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Evolutionary Team Effectiveness

Roaring 2020s

Living Your Values in the Roaring 2020s

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Authors Kimberly Layne, Twiana Armstrong and I share how we help leaders and teams establish working together agreements based on mutual understanding, values, mission and purpose.

[Video Transcript]

0:00 [Twiana Armstrong]

Self-Awareness demands knowing your values as well appreciating and respecting the values of others. Being able to live your values, whether at home, at the office or at play, requires work and working together.  DEIB, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging positions the work and the working together so that organizations reap the benefits by fulfilling their mission, employees thrive in an environment in which they feel they belong, and we all improve our quality of life. Self-Aware leaders living their values serve as role models for others to the same and more importantly, exhibit the results of doing the work. I recently had the opportunity to work on my values in a workshop presented by Dr. Janice Doucet Thompson of JD Thompson & Associates, LLC. The workshop, Understanding Your Values and Developing Your Leadership Credo, focused on identifying my values and capturing my life’s purpose.  This check-in helped me confirm that I am living my life’s purpose and thoughtfully wrote down what that looks like. Leaders, you must take the time to do the work. What are your values and how do you demonstrate them as you lead others.

1:30 [Matt Schlegel]

showing up as your authentic self is one of the topics we discussed last time. To show up as your authentic self, it really is important to understand your own values and how your values fit with the purpose of your work, and the organization you’re working in.

I would even extend that to your team – it’s constructive to have a values discussion with your teammates so that everybody understands each other’s values and how they fit in with the mission of the team.

Everyone’s values may not be the same, but there will be overlap, and it’s in that overlap that you find the commonality between individual values and team purpose – the glue that will keep the team striving together to reach your goals.

Here’s just quick example that’s come up recently in a team that I’m working with: At one of the meetings, there was an incident where somebody got very upset and stormed out.

This team had established a working-together-agreement with our shared values and one of those values was Generous Listening.  In debriefing the incident, we recognized that we had failed to live our values.  Ironically, it was between two people who were in agreement and not letting each other finish their thought that they agreed with the other!

Had the team stuck to its values, this incident would have never occurred and the team would have had just that much more time to work towards the goal rather than being distracted processing this incident.

To avoid this in the future the team now takes the time to review the working-together-agreement at the start of meetings, and we see that our meetings have returned to being very productive.  And the team is now more than ever committed to the mission.

Kimberly, how are values and working together agreements playing in your world.

3:33 [Kimberly Layne]

Thank you, Matt, and Twiana for sharing your thoughts on values.

Values as leaders and as a team member are important and often instilled in us when we were kids.

Most of us would agree that when we were raised or if we are raising kids, we teach them the important values of being kind, generous, and to share.

So, when our eldest went off to college this past September, he was eager looking to have several roommates,  to share the space together, and enjoy a bond amongst his new bros.

How do  most male freshman do this? Buy buying beer for the room’s refrigerator, of course. Corey did this several weeks in a row and was enjoying the pride of being the provider and the generous roommate. Until he complained on one call that one of his roommates, Peter was routinely helping himself to the beer and drinking it without any consideration of (1) replacing what he drank w more beer, or (2) reimbursing Corey for the more than generous portion of beer he drank.

Fast forward two weeks to this weekend, when Corey complained  that Pete not only drank his beer but also offered it to several other boys in the dorm. Corey was livid, to say the least.

We encouraged Corey to continue to honor his values and desire to be generous,  and in the process, he needed to establish boundaries and expectations with Pete and his other roommate.  Corey discussed this issue with Pete and included his other roommate in coming up with an mutually acceptable living arrangement agreement.

As a result, Pete and his roommate have agreed to replace any beer they drink and to also buy his own beer to share occasionally.

As leaders, what values are you needing to set expectations about and also boundaries around to ensure you can live those beliefs and values, and not be taken advantage of.

 

Find more about Kimberly, Twiana and Matt here:

Kimberly Layne: https://www.kimberly-layne.com/

Twiana Armstrong: https://linkedin.com/in/twianaarmstrong

 

#Values #WorkingTogetherAgreements #Leadership #Roaring2020s

 

AI Creativity in the Roaring 2020s

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Authors Kimberly Layne, Twiana Armstrong and I discuss the implications of  AI creativity tools and how we have started to used them.

Here are the links that Twiana mentions in the talk:

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/3905672-chatgpt-sends-shockwaves-across-college-campuses/

https://fortune.com/2023/03/18/openai-ceo-sam-altman-warns-that-other-ai-developers-working-on-chatgpt-like-tools-wont-put-on-safety-limits-and-clock-is-ticking/

https://www.history.com/news/most-famous-historic-radio-broadcasts#:~:text=Radio%20fostered%20a%20real%2Dtime,%2C%20entertainment%2C%20news%20and%20advertising.

