During January at FLUX we concentrated on creating discussions around Progressive Workstyles to get us into focus and motivated for the New Year. Our Tedx Talks, held weekly for our members as a chance to network and talk over some interesting topics over lunch, were a good starting point for these discussions.
We started off the month with a talk by Brian Robertson, the creator of the ‘Holocracy’ business model. The model strives to create clusters within an organisation that encourage autonomy and removes standard management practice. The conclusion drawn from the discussion afterwards was that although this is an idealistic approach that aims to empower employees, it assumes that every employee has the same vested interest in the business, the same perspective of what will make the business grow and prosper, and has the same processes to do it. What if there is conflict? How do you resolve them? We came to the conclusions that holocracy is only suitable for certain types of businesses, and may be more suited to projects rather than an organisation as a whole. You can check it out here.
Our second talk of the month from Margaret Heffernan kick started some great conversations about diversity and women in the workforce. Her topic, Forget the Pecking Order at Work points out that, “Companies don’t have ideas. Only people do”. Hefferman conveys the importance of social interaction at work which develops mutual respect and in turn, promotes collaboration, productivity and shared goals. Find out more here.
We then saw another great topic from Heffernan titled, Dare to Disagree, which focuses on educating people to view conflict as a way to foster creative thinking, as well as a vital tool for progress and growth in business.This generated an engaging discussion about how we can start to encourage positive constructive criticism in business and overcoming the challenges that arise with it. Check it out here.
To sum up our progressive work style month we had Stefan Sagmeister speak about how creativity can flourish when we set time aside from work to travel, create and imagine for ourselves. He also delves into the idea that time away from work can allow us to sculpt valuable ideas, which can then be transposed back into our work. Sagmeister was lucky enough to be able to take sabbatical 1 out of every 7 years, and so in our discussion, everyone agreed that whilst it was a great concept, it probably wouldn’t work logistically across all industries and companies. However, based on Sagmeister’s model, our discussion led into a conversation about the positive outcomes that emerge from employees being encouraged to dedicate time in their work week for personal projects and forward thinking. You can watch it for yourself here.
If you'd like to join the conversation, Spacecubed members are invited to join us for a weekly Tedx Talk and lunch on Wednesday's at 12pm in the Hinkler Boardroom. It's a great chance to get a little break from the desk and have a chat with other members, while getting a little bit of entertainment as well!
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