In Aberdeen where I'm from. Sticky to me pudding is a big thing so you're basically mirroring the Scottish palette there that's really fun that's really cool
Notice already how much engagement we have. This is the first time we've met you spread across the globe, the country at least.
And already we're connecting. We're sharing ideas. This first question that I asked you is about dessert.
Okay, I didn't start by asking you to reveal something quite deep and intimate about yourself like go ahead and let's break the ice by you telling me the biggest mistake you made last year and the thing you've learned from it.
Okay? The human mind is very selective about how it shares information. And the idea here is that if you wanna break ice virtually, if you want to get people in a cycleologically safe space.
There is a real pattern to the science. On how we build trust. In other words, we ask low intimacy questions.
First, and we increased the intimacy as time and trust goes on. So start with low intimacy, high agreement questions first that refrain from making people feel judged.
I mean, this is a cool question here, right? What do you want for dessert? This is great.
Okay. And then as trust builds as brain oxytocin levels increase in the meeting or in a team, then you can get into the higher intimacy stuff.
Anyway, let's keep having some fun. Let's keep collaborating in a virtual world and on that note.
What would you say Virtual Crow Lab is in a word? Is it fun? Is it opportunity? Is it growth?
And
Is it the future? The complex? Is it a pain? Is it a headache?
Oh
And and and
What is virtual call lab from where you're sitting? Go ahead and threw your answers in. And by the way, for the multitude of you who haven't got mentally connection feel free to throw your answers.
And
In the Zoom chat.
And
Okay, good answers coming in so far. It is necessary. It is now, isn't it?
And and and
It's necessary. It's complex, it's connection, it's efficient. Yes, it can be.
It's fraught. Yes, it can be. It's a new way of connecting. What else are you writing here?
It's valuable. It's preferred. It's, yeah, I love this. Okay.
Oh and
It's the new normal. It's critical. It's part of teamwork. It's awkward, right?
It can be awkward. And actually You can't read the full picture of people's body language.
Oh
And
I mean, when you only get this view, it's really hard to know everything that that person means or says as soon as I change the view that you have of my life and the view that you have of look at this I'm not even wearing shoes I'm in my socks As soon as you get more of an insight into the real world of somebody else, the more you're able to build trust.
This
So yes, it can be a little bit awkward. The more you're able to build trust.
So yes, it can be a little bit awkward. All right, these are good answers. These are good answers.
You
And I'm just gonna check my meeting chat.
Right this down. The distance bias. Is the mind unconscious tendency? To place lower weight.
On input from people. Outside of the room. If you have a meeting with real people with you in the room and people online, the mine automatically If you're not careful, starts to downplay the weight of.
Distant or like virtual input compared to the in-person input. It requires real skill and you have to be on it if you're cheering a meeting to actually hold them in mind and what happens is the people on line start to disengage, right?
They start to kind of like, I'll just check my emails. Actually, I think I'll just check Instagram right now.
I'll just check my Twitter or whatever. And for those of you that are checking Instagram, there's mine.
So already I've just got you back. Haven't I? I've got you back engaged.
That's my Instagram handle there. You can follow me. I'm based in the UK and I put brain science stuff online for free.
But my point here is that The distance by us can change the way that you make decisions as teams. So bear that in mind.
So what I'm trying to do is constantly pick at your limbic brain and constantly trying to capture your attention in your frontal lobe.
I'm constantly trying to capture your attention in your frontal lobe. I'm constantly trying to let you have a say, write this down friends.
Whatever people contribute to. They support. Whatever people contribute to, they support this, my friends, is called the IKEA bias.
The IKEA bias. In fact, If you run this study and get someone to build an IKEA chair.
And place a financial that oh look at that. I need an intercontinental error there place a financial value on the cheer that they've built.
What do you think they, how do you think they estimate? The value of a of the identical chair built by somebody else.
So this is built myself and this is built by someone else or a machine. In the chat, let me know. All right.
What do you think people do when they're asked to build a chair in place a financial estimate on their chair and then you ask them to estimate, yeah, Paul, Paul, you just jumped in there.
Chan, you jumped on, so actually interesting. You've both, so actually interesting.
You're both throwing out very interesting comments. For those of you who are saying the self is worth more, you're right.
This tends to be the case. Because I know the blood sweat gears are put into this. Okay.
Now for those of you that are saying they might value the other person higher, it might be because you know your DIY skills absolutely suck.
Okay, but my point here is that in general, people will value the same product built themselves. Higher than what a machine or somebody else does.
And the bottom line is that when you get your team to contribute You're doing it right now. You're building this keynote.
You're the ones that are giving me the answers, not me. I'm not telling you what virtual callab is you are, but the thing is that you are now psychologically at a higher investment level in this session because we are collaborating, right?
Whatever people contribute to they support. So we now talk about the distance bias. I would say out of mind we might talk about the IKEA bias, contribute to it, you'll support it, you'll value it more highly.
Let's do another question. What you love, what do you love about what you do at work?
And
Okay, I'm really curious. What do you love? I have everything that you do because it will be busy at times and it will be paid for at times.