 

Find Kimberly and Twiana here:

Kimberly Layne: https://www.kimberly-layne.com/

Twiana Armstrong: https://linkedin.com/in/twianaarmstrong

 

[Video Transcript]

[Twiana Armstrong]

Leaders, in the Roaring ‘20s, the radio totally changed the world’s communication infrastructure. In our Roaring 2020’s, OpenAI is the newest provocateur that commands the world’s s attention.  Many sectors are embarking into new territory as OpenAI technology takes on the world. Artificial Intelligence allows you to create content within seconds. Write that best seller in minutes, debut your artistic talents, build that strategic operating plan in a matter of hours just before presenting to stakeholders, or stayed up all night partying, no problem, knock out that thesis just in time to meet the deadline. ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, YouChat, JasperChat and other platforms allow you to produce these and more for free. Yes, we can produce content that achieves all of the above – at what cost?  Sarah Eaton, an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Calgary who studies AI states “I think this is the greatest creative disruptor to education and instruction in a generation.” Implications and challenges to academic honesty, artistic proprietary rights and business integrity are conversations taking place around the proverbial conference room table. What does this mean to your ability to lead? What guardrails and safety nets are in place that effectively curtail those in your industry who will abuse the platforms for nefarious gains? Per Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever at The Verge, “Society, I think, has a limited amount of time to figure out how to react to that, how to regulate that, how to handle it.”  Leaders, please share your thoughts, how are you addressing OpenAI platforms?  Click on the links below as you join the conversation. Kimberly, what is your point of view about this new territory?

[Kimberly Layne]

I feel you Twiana.  I question if Ai and Chat GBT and the likes are replacing our ability to think on our own and come up with creative ideas and content?

Our 14-year-old presented his homework at the dinner table last week.  He had to come up with a question that included diversity and had a causal relationship to the culture within Africa.  WHAT??

After several discussions around education, income, nationality, language, we were stumped.  Then my fiance mentioned, let’s ask ChatGBT.  So we collectively came up with the question does the number of spoken languages within a country affect the education rates.

Chat GBT spit out volumes and percentages for African countries in rapid succession giving us what we were looking for and validating our hypothesis.

What could have taken hours of research took us 5 minutes and prevented us from sitting at the dinner table for another 2 hours. Whew!  the information we gained was valuable for our son to begin his assignment.  Not write it all together.

I think that is where we miss the mark on AI.  We may assume it is the end all be all, replacing the human component.  When in reality, we need to embrace it as a tool by asking it good questions, give it good tasks, validate the information , and most importantly make it our own.

Just as we were all stumped on where to begin with our son’s  homework assignment, CHAT GBT gave us a head start on putting something down on paper,  very often the hardest part of starting anything.  Now we have a tool that helps us perform the first draft of our content we are trying to create, just make sure that you put your own thumb print on it to ensure its credibility and relatability.

Matt how are you embracing this tool or not?

[Matt Schlegel]

It’s going to be fascinating to see where AI takes the creative process. I’ve already started using it in a number of different ways, mostly just playing around with it at this point. For instance, I was with some friends, and we were talking about an interesting situation. So I just asked ChatGPT to write a song about that situation. And it wrote a song. And then we asked it for chords, it gave us some chords.

And then we asked it, “Well, are there other options for chord progressions?” And then it listed many other options and said, “Well, if you want it to feel more like this or feel more like that.” And then it gave us all these different chord progressions based on the mood of the song we were trying to create. It was fascinating how much we were able to create in just a very short amount of time.

Another way that I used AI the other day was I was creating a PowerPoint presentation, and I wanted a specific image to illustrate a certain point.

After searching and not finding an image that worked,  I used an AI tool and had it create an image. It just took a couple of minutes, and I had the picture that I needed for my presentation.

I think we’re just at the beginning of learning how AI can enhance the creative process. I’m only just beginning to understand how I can use it and how it can help me. And yes, I am even thinking about having it generate a first draft of some marketing material I need.

Leaders, how are you and your teams using these new AI tools to better communicate your messages in our Roaring 2020s. If you haven’t already, check out the links in the comments to start familiarizing yourself with these new tools.

 

#leadership #AI #creativity #ChatGPT #Roaring20s #Roaring2020s

Are you Maintaining Healthy Habits and Resiliency in the Roaring 2020s?

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Life continues to throw us curve balls. How are you reacting to unforeseen challenges.  In this episode, authors Kimberly Layne, Twiana Armstrong and I share our thoughts and experiences about how we are maintaining healthy habits to create a wellness baseline that gives us resiliency while navigating challenging times.

 

Find Kimberly and Twiana here:

Kimberly Layne: https://www.kimberly-layne.com/

Twiana Armstrong: https://linkedin.com/in/twianaarmstrong

#leadership #wellness #habits #health #Roaring20s #Roaring2020s

 

[Video Transcript]

[Twiana Armstrong]

Leaders as you strategize about finishing the year strong, take stock, what successes are YOU checking off your personal leaderboard? Your organization relies on you to show up at your best, physically and mentally. Recent studies recommend parents include mental health exams in their children’s health checkups; examinations that check for anxiety in kids of elementary school age and examinations that check for depression in teenagers.  When you stop and reflect on these recommendations, adults should include mental health exams in their checkups, as well.  We can all agree that our lives are jam packed, each day brings experiences that we may or may not control. Your personal leaderboard must list key performance indexes, KPIs, that promote habits and behaviors that focus on you taking care of yourself. As you take stock, are you performing at your peak, physically and mentally? Your KPIs should indicate daily, weekly and monthly healthy behaviors that you consistently perform and consistently track. Take advantage of your organization’s wellness perks and benefits, regularly schedule vacations and retreats to refuel and see your medical expert for health and wellness checkups.  These KPIs keeps you performing at your best!

