Bij HNW horen andere werkrelaties en nieuwe vormen van zelfsturing, samenwerking, en kennismanagement. Ook de eisen aan de werkomgeving (kantoor en ICT) veranderen. De organisatie én de medewerker worden continu uitgedaagd om na te denken over de vraag welke werkvormen en werkomgevingen het best passen bij een bepaalde doelstelling. HNW heeft dus een grote invloed op de manier waarop kenniswerk wordt uitgevoerd: er is sprake van een “groeipad” waarlangs HNW steeds verregaander wordt toegepast. Daarnaast doet HNW een zwaar beroep op de vaardigheden van de medewerker om zijn of haar werk zelfstandig en effectief te organiseren. Om daadwerkelijk de vruchten van HNW te kunnen plukken is het van belang om hem of haar hierop goed toe te rusten.

In het ProWork rapport “Het Nieuwe Werken: van teamdoelen naar persoonlijke vaardigheden” beschrijven we de aanleiding en opzet van een workshop en een masterclass die bijdragen aan de ontwikkeling van een HNW teamontwikkelingsagenda c.q. aan de ontwikkeling van persoonlijke HNW vaardigheden. We beschrijven waarom er op team- of afdelingsniveau aandacht moet worden geschonken aan een ontwikkelingsagenda: waar ligt onze ambitie met tijd- en plaatsonafhankelijk werken, hoe maken we het uitvoerbaar, wat moet er dan anders. Vervolgens beschrijven we de rationale en de opzet van een workshop die als doel heeft om bewustwording te creëren over de omvang en impact van HNW voor een afdeling en om een aanzet te geven voor de agenda.

Daarnaast beschrijven we waarom er op individueel niveau bewuster aandacht moet worden geschonken aan persoonlijke HNW vaardigheden: een integrale ontwikkeling van digitale vaardigheden en persoonlijke effectiviteit. We beschrijven de opzet van een masterclass die beoogt om medewerkers meer bewust te maken van vier kernuitdagingen van HNW en de kennis en vaardigheden die nodig zijn om deze succesvol het hoofd te kunnen bieden. De masterclass reikt voorts enkele concrete hulpmiddelen en methoden aan die deelnemers in hun eigen, dagelijkse werk kunnen toepassen.

Wilt u meer informatie, stuurt u dan een mailtje.

• de baas zien te blijven over een overvolle agenda
• geen tijd hebben voor reflectie of zelfontwikkeling
• eigen doelen moeten stellen, zelf de verantwoordelijkheid moeten nemen
• een gezonde balans zien te houden tussen werk en privé
• moeten samenwerken op afstand
• niet goed weten wat er speelt in je team
• je collega’s weten te vinden, verbonden blijven met je collega’s
• geen eigen werkplek meer hebben, moeten werken op meerdere locaties
• moeten werken met steeds meer applicaties en devices
• je weg zien te vinden in een versnipperd aanbod aan informatie

In een tweede ronde konden de deelnemers brainstormen over de vaardigheden die nodig zijn om deze uitdagingen goed het hoofd te kunnen bieden. Na een inventarisatie en een stemmingsronde kwamen we tot de volgende lijst:

1. Duidelijke prioriteiten kunnen stellen
2. Grenzen kunnen stellen
3. Goed verbindingen kunnen leggen
4. Zelfstandig kunnen werken
5. Gericht zijn op relaties
6. Goed kunnen netwerken
7. “Mindful” kunnen werken, jezelf goed kennen, bewuste keuzes maken

Opvallend was de grote afstand tussen Duidelijk prioriteiten kunnen stellen (de nummer 1 in deze lijst) en alle overige vaardigheden die werden genoemd. Dus wat deze groep deelnemers betreft, met veel vertegenwoordigers uit de HRM wereld, is dit dé vaardigheid van de moderne kenniswerker.

How it works
This method should be used during the initial session of people who have to collaborate. Immediately after the initial round of who is who and why are we here together today, form pairs of people from different backgrounds, cultures, organizations or whatever barrier you wish to level. Ask these pairs to write down on sticky notes what prejudices their colleagues might have against people from the other “side”. It is important not to ask what prejudices they have; as that might result in only the politically correct responses. While they are writing these down, walk around and stimulate them with questions such as: “What did your colleages say when they heard you had this session?”.