And
Everything that you do do, what do you love? What do you love? What do you love? What do you love about what you do at work?
And and and
Go ahead and throw your answers in the Zoom chat or on your phone if you are. Connected rather.
And
The reason I said concerned is I was multitasking and try to read your chat and I got it wrong there and try to read your chat and I got it wrong there.
So some people like uncovering, and try to read your chat and I got it wrong there.
So some people like uncovering the aha moments, the problem solving, the learning, and people that you work with.
I love making Diane says, I love making things that are complicated, very simple and to understand others. Nice one.
And and and and
And
Dan, Joe says autonomy and expert recognition. Love it. Pat says, people. Now, in, our mentee.
Oh
We've got we like help. We like problem solving impact data creativity, programming, learning from others.
Look at this guys. Look at the amount of love and passion in the room. This is a amazing.
Problem solving is in the center. Can you see that's in the center?
Keep these results coming in. Let me tell you why I asked you this question. When you ask someone what do you love about what you do?
You start to get them cognizant on the emotional drivers of their motivation. Let's face it, work gets busy and sometimes it's just about ticking off the boxes, right?
It's I get this done, I have to get that done. I have to read that document.
I have to sign that off. Okay, take tick tick tick tick. Okay. When you get busy
The what has to keep going, but the Y often tails off. However, if you become mindful about why you start telling up areas of your brain, like the ventral media prefrontal cortex, areas of your limbic brain that increase goal attainment, probability.
Attainment, probability. In other words, when you and your team are constantly aware of how All of that juicy stuff that you said on the screen here.
Oh, we love collaboration. We love problem solving. We love learning it. Motivates, it fascinates us.
You will increase your goal attainment probability to together, meaning the chances of you attaining the goals that you set for yourselves as a team are increased because of brain science.
Friends, where possible, stay tethered to what motivates and fascinates you. Be tethered to what makes you passionate because this will not only increase your motivation, but it will bring people to together.
All right, let's do another question. Let's jump into another question, alright? I'm really curious who's in the room. Are you a business leader?
That, look. How do you, how do you best align to these options? These options are quite, you know, I was brainstorming with the team last week on how we could kind of slice this up.
And
So forgive me if I haven't got this perfect, but how do you best identify? Go ahead and throw your answers and it's just really helpful for me to know your thinking styles.
You
And
And already, I know that I, if I run this again, could do better in sub dividing the other.
And
You
So thank you for that feedback. That's really good. That's really good. In the, comments on Menti threw in some of those other ideas or in zoom, if you, if you are other, like, what did I miss? What did I miss?
And and and
So we got some in product development, comms and marketing. Okay, okay, thank you, thank you.
Yes, okay. Well, else have I, yeah, training and instruction. Okay. Look at that.
Well, hey, listen. If I were, if we weren't collaborative right now, there's no way that I would understand this aspect about you, okay, that actually a third or virgin on 2 fifths of the audience are in the other category.
And without that feedback, would that that conversation that we have. I could be forming the wrong conclusions about this meeting that we're having.
And how, how, how, would that be? You know, if I started making decisions or based on what I thought.
So conversations are really important. Nobody wants to be sat and told anything anymore. Our brains don't pay attention that way.
We don't love being lectured to. We like conversations and this here is a useful part.
Of the conversation and thank you in the Zoom chat, some of you have told me what's going on.
So, I now, I, now know that many of you are in the other, but with that said, What would you rather do direct a movie star in a movie or kickback and watch one?
And
How are you wired? What is your preference on this? Go ahead and let us know. Go ahead and let us know.
And and and
And
You're very good at this, by the way. It's lovely to see everyone so engaged and so, you know, part of this and I want to say again it's real privilege to connect with you.
And
I love what you guys do in the US. Want to do more? Alright, okay now. What we are now doing is creating an increased cognitive awareness amongst a virtual audience about the people that are in the virtual room with you.
So now by seeing by seeing where people come from data wise, we start, there are areas of our brain that light up and start to make assumptions about each other that create a higher sense of connectivity.
So when you see this you can go like, oh, you know what? There's a bunch of us that want to direct a movie.
In fact, 36% of us have visions and wanna be in control. Good for you.
Let us, about a quarter of you want to star in a movie and some of you want to kick back and watch one but already we know a little bit don't we about that that spread which is interesting which is very very interesting.
So with that said. Let us get into our first content block of our triangle. Remember, we are looking at a triangle today and the first piece of that triangle is meetings.
All right let me just give you a few top tips here on meetings. Meeting, as you say, are absolutely essential.
Meetings are all about bringing people to together. Remember, we're notoriously good at sharing our thoughts.
We're notoriously bad at shared decision making. All right and with that with that Explosion of different ideas that we can have.
This can leave individuals feeling frustrated. It can leave them feeling annoyed, confused. How many of you have ever come out?
Let me know in the chat. How many of you have ever been in a situation where you come out of a meeting, particularly a virtual one, with the feeling of.
Oh man, like what was the point of that? Why did we, why do we have another meeting now to conclude the meeting we just had.
Can you relate to any of this that you leave the meeting feeling slightly met, at least neutral or worse, than you were when you came in.
