation.” Karyl Fowler, CEO of Transmute Industries, is also a big fan of moving meditation and uses yoga, CrossFit, and frequent camping trips, to reflect and recharge.

“I think it’s important for founders to find a way to pull themselves out of the intensity of their daily lives. Finding something you’re truly passionate about and doing it regularly is a great way to stay grounded. “— Daina Linton, CEO of BoldMetrics

Habit #3: Stay Charged with the Right Fuel

“Eating this way keeps my energy very balanced and my body feeling good.” —Suzi Sosa, CEO of Verb

Through these interviews, I realized that being a CEO is a bit like being an elite athlete. A healthy diet is critical when you need to sustain the high function and elevated cognition required to manage a business. Michele Chambers, Executive Director at JP Morgan Chase, talked about how she keeps her office stocked with the foods— fruits, raw nuts, low sugar protein bars—that keep her energy steady. Similarly, Suzi Sosa told me that she strives to eat a diet of 33% fat, 33% carbs and 33% protein. (No easy feat!) She sees her eating habits, particularly watching her carb intake, as essential to combatting the high cortisol levels that can come from a high stress job. Jen Grogono shared that a gluten free diet has treated her allergies and improved her concentration.

“In startup mode, and then later in growth mode, it’s easy to go for convenience and start eating junk food that’s quick and easy. But to sustain your peak performance, your body and mind need heathy foods.” — Michele Chambers, Executive Director at JP Morgan Chase

Habit #4: Never Slack on Exercise

It’s impossible to talk diet without mentioning exercise. Not only do these CEOs exercise, but they make it a priority in their packed schedules. The CEO of StoryFit, Monica Landers, regularly does weights, pilates and yoga. (In fact I met her in a Pilates class at Castle Hill Fitness.) Jen Grogono does Bikram yoga four times a week and says that it’s one of the most valuable times in her week. Jan Ryan, the Director of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at UT Austin, craves intense, long distance bike rides and finds that they allow her to think more creatively and solve complex problems. Eva Bunker shared how she has practiced Aikido and, now Systema, and appreciates how the philosophical and spiritual elements of martial arts impact the rest of her life. A common thing I heard from the CEOS is that their exercise routine not only has body benefits, but brings mental benefits that extend into the office.

“I’ve found that doing half-Ironman triathlons is pretty much the perfect exercise to keep my body as tired as my mind — and thus, everything balanced.”- Jean Anne Booth, CEO of UnaliWear

Habit #5: Reflect through Writing

When I find time to write in my journal, I find it grounding. It helps me focus my thoughts, and the CEOs I interviewed described similar experiences. Jan Ryan told me that she always keeps a pad and pen beside her bed. To calm her busy mind, she writes down those nagging thoughts that pop up when it’s time to sleep, like undone tasks or exciting new ideas. Autumn Manning also journals regularly, usually in the mornings and on weekends. Jen Grogono shared that writing helps organize her thoughts, better understand herself and provides a productive way to process important emotions.

“You’ll rarely catch me in a meeting without a notebook. I write things mostly because I learned at a young age that writing helped me organize my thoughts and remember important things I had to do.” -Jen Grogono, President and CEO of uStudio

Habit #6: Make a List, Set a Goal

“Even though the title of CEO implies that I’m the boss, I do, in fact, submit to a higher authority — my calendar.” — Monica Landers, CEO of StoryFit

As a lifelong list maker, I was not surprised when many of the CEOs told me that they heavily rely on lists. Even those who didn’t mention literal lists talked about the importance of goal-setting or following a strict schedule to accomplish tasks. One of my favorite anecdotes came from Eva Bunker, who told me that she uses a modified version of the Agile development methodology in both her private and business life. She creates long-term “epics” and weeklong “sprints” to reach goals and optimize how much she can do while maintaining a sustainable pace. Jan Ryan talked about how she plans on Sunday evenings, when she creates a list of what needs to be done in the week ahead. She even makes sure to leave white space to allow for creativity and spontaneity. Likewise, Suzi Sosa talked about her ever-present to-do list, which is synched between all her devices. She writes down every single thing she must do — work and personal — and constantly reorganizes the list based on her shifting priorities.

“In both my private life and in business, I use a modified version of the Agile development methodology.” — Eva Bunker, former CEO of Critical Watch

Habit #7: Always Be Leveling Up

“I practice, read or research something entirely left field. This can be anything from a documentary to learning about a new artist. This ritual ensures I take a break but am still learning.” —Karyl Fowler, CEO of Transmute Industries

Lastly, the CEOs gave me good insights into how to keep growing year after year. Their answers revealed that these executives are committed to lifelong learning, self-improvement and expanding their knowledge base. Jan Ryan says, “I’m always learning, that’s my happy zone. My curiosity about the world has only grown throughout the years.” Karyl Fowler describes how she feels like time is wasted when she’s not learning or engaged, so she creates “learning distractions” that allow her to take a break, but that still keep her engaged and growing.

“Ever so often I find I’ve walked right up to the edge of my comfort zone, and I’ve taken on something I know nothing about. But it makes my life fuller...” — Jan Ryan, Director of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at UT Austin

Final Thoughts

As I reflected on the various conversations I had, I kept coming back to this Peter Drucker quote: “Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.” I believe the seven habits I just described all connect back to time management in some fashion. If you are a founder or part of an early stage team, the success of your company really depends on your habits and effectiveness. Start applying a few of these habits into your daily routine (but maybe don’t try them all at once…) and, hopefully, you’ll find some of the same rewards that these CEOs talk about.

The post The 7 Super-Effective Habits of Austin CEOs appeared first on Voltage Control.