After a few minutes, when you notice that “the popcorn stops popping” ask the people from one “side” to read out what they have written down. Write key terms on a big piece of paper. Try to defer any defence (“I would like to react on that…”, “Let me put that straight…”) to the next phase. Then ask the people from the other side to read out what they have written down and collect their key terms on a different piece of paper. Then start the next phase by just asking “Who would like to react?”

Our experience is that this method is a powerful starter for cross-organizational collaboration projects.

(c) photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/agharti

When the Concept Game is played by more people in an organization, it can help that organization determine what aspects of future ways of working are important for the people in that organization. The Concept Game can be played in a workshop of 8 to 10 people. In the workshop, people first select their own favourite and not favourite concepts. Secondly, the choices are explained and discussed by the group. Finally, a coherent view is created on what issues and opportunities of future ways of working are most important for the organization. You can download a flyer about the Future Workspaces Concept Game Workshop here.

1. Social Media Market – a workshop in which we take you and your team through the current Social Media landscape and explore which of these fit your needs and preferences.
2. Social Media Hands-on – a pilot in which you and your team experiment with a social tool of your choice. Apart from enabling and facilitating the use of the tool, we help you in gathering lessons learned and in assessing whether this tool actually provides added value for your team.
3. Social Media Strategic Advice – an independent, realistic advice on what social media could mean for your organization in relation to the business issues you are faced with. This series of activities help you to gain insight in whether or not to apply social media, how to introduce these tools in your organization and how to help your people use these tools in a smart and responsible way.

This line of activities is also a good way of getting to know us and our way of working: with a clear objective, timeline and budget we work together with you to achieve results and learn along the way. And hopefully raise your interest in broader research on future ways of working.

We tested this prototype at the future workspaces project day. The participants of this day reacted enthusiastically, which resulted in approximately 100 swipes of badges within the hour. We are going to explore this way of social interaction more and extend this concept. If you are interested please feel free to contact us.

The physical version of the Concept Game can be played individually or in a workshop. It is also possible to play the Concept Game online.

Click here to start playing the Concept Game online. You will be asked to select your favourite and least favourite concept ideas. Please also tell us why you have selected these concepts and submit your choices. It will help us to focus our future plans and concept development.

The online version of the Concept Game was developed by Steven Haveman.

» Start the Concept Game

Earlier, we had developed and evaluated scenarios aimed at using multi-touch technology for working and creating together. The results of the workshops also point at other directions for future developments that we hope to explore further.

Some interesting points of discussion:

• The fact that multi-touch surfaces allow input from multiple persons at the same time implicates that everyone who is at the surface has control over what is viewed, changed or added. Some people see this as an advantage, others think that one person should always be in control.
• Multi-touch surfaces are useful if different kinds of information (for example, tekst, numbers and photos) have to be reviewed with a team. In those cases, the large screen provides an overview and each of the team members has control over the data that is shown.
• Multi-touch surfaces could also be used for co-creation and inspiration by letting people work at such surfaces at different moments in time. People could have their own space and shared spaces where they can add to the work of others or find ideas to use in their own work.
• It is fun to use the multi-touch surfaces because it involves a natural kind of interaction. This alone could be a reason to use them.
• A multi-touch wall could also be used for communication with people at other locations. Reviewing a document and seeing a video of a person on the same large screen could be an efficient way to work together at a distance.

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

Through diverse activities such as learning about playfulness at work during Sarah Harveys talk, experiencing new technology (and creating ideas on how to use them) in the workshops and connecting with others through ztamps during ‘Borrelpraat’ we brought our motto for this day ’see, share, do, create’ to life.

For an impression of the day see twitter and Flickr. More details about the outcomes of the workshop will follow soon. Please feel free to share your experiences or links to photos of the event in the comments.

• June 17: The Professional Playground of the Future (our project day)
• June 22: Passion at work: blogging practices of knowledge workers (Lilia Efimova’s PhD defence)
• June 22-24: ICE conference with a workshop by Marcel Bijlsma
• June 24: Web2.0 in the Enterprise (NAF Insight congres with me speaking on stimulating cohesion with social media)
• June 25-26: Reboot (a yearly gathering of creative minds on digital change and culture). Sad to have to skip this one…

Am I missing something here? (Not that the list above is manageable…) Post a comment!