I mean, yeah, I mean, many of you are. Okay, so this tells us that this problem doesn't just affect you.
It affects everyone. And the question is why? Well, the reason for that is because we're human beings and not computers.
The reason for that is essentially on a biological level. Look at all of these yeses and thumbs up and everything like that, right?
So Hi, many of you have ever felt like Am I even supposed to be in this meeting? Are they supposed to be in this meeting?
Why are, why aren't my colleagues in this meeting? They should be here. Let me know in the chat.
Yeah, okay, you've had that feeling. Ever thought about asking the audience? Ever thought about asking?
Let's practice right now. Go ahead and answer this question. Are the right people in this webinar?
And
Are they here today or not? Now you know that there are people. That you know that there are people in your workplace that should be in this date right this day that has been put on for you I bet there's some of you that think, man, there.
My colleagues need to hear this stuff, you know? So. Already, now I'm getting a sense of your emotional calibration for this meeting.
And and Oh and
You
You'd feel most of you. Feel like you should be here. Okay, the reality is some of you are like, hmm.
I'm not sure if I should be here. That's okay. I can do. We can deal with that.
And and and
We should be able to deal with. Diversity of thought and feeling. I feel that there are people missing who should be here.
Interesting piece of data. Isn't that interesting? You know what? You could screenshot this.
Couldn't you? And ping this back to your colleagues and say, hey. This wonderful conference has been put on for us and our colleagues should have been here.
You know, you need to sign on for next time that these guys run this thing, right? Okay.
Oh and
I feel. That there are people here who need not be here in this session. Now, I mean, we're practicing this question, but again, it's a great way to get data.
And I can tell that most of you wouldn't. You know, don't feel that way.
Maybe you do. Maybe you're referring to yourself and that's okay, but now we have a general sense of that.
Do you realize that when you don't know how people feel about the meeting. That you're actually hosting.
You've already lost, right? Because How many of you know that we can't take part, we will not collaborate, we won't absorb and we won't give you the right answers if we are disgruntled.
All right, if you're folding your arms, if you're feeling better, if you're doing your emails while you're in this video call, then you are not all there.
But this simple question about, all right, let's just do a meeting pulse check. How many of you feel that you should be here?
How many of you feel that people, you know, and when you get those results, you can talk about them.
So anyway, there, there, there, there's a ton that we could get into meetings, but I wanna give you some top tips.
That I've noticed. That will help us answer this question. How can we do meetings to make, you know, what can we do to make our meetings more effective?
Here's the first piece of the puzzle. Number one, whenever you think meeting which is basically any time more than one human being gets together, think, flight, plan.
Okay. In the chat, let me know. When you get on a plane. What does the captain?
What does she or he say on the intercom? Let me know in the chat. When you get on a When you get on a plane.
What often is announced on the tanoi by the captain go ahead. Yes, Nicole says welcome aboard.
You're absolutely right. Well, other things. Yes, welcome aboard and right says Karen.
Where are you going? Now People get very ineffective if they don't know what the plan is. Now, so you and I are gonna be landing this plane that we're on right now in about Thirty-ish minutes.
We're gonna finish the presentation. We're gonna do a little bit of Q&A. But the point I'm trying to make is it's really important whenever you host the meeting to go, okay.
There's a takeoff to this, there's a mid flight and landing.
Hey, take off mid flight learning question for you in. The chat right now go and tell me in the zoom chat What are the 2 highest risk points in a flight?
What do you think they are? What do you think they are folks? What are the highest risk points?
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely, Len. Yeah, and Chan and Manka and Diana. You're all right.
Check off Monday. These 2 bits. These are perhaps potentially the most important parts in the meeting. When you take off, you welcome, you say hi, but this is your moment to increase trust.
How do you increase trust? You tell them like the captain, hey folks, we have 50 min on the clock in these 50 min, we're going to cover 3 things.
We're going to go through a triangle. Okay, of different areas of how to make virtual work right but before that we're gonna get to know each other we're gonna have some fun onmenti and then when we land we're gonna do some Q&A and this thing is going to take 50 min okay I have now decreased your sense of psychological uncertainty.
Tell me this, when the human brain gets uncertain, what emotions run through the human brain when there's uncertainty.
It's like. So I'm on this plane. Where are we going? How long is this flight?
Well, like what's, what's happening? What happens to human brain? What, what, panic, frustration, worry, anxiety, good, good, good, good, good.
Next question, when the brain is full of panic, frustration, worry, anxiety, good, good, good, good. Next question.
When the What happens to the rational thinking system of the brain? That brings 2 decks. Top deck is rational, lower deck is emotional.
When you've got more anxiety and more fear and worry and disgruntlement and frustration, do we become more rational and sensible or do we become less rational and sensible and more emotional? What do you think?
Yes, right, Ethan, right, Diane. Right, and car. Yes, right, Victoria.
Okay.
The first thing to go offline in the human mind when you're overly stressed irrational thinking.
Rational thinking is what you need in a meeting. Tell people the flight plan. Hey folks, we've got 60 min on the clock.
These are the things that we need to get through. But first, let's go around the room.
