Future Workspaces » productivity

Have a break!

external author — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:58:30 +0000

As part of the projectday 2009, we organized the workshop “Have a break!”. Breaks are an important, yet sometimes undervalued part of effective knowledge work: you change contexts, clear your mind and fuel your engine. Additionally, breaks provide an opportunity to interact with people outside your usual circle to benefit from cross-pollination over traditional organizational boundaries or simply to get inspired.

The workshop consisted of two parts: one in which the group explored and experienced how an interactive tool at the coffee corner could help trigger conversations and one part where they discussed key elements to make breaks valuable knowledge sharing moments, assisted by a visual thinker. For the experience part we used the prototype of Buzzcuit, pre-loaded with profiles of some of the workshop participants.

Some of the outcomes of the discussions that triggered me:

Make sure you have breaks in pure virtual meetings (phone conferences, meetings in a virtual world) as well – and facilitate the chitchat that in non-virtual meetings proves to be so important for trust building.
When using an interactive screen with profiles of people, target the information to the people around the screen (e.g., based on Bluetooth or RFID). That also allows for matchmaking.
When talking about the office as a meeting space, the term “break” may be misleading. Talking to people, insiode and outside your team, is an important part of being a knowledge worker.
Management should lead by example and take time to talk to people outside their usial circles.
And although it is sometimes difficult to fit breaks in, realize that in the 21st century breaks is where an important part of the work is done. Break = work!

Dennis from Jam visualized outcomes of the discussion. More of the results (also from the other workshops) can be found here.

Focus! The call for singletasking

external author — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:40:23 +0000

As we described in this blog post, one of the key challenges for modern knowledge workers is being in flow: reaching the mental state needed to get work done for which concentration is needed. This post of WebWorkerDaily is about singletasking: focussing on one task at a time, trying to avoid interruptions of other tasks – thus increasing the possibilities for flow. The article discusses three ways to help yourself to singletask: avoid task management tools that constantly remind you of all the other things you should do, use only one tab and use only one screen.

When I need to be in flow, I also switch off my e-mail notifications, log out from Skype and Twitter and make sure my physical desktop is clean. What do you do to get in the flow?

Is e-mail and document sharing not good enough?

external author — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:47:31 +0000

In the current economic state of the world it is not easy to get organizations to experiment with innovative tools to support knowledge work. Very rightfully, they may ask: “So, why are our current tools – e-mail and file sharing on a network drive – not good enough?”. The challenge lies in explaining how innovative technologies can make them work better, quicker, more efficient and with more fun. In a nice interview by Stowe Boyd with Jeff Walker and Jay Simons of Atlassian they talk about the State Of Enterprise 2.0. I especially like their conclusion that we should aim for small, kaizen-style improvements and learning from the community, and not try jumping into a mass transformation.

Smart Working Center

Marcel Bijlsma — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:19:35 +0000

Smart Working Center (SWC) Almere is an initiative of Cisco and the municipality of Amsterdam and Almere to create an advanced working environment in the Almere area to reduce travel times for Almere-Amsterdam commuters. (press release (in dutch): here. SWC is part of the Connected Urban Development program of Cisco and partners.

Objective of this user experience study case is to create insights in how the Smart Working Center Almere as a working environment can optimally support professionals in their work. Key questions to answer are how professionals experience the SWC services and facilities, how they adapt over time their working styles and processes to the new possibilities of the SWC and what the feasibility is of the concept in terms of business value for the different stakeholders. — More to follow shortly –

Instruments: Are you ready for the new way of work?

Ruud Janssen — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:26:27 +0000

This little test (an interactive MS Excel sheet) scans for your current personal information management strategy, and your collaboration and knowledge sharing attitude. It focuses on those aspects that are affected most by the changes brought about by new, ICT-enabled ways of working. Use this test to examine how ready you are for “the new way of work”.

The test is currently only available in Dutch and can be downloaded here.

Plezier op de werkvloer zorgt voor creativiteit

infocentre — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 08:50:08 +0000

Nederlandse bedrijven hebben het gezellig. Dit blijkt uit onderzoek van de Hay Group. Of dat gunstig is voor het bedrijf, betwijfelen de onderzoekers. De Nederlandse werkgever lijkt het voordeel van plezier op de werkvloer juist wél in te zien. (full text article: Computable, 3 oktober 2008)

Best practices: E-mail etiquette

Ruud Janssen — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:33:23 +0000

E-mail is a powerful medium for communication and document distribution. So powerful actually, that it is becoming the victim of its own success. When you keep these 10 simple rules in mind, your communication via e-mail will become more effective. The etiquette is available in an English and a Dutch version.

Lessons learned: Coping with information overload

Ruud Janssen — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:30:00 +0000

A growing number of knowledge workers is confronted with the consequences of information overload on a daily basis. In the METIS knowledge management project we performed a pilot study at the petrochemical multinational Basell (now LyondellBasell), where we investigated the causes of information overload and evaluated instruments to reduce the impact of information overload. A leaflet summarizing the study can be downloaded here (English), and a presentation with highlights of the study can be downloaded here (English) or here (Dutch).

Challenges for the nomadic worker: Part 3: In Flow

external author — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 17:25:48 +0000

In the series of posts on the main challenges for the nomadic worker, this part focusses on the challenge to get work done for which concentration is needed. The constantly lurking distractions in an always connected world (combined with our information addiction) often prevent us from getting such tasks done. According to research by Csíkszentmihályi (1990), concentrated work requires a person to be “in flow“.

What is being “In Flow”?
Flow is a mental state in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing, characterized by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity (Csíkszentmihályi, 1990).

Why is being “In Flow” important?
Flow is needed to get work done for which deep understanding or concentration are needed.

Our research hypotheses about being “In Flow”

The ability to create flow is a special case of effective attention management.
People can be trained to recognize the need for flow, and to create the right conditions for it.
Proper tools and proper work environments can help to reach and maintain a state of flow.
Reaching and maintaining a state of flow is more difficult in an always connected world.
Reducing the number of interruptions and distracting stimuli helps to maintain flow.

Our research questions about “In Flow”

For what kinds of tasks is flow needed?
How can individuals be supported in their attention management?
How can we train people to create the right conditions for flow?
How can tools and work environments support an individual to reach and maintain a state of flow?

References

Csíkszentmihályi, Mihály (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience’. New York: Harper and Row. ISBN 0-06-092043-2.

Brainstorm Organizr

Ruud Janssen — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:14:13 +0000

A typical brainstorming session produces a handful of flipover sheets with tons of sticky notes on them, that is, until they all start to come loose! Ideal as this may be for storming your mind and structuring your ideas, it is certainly not a good format to keep your results until a follow-up session. Transcribing the results is cumbersome and, like taking a picture, it freezes the results instead of making them accessible for future sessions.

Enter the Brainstorm Organizr, a smartboard application that uses speech-to-text input in addition to freehand writing and sketching to produce text and drawings on virtual sticky notes. These notes can be moved around just like their physical counterparts, using multi-touch or even arm gestures, to create categories or clusters. When you’re done storming your mind, the results are stored and immediately accessible for the next session.