Creativity expresses itself in all kinds of ways. This year at I LIKE VISUALS we got to experience first-hand that creativity isn’t just expressed in the content of our work, but in the way that we work together. What did we do? We continued our journey to New Work, led by two wonderful coaches and with a clear itinerary: the „Loop-Approach“. Wrap up warm, make sure you have enough provisions—the road gets rocky underfoot, mountainous and stormy, but you’ll always have the wind in your back and you’ll be rewarded with a stunning view.
If you want to set off on this journey, you need to feel comfortable breaking with traditional structures, hierarchies and all-encompassing managerial responsibility. We now have roles for collaboration within the team: the Network Octopus, the Content Sling, the Weekly and, of course, the Loop Ninja. In their fixed roles, the various team members are responsible for their areas and make decisions as they please according to the motto “the argument decides, not the management”. There isn’t a director role here now in any case.
During our journey, we also had to cross the great Sea of Meetings. Perhaps you, too, have found yourself facing these challenges with your team: too many meetings that are too long, a team that’s too large, no clear goals, no agenda and no clear responsibilities? It was a situation we were only too familiar with! Now, we use “sync meetings”—the quickest meeting format in the world. Alongside check-ins and check-outs, these feature a tension store that’s only emptied at the end of the meeting. Because once the discussion is underway, it’s underway. Solving problems that have cropped up at the end has had a major impact. The traditional time frame of 1 hour per meeting has been swapped for shorter “focus meetings” in small groups. The time is set and monitored using an analogue timer: ultra-simple, but ultra-effective!
It’s a journey that you can’t describe in a couple of words: you have to go on it for yourself. It doesn’t matter how big your team is or how far you want to go with transformation. It’s a framework that impacts every area of collaboration, but one that adjusts to your team’s pace and retains things that are already working well.
In any case, we’re delighted to have taken this journey. We’re so happy about the time we’ve regained, the fact that our processes and responsibilities are clearer, that we resolve tension quicker and enjoy working together more.
Want to find out more about our journey? Keen to discover what we mean by the popcorn principle, safe-enough-to-try, governance meetings, 4 spaces or the advice process? We’d love to tell you more about them! Alternatively, contact our coaches Hendric Mostert and Christine Oymann, who’d be delighted to take on more travelers.
Du möchtest mehr über unsere Reise erfahren oder herausfinden, was man unter: Popcornprinzip, Purpose, Safe-enough-to-try, Governance-Meeting, 4 Spaces oder dem Advice-Prozess versteht? Wir erzählen dir sehr gern mehr darüber oder du wendest dich an unsere Coaches Hendric Mostert und Christine Oymann, die sich sehr über weitere Mitreisende freuen.
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This travelogue was first written by Anne Spiegelhof and published on the I LIKE VISUALS Blog. We would like to thank her for making the content available.