Say hello or whatever, you know. Do you have any questions or anything you want to add to this flight plan before we get into it and land.
Okay, so the flight plan before we get into it and land. Okay? So the flight plan. Meetings are always take off mid flight plan before we get into it and land.
Okay? So the flight plan. Meetings are always take off mid flight and landing. Be clear on how you wanna take off because it's risky if you get it wrong.
You lose everyone and be clear about how you want to land. And today we're gonna land where the summary of our top 3 tips and our triangle and a Q&A.
Okay? And in the in between, we're gonna have some fun. We're gonna work around the triangle.
Friends, am I communicating this in a way that's useful to you? Give me some feedback.
I mean, is this a will hat or are we do are we doing something that's that's that's valuable to you yeah yeah this is landing well for you.
Okay cool. I just wanna I wanna make this all about you the the folks that have put this conference together have said we just want to make this all about you.
The folks that have put this conference together have said we just want to create value for our audience because that's how You guys, okay?
So I'm just lining up with them, okay? I'm lining up with the people that you've heard speak already.
All right, top tip number 2. Start with the best results. Start with the best results. When I start meetings, in fact, when I met with the conference or organizing team, when I jumped on a call with them, I said, by the end of this call, where would you like to get to?
I even asked them by the end of this meeting by the end of my talk where would you what would you like the world to be different for your audience I always want to find out where do we want to get to by the end of this meeting when this meeting is finished, where do we want to get to by the end of this meeting?
When this meeting is finished and we all walk away, what are the non-negotiable outcomes that we'll miss meetings finished and we all walk away what are the non-negotiable outcomes that we won okay so it's really starting with the end in mind and then you can make a result.
You can we can make a best results list. Okay, by the end of our meeting. And you can get collaboration on that.
Folks. By the end, we're meeting for the 60 min by the end of the 60 min.
What do we want to work and walk away with? Okay. Now often there are 4 D's when it comes to psychology of communication in an eating.
Sometimes you meet to die. Divulge information. Maybe I'm gonna call a meeting because I wanna divulge and I wanna give you an update. I wanna just give you news.
I wanna meet so we can divulge. The best result is that I divulge information and you understand it.
Maybe it's I want to discuss something. I want to just go back and forth. I want to get 2 and through.
Guys, I want to call a meeting because I would like to discuss my the end of this meeting.
I wanna have create some space for us to go back and forth just to process stuff. Sometimes I wanna decipher, decide for.
Sometimes I wanna meet. So I can learn what you think. Guys, can we have a meeting together?
Because I really want to know what you think about a certain thing about this new policy. I want our this new tool.
Well, I want to know what you think. I wanna call it, I wanna decipher your thoughts.
Or by the end of this meeting I want us to walk away with a decision.
When you tell everyone or when you organize amongst yourselves by the end of this meeting our best results are you know what by the end of this meeting I want to walk away with 3 simple points that we can implement over the next month.
So when we meet again, we can rate out of 10 where we got to with these things. Great, nice, clear outcome.
Start with the best results. There are too many of us that dive into this meeting and essentially it's like getting on to a plane without deciding the destination.
Like think about how crazy that is. It's like in midair or as we're starting to run out of fuel or time we'll decide where where are we landing this plane again?
I don't know. And some people need to jump off with a parachute, which means that you never get cohesion at the end, which leads You definitely want to follow the ice cream cone of conversion of convergence of thoughts.
In the meeting in the chat, let me know. Have you ever been in the meeting where at the end it's like 3 min to go and people have another call to go to and then someone goes oh I've just got to add I just need to throw this in I need to throw that in.
I need to ask about this. I need to go. And basically, rather than close the meeting, it just exploded again and now people go, I'm really sorry, I'm late for me, I got to go and then people start dropping off the call.
Let me know if you've ever had this experience. Have you ever had this experience when, you know, yeah, yeah, it's kind of like, oh my gosh, someone.
Threw a hand grenade in and now our thoughts are all over the place and there is no clarity anymore.
Okay, right. Let's stop that. It's frustrating. Follow the ice cream cone of convergence of thoughts throughout the flight.
Essentially, what you want is a convergence of thoughts. You want thoughts to come together to a single point of.
Sorry, a single version of the truth. That's where he wanted to create. Okay, how do we do that?
We ban A OB. Okay, any other business we ban A OB. At the end of the meeting.
AOB shouldn't happen at the end of the meeting. You finish me, you go, okay, and.
Is there anything else that anyone wants to discuss? Of course, someone else wants to discuss something. It's basically meeting suicide, isn't it?
It's like. Bad idea. And I'll tell you why. Because in my world, As a doctor, the most important things are said at the end.
My wife's a GP, right? She'll sit down with someone and they'll tell them about their sore finger and their store tool.
And they're here that's thinning. And when the appointment is finished. And they walk to the door as they're putting their hand on the door they might go Oh, by the way, I had 2 collapses yesterday.
Okay, the most important things are said at the end. So that is why in your flight plan, if you want to have more cohesion in the virtual world, you go.
Guys, we got 60 min on the clock. This is what we want to walk away with. These are the things we will cover to get there.
But before that, does anyone have anything else to add to the agenda? And to make them speak up.
I see, folks, let's pretend there's 2 min on the clock and we're back to part company.
What is that thing that you're gonna say to the end? I need to know about it now.
Chuck it one. I can't guarantee we'll talk about it, but at least we'll funnel it all into one single point.
And if we can, we'll deal with it offline or at the next meeting. Okay, so.
So in summary, what am I saying? I'm sick. You want to use the flight plan.
Start with the best results and try create a convergence of thought, not divergence of thought.
And with that said, how are you going to use these to make your life better? These top tips I just shared with you in the chat. I want to hear from you.
So go ahead and punch in. What have you taken? From this? What have you taken from this first top tip, this first area of the triangle, what how is this slideed to you? Are you going to share this?
And
Are you going to share the recording with someone and your organization? Do, do you need to do a lunch and learn with them and share this out with them?
You
How is this landing for you? What are you gonna, what have you taken away? Go ahead. Let us know in the.
And and
Yeah. In the in the chat and I'll go ahead and read some of this. So what have we got?
And
I'm using this on an important meeting on Friday. Good one, Sankar. I'm going to share out the recording or nice one Rebecca that's it share their learnings this conference has been put on for you for a reason.
And and Oh and
So go do it, you know? I'm really privileged to have been included here. So thank you to the entire team for having me join you.
I'm privileged. Yeah, yeah, it will be at the end, yeah, at the end.
And
Don't do AOB at the end. To at the beginning. All right. Yeah, when I left meetings, I need to implement these tactics.
I'll share the link with my scrum master. All right. Yeah. When I let meetings, I need to implement these tactics.
I'll share the link with my flipping heck. If you're in tech, I work with lots of tech teams.
If you were in tech, tech teams need to know this because they're they're hyper agile sometimes, right?
And, and, and that can be frustrating. You need a stand. If you're in tech, do a standing meeting.
When you stand, when you stand for physiological reasons, you're going to improve frontal loop attention.
You're going to improve focus. All right. Get rid of the mobile phones, get rid of the cat, shut the door, focus, okay, and get those standing meetings in.
All right. Now top tip is think meetings and Khesian. Meetings are all about cohesion.
Cohesion. Remember, oh actually tell me the answer in the chat. Do you remember this?
The greatest distance between 2 people is what? Punch it in the chat. Again, what's the answer?
The greatest distance between yes, misunderstanding, right, which is all tied to communication. The greatest distance between 2 people is a different version of the truth, right?
A non singular version of the truth. I'm going to go back to my egg. The greatest distance between 2 people is misunderstanding.
All right, good. I'm having fun with you folks. This is amazing. I'm enjoying this.
I'm enjoying this. Let's go into our our blasted friend. Email. Now.
Email, it's a part of life. And, interestingly, the way that we work with email is connected to our mental health.
Studies have shown that the frequency that you check email Can have a negative impact on your mental well-being.
Why? Because you were doing something called task switching. You go into an email, you need to then figure out what are they asking me.
What do they want from me? Do I have to make a decision? Just commit. So you have to go into someone's world when you've done that email you come out of that well and then you go into another so there's some evidence to suggest that however in recent years there's also been evidence to suggest that depending on how you are wired depending on how your brain is wired, your 86 billion
neurons and those connections in your brain, how that all is connected depending on how that's all connected up.
It may be that you generate less anxiety for yourself. If you do check email frequently, even when you're not at work.
Now for me, I was a big believer in No email outside of work and no checking at the weekends, but when this research came out I realized that for some people who have more And there are 5 big personality traits.
We can talk about this later if you want, but you know, this is old psychology, fundamental.
Stuff here. One of the dimensions on the flight big 5 is called neuroticism. If we're slightly more anxious and we need to check to be in control.
Those type of people tend to benefit from that extra checking. That's an aside. I don't mean I didn't even plan to tell you that.
But email is like if we didn't have email we would have carrier pigeon so don't don't machine gun email completely if you didn't have email you would have carrier pigeon so there are a great number of effective byproducts from having quick communication like email.
However, the shadow side is this. Anyone ever been like, is that your inbox there? All right.
It's kind of like. I've been copied into every, I'm not even sure why I'm getting copied into this.
You want to meet for a lunch, copy out everyone, you know, so it's kind of like, yeah, and I get it.
So people are like Let's go back to carry your pigeon. Maybe life would be simpler.
Maybe like it would be simpler. I get what you're saying. I'm feeling you my friend.
Honestly, I do. Bye, got some top tips for your mental health and for your cohesion.
Okay? And you might want to think about how do we do this in our workplace? So here's the question.
How can we?
Or what can we do to make our email life more effective? Here are 3, top tips.
Number one. In your organization or your team start to use a convention. Have a convention around email. Some basic convention.
Maybe it's how you label the subject. There's a convention about that. Maybe the convention is that, you know, for some people And I do this, you know, you can have.
A convention of in the subject. It could be a convention around subject. Again, this this only works if you may create an agreement.
This is how we are going to, you know, if there's a question, let's put it in there.
If there's an action or request. You know, can you review? Please review, please read whatever, okay?
And then, in the actual body of the message, there may be a convention on how you display that information.
It might be the salutation and then there might be the direct ask. There might be the ask. When can we get a meeting in the diary?
And then context. The person I'm supervising is having some trouble. I'd really appreciate your thoughts on that.
And then after that, details. For those that need more details. This is a convention that I use.
With people that I work with. Subject, the salutation, the ask upfront. What is the ask?
You know, would you like a speaker at your next team virtual luncheon learn? That's the ask.
The context is many people in the US are having workplace fatigue and disengagement. Because of virtual collaboration problems.
The details. Burnett is on the rise, Boom, thank you. Conventions take out the leg work the human brain has to do when you're trying to process the information in front of you.
So there's a template that you can fill. That's one top tip there. Have a think about how you could work that out.
The other one is have email sprints and snoozes. Don't just check your email throughout the day drip feeding.
It takes time. It will burn you out. Why not consider blocking time for I'm in my inbox?
And I, when I was working in the medical sector, would have an email sprint in the morning, but you know, just a before I kick off the clinic, then a clinic then a quick, you know, 15 min email inbox check, before lunch.
And then another email inbox. Spring after lunch and then a tidy up at the end of the day.
And I tried to stick to that discipline, which made me feel like I wouldn't have to be on email on the chat all the time and I could focus.
And then with that said, Oh, and by the way, there's some nice comments coming in here.
This is a great community we have here. You guys are sharing top tips with each other so that's that's that's absolutely amazing.
So, so good. So, so good. Final thing, alright? Single, single task where possible, okay?
Single task on email. Now, many people. Tell me the truth, in fact, let me let me let me find out from you.
Let's go to Menti for a second. Jump onto Menti. Let's just find out what life is like, particularly since the pandemic.
I expect this has gone up. How often do you find yourself multitasking at work? That's the question.
You
You're trying to get on with something and someone knocks on your door and said there's someone's and you bite me into a sandwich and you're doing a lunch and you're having a conversation and you're doing emails and you're also on an online meeting.
Oh and
Oh, let's come back out with that. There we go.
And and
Okay, so I think the general consensus is that multitasking is kind of bugging you a little bit.
How am I doing for time? 35. So I got that 1015 min left. Okay.
I'm going a little slower than usual or than I thought I would but I'm trying to but actually I think that I think we've got a buffer time.
Folks, with your permission, I'm gonna use some of the buffer time because I feel like we're getting into debt and this is like really really interactive and I know that the conference team want maximum value for you.
So let's go a little bit over time because we got some QA, we'll mesh that in.
The brain may let me just prove it to you. Let me not give you a I got let's play a game.
Let's play a game. I'm gonna get you to compete against each other. Okay, listen to the instruction then I'm gonna get you to do it.
Don't touch your pen or paper yet. In a moment, I want you to write. I love.
2 multi-task. I want you to write that in a minute, not just now. And then I wait to write 12345678910 I basically want you to put a number under each letter Okay, in a moment I'm gonna say 3 2 one go and then you're gonna write I want to multi-task me you're gonna number the up and when you're done
Type in the chat. Bingo! Exclamation mark and I'll stop the stopwatch.
I want to time you, okay? I hope that's clear enough. In a moment I'm gonna say go and then you're gonna write.
I'll optimize it's a race. I love to know it's asking you to write.
Once you've been and then you can type bingo when you're done. 3, 2, one.
And
Go! All right, go, go, go, go. I'm actually genuinely timing you here and I'm gonna have to check and chat chat for the first.
And
Person that writes bingo. And genuinely timing you.
And and and
And
Oh, okay, okay, we have 18 s.
You
Alright, very, very good. Okay, very good. Okay, okay. 18 s to write.
I love to multitask and then bingo.
How are you a piece of paper over you're not allowed to look at what you've just written turn it get rid of it not like to copy here is challenge number 20 by the way who won that by the way who won that let's give someone some credit here.
Who won that? Niya Young, right in there with the first bingo, Nicole Ford in there and Calpana in with another bingo Andrew Yasmin in with another bingo.
Congratulations to you. Let's celebrate that. Let's just celebrate that right now. Part 2.
Do not touch your pen or paper. Just watch. I, one, L, 203, V, 4, E, 5.
I love 2 multitask, but I want you to do it in a multitasking way.
Do not copy what you've written before. You gotta get rid of it. Okay. It is a race.
And your time starts in 3, 2, one, go, go, go, go. I won L 2.
And
And and and the
Oh, for, try and get that done. 4 to one you know get those numbers that now you're making mistakes already I can I can see you I'm in your I'm behind you right now looking over you're making mistakes over there I can see that now you're laughing you are laughing at yourself Oh my gosh, it's like all cameras are on all people here.
You
Let's get the first bingo coming up. Where's the first bingo? I'm waiting for it.
I'm waiting. Yeah, it's okay. Okay, great. Stop.
And
So, Alright, so we have gone from about 18 s to about you know, 30 s. Okay, we're now verging on this taking Oh, almost.
Almost double, about 1.8 times more. You are getting paid, your people are getting paid 1.8.
Times more in a multitasking world to do the same job. In the in the in the chat tell me that it feed was it harder?
Did your head hurt? Do you make more mistakes? What, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me.
Yeah, yeah, feel this releases, Joanna. the chief says it was harder, lots more mistakes, much harder.
Okay, fine. Why the heck do we do this in working world? And we wonder why we make more mistakes, get more frustrated with each other, get, you know, like all these problems.
Look, the evidence is in. We live in a multi-tasking world. In other words, a world that creates more confusion and more mental fatigue.
Friends, to summarize. Use a convention in email if possible. Take some of the legwork out thinking.
Maybe build in sprint and snooze, email sprints for yourself and And when it comes to when it comes to a multitasking and juggling where possible try and become disciplined with one thing at a time.
A great way to do this? Is to schedule your tasks into your calendar rather than just write a to do list when you've got a task, put a strange account and where does that task live and focus on it indestructibly.
Okay, in the chat, let us know. How are you going to make use of these top tips?
And
A little bit of music. Go on. Chuck it in the chat. How are you gonna make use of these top tips?
And
How are you gonna make them work for you? What are you going to change about yourself and how you practice?
Yeah, declaring more meetings, create taskless. Yeah, use a Pomodoro timer.
And and and
Yeah, yeah, yeah, check emails at specific times. Yeah, yeah, introduced to your team to start.
And
And start doing unilaterally yeah yeah 1 point yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah become indestructible love the idea of sprints and snoozes all of the idea of sprints and snoozes all of them convention but yeah okay good good good good Okay, you guys are awesome.
And and and and
So the top tip here is when you think email Think convention. Where possible, try create the same practices.
All right? Now you don't have to. Don't. So go away from here and spend 6 months building a email convention policy.
Burn yourself out. Something low hanging fruit a little something that's just simpler, okay? it could be, can we just be clearer?
Can we put our, can we be clear with our subject? You know, can we create something, you know, just how do you make your life 5% better over the next quarter?
How do you do that? Oh, and by the way, top tip, I made myself a CC folder.
So any emails that come to me where I am seced in them go into that particular folder so I know that when I go through my CC folder I'm just reading stuff that I've been copied into versus it being indispersed with all of my emails.
Some of them I need to action and some of them I just need to kind of be aware of. So you know you could build yourself a CC folder and set up that automation that might be helpful as well.
All right, we are almost there. Last piece of the puzzle is Tools. 2 alls, collaboration tools.
Oh, by the way, did you know? Like if we just go back into the Latin. The word cool lab.
Comes from the word to cool labor. It just means to work together. To work together and in order to work together you need to be able to transfer thoughts in a more accurate way.
And so we've talked about meetings, we've talked about emails. Let's talk about the use of tools.
Let's talk about the use of tools. Gloria, for us just for a moment. All right.
You
Regarding digital tools in my workplace. Do you need less? Do you have to write more than that?
And
Do you need more and do or do you just need different like where are you at? Hit us up.
We need to last.
And
You. We need less. We need less. We need less.
We need less. We have the right. Yeah, we need different. We need different.
And
I'm curious. What do you need different of? And when I asked this question in this, in the zoom give me an answer, invariably I get doctor tea.
For you
And
How do you do this without anyone in your room but yourself? I always get that question. That in terms of doing you, but like what it, you know, there is no option on screen to say we need to use better, Yeah, it's about we need more effective use.
We need more effective use of tools. You're right, I should have added that in. 2 piece of collaboration right there.
You
Hey, let me just, run some ideas through you. When there's so many tools and so many choice, so many choices, it gets a bit overwhelming.
I've been in workplaces where they're like When I ask, where's this piece of information?
They tell me it's in the shared drive. It's in the shared drive. Have you ever heard that?
It's in the shared drive. It's in the shared drive. The shared flippin drive looks like this.
Hey, it looks like that, which is no great answer for someone like me who is rubbish with details.
I am rubbish for details. My brain doesn't do details. My brains just bullet points, right?
And they tell me it's in the shared, has anyone been in that situation or is it just me in the medical system that we work in.
It's like it's in the shared drive is not a good enough answer if the goal is this the sharing of ideas okay collaboration so yeah that kills me because not everyone is organized and I'd like them to be and a catalogue system not the same as. And I'd like them to be ha ha and a catalogue system not the same as others. Yeah.
I mean, like, you know, there are, this, you know, the same as others.
Yeah, I mean, like, you know, there are, I mean, like, you know, there are, this, you know, there are differences in the way brain processes in the way brain processes information.
There's some brains that can take detail and need detailed information. There's some brains that can take detail and need detail to be less stressed.
And there's some brains that when they're faced with lots and diesel become more stressed, maybe more on that later.
But the point I really just wanna make here is that when things are Think about the results. What do we need to achieve and therefore what tools do we need to get there?
What is the, remember we talked about best results? If we understand what the target is.
If we get clear on what the best results are, the B are the best results. Then we can work out, well, we need this tool, we need that to and we need that too.
Okay. I am only using like. 3 tools in this Zoom. I'm using Zoom.
I'm using my camera software and that is all because I just want to give us a collaborative experience.
Could I use more? Yeah, but I'm not gonna give us a collaborative experience. Could I use more?
Yeah, but I'm not gonna because I'm thinking about what the best results are. I want to take a lean approach.
Okay. Now some of this is a new power if you were to private you know if you're if you're in a small organization we've got a lot of flex.
Some of this is not your power. It's dictated to you what tools are you being what you're being used but you can bring this mentality.
Into your workplace. Think focus think lean. All right, also habitualize your convention. So if you are using tools.
Make it clear to everyone. This is what this tool is for. This is what Slack is for.
This is what WhatsApp is for. This is what the Facebook group is for. If you use one, this was what email is for.
Create conventions and habitualize them. Do the same things on repeat and please stop. Stop the stop yourself from the temptation of keeping to keep continually updating and changing things because the human brain has to form habits on a very physical level.
So if you create too much change too quickly and all the time you will create more brain fatigue and your people and yourselves which is new good right and the other simple point here is that when it comes to tools.
Have a collaborative mindset. I talked to you about the Ikea chair. I've talked to you about the IKEA chair.
What, whatever people contribute to, they will what? Support on the same vein. Be okay.
A collaborative mindset requires you to be okay with ditching. Ditching some of the ideas that were yours that you were so tethered to.
Sometimes you need to ditch ideas because they're yesteryear. Sometimes you need to ditch ideas because you can't afford them or it won't work and there's something better.
But because we're so invested in them, we find it hard to let go or agree. Think about the IKEA bias and think about if it's you being used for your benefit or if it's getting in the way.
Okay. I was doing a TV show here in the UK couple of days ago in London. This is 500 miles away.
And we worked for about a week on like. 6 min of footage. And when it came to doing the live Like it was live TV, but it came to me doing my thing live.
It changed. And there was so much that we prepared so much of our week had to get ruthlessly chopped out.
And I remembered in that moment, hey, Tarica, don't be tethered to stuff that's yours.
Always just think about what is best. You know, and we made the right decision for the cause in terms of what we chopped out.
And we made the right decision for the cause in terms of what we chopped out. So there you go, those are those top tips. Be lean, be focused on results.
Have don't keep changing stuff. Try and keep some kind of consistency and have a collaborative mindset own and contribute but also be prepared to let go when the time is right.
And with that said, how are you going to apply this in your life. Let us know in the chat.
You
Let us know in the chat. Go for it. Go for it. Go for it.
And
Let us know in the chat. How are you gonna make sense of or how are you gonna utilize?
This thing on, tools. Yeah, attachments can hurt. Yeah, yeah, you're right. You're right.
And
They can, they can hard. And that's okay. That's okay. So so get to feel at the same time, try keep your thinking cap on and do the right thing for you.
And
Start with the small changes. Yeah, let's go. Yeah, yeah, for resolve to let go.
You
Yeah, oh, let it go. I thought it was like, let's go. Let's, oh.
And
Now I get the joke. Now I get the joke Raphaela, you're like, let it go and then you're like frozen.
Do you know what I thought you said is like let's go your screen is frozen. The greatest distance between 2 people's misunderstanding, right?
Always double check what you read. Definitely promote results focused and be lean. Nice one, Adrian.
You
Love the description of a collaborative mindset says, Jackie. And, how do you iterate and not change at the same time?
And
Good question, Miriam.
Oh, I feel like should be parked that for QA. Let's hold on. Let's come to that for Q&A because we're just at the end. We're gonna kind of land.
Good one Miriam shout at me in the chat if I don't answer you okay Tools?
Think purpose. Why do we need tools and then get the right tools in place and use them appropriately? Okay, let's land.
Let us land. So at the beginning of this, the big question was how can you increase call lab in a remote working world?
Top tip number one with regards meetings, emails and tools.
Always remember the triangle, the 3 sides of this triangle, top that number one is, think means in cohesion, okay?
Think flight plan. Think take off mid flight landing, think, Convergence, self thought, the ice cream cone.
All right. Also, when it comes to email you wanna think convention where there are more standards where there are more standards there is less mental fatigue.
Finally, when it comes to tools Use tools around the purpose you require them for. Don't be a tool junkie, don't fill up on tools when you don't need to.
Effective use of tools in a purpose-driven way. Okay? And with that said, with that said my friends.
I wanna leave you with an inspirational question, then we'll get into, the QA.
It's what if? What if is the gateway to possibility at some point in time someone did ask the question what if one date?
We could set fruit in Everest. What if one day we could fly? What if? One day we could set foot on the moon and what if one day
We could communicate with anyone anywhere. With a device in the palm of our hands and what if one day for every single person in the audience today, this could be the beginning.
Of moving forward further together because you understand a little bit more of the connection between your brain. And your behavior and that my friends is remotivate and on your food please please please give us some feedback right now have you learned something today Are you intending to apply something you've learned today?
You
And
And was this good enough for you to even want me to share something like this again? Go and throw those answers in.
I'll let that run in the background. And now we open into a bit of a Q&A time.
And
So I'm going to ping back to. Howard and the team. To help facilitate this and let's get some.
And