 

[Matt Schlegel]

Thanks, Twiana.

It’s so important to create habits that allow you to maintain good physical and mental health.

I really I try to do that. I try to eat well; I try to get regular exercise; I try to make sure that I get eight hours of sleep.

But sometimes life just throws things at you that disrupt your patterns, and your resiliency in those times depends on your base, where you’re starting from. That’s why it’s so important to make the investment in yourself to establish that healthy base while  you’re well.  When you start from a good base, you’ll be better able to navigate through challenging times.

And I just went through one of those challenging times with my mom’s health, where all of my routines ended up being disrupted. I had to spend time over at her place and then sometimes at the hospital. My eating habits were disrupted, as well as my exercise habits, and my sleep habits; everything got disrupted, and I could feel my ability to maintain composure and keep my anxiety levels down start to fade as that went on for what ended up being around two and a half weeks.

It really tested me, and I can’t imagine how I would have managed if I were already in a stressed state going into that.

Thankfully I was at a good starting point, and thankfully she’s now recovered. Since then I’ve been able to resume my normal patterns, and now I’m starting to feel much better myself.

You don’t know when something disruptive is going to come at you. It seems like disruptions are becoming more and more frequent all the time.  That raises the stakes for maintaining a healthy baseline when you can.

Kimberly, what are your thoughts?

 

[Kimberly Layne]

Matt and Twiana, thank you for sharing your insights into self-care, especially amidst change.  Very often when life happens, we abandon self-care.  I like to look at change as a test in self-care.  In essence it is teaching us to honor our core foundations of wellness in order to best get through it.

I recently read a book by Matt Kahn who is considered as much as a spiritual influencer as the Dalai Lama and Eckhart Tolle.

In his book, the universe always has a plan, he discusses that change, and adversity, is really an opportunity.  Very often when we have change in our life, or when ‘Life Happens” such as an elderly parent now requiring our presence and extra care,  our company goes through a reorg and we are no longer employed, or we find ourselves in the midst of a pandemic and an isolated lockdown, we  assume this kind of outcome as disappointing, an inconvenience and even a set back to our life.

Matt on the contrary encourages us to realize and know that change will always leave us in a better state than before the change. We may feel at first the loss of our job, or a divorce is excruciatingly devastating, but very often years later we realize it was the best thing that happened to us.  Realizing that there is a gift we cannot see in the midst of the pain, fear, and inconvenience can permit us to not abandon our habits of self-care, but to actually reach for those moments of self-care, knowing the outcome will be fine and we will be eventually too.

I will even take it a step further.  when so called “Life” takes over, we should view the challenge by (1) accepting and knowing it is a gift unseen. (2) Reach for self-care to help us through the process as we know we will better for this experience, and (3) By accepting our circumstances even to the point of being thankful for our adversity, we can fast track through the adversity and challenge.

So, stop resisting, start accepting, reach for self-care and be thankful for the adversity and you will get to the other side much quicker.

 

 

Belongingness in the Roaring 2020s

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To Diversity, Equity and Inclusion we are increasing adding Belongingness as a central consideration in creating healthy workspaces and organization.  Here authors Twiana Armstrong, Kimberly Layne and I discuss considerations for leaders who are working to bring belongingness to their organizations.

Kimberly Layne: https://www.kimberly-layne.com/

Twiana Armstrong: https://linkedin.com/in/twianaarmstrong

#Roaring20s #Roaring2020s #leadership #DEI #DEIB #Belongingness

[Video Transcript]

[Twiana Armstrong]

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work has added another life element to communal efforts towards building an open, accepting and educated society. DEI and B for belonging or belongingness. Per Wikipedia belonging is a human emotional need to be an accepted member of a group – be it family friends, co-workers, or religion. Belongingness is an art and a science. Art because it is a “complex and dynamic process unique to each person.” And a science because psychologists’ research is believed to have captured and measured this innate and inherit need to belong in infants as young as two weeks old. Belongingness is not new. A sense of belonging comprises one of the concepts of the hierarchy of needs outlined by Abraham Maslow’s paper titled “A Theory of Human Motivation” submitted in 1943. As a reminder, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is displayed as a pyramid of the 5 human needs: physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Leaders’ it is fundamentally important to create a belonging culture.  One that is measured by workforce retention and increased productivity. Validate and encourage an accepting workspace community, one that allows employees to show up as their authentic identity, be open to new ways of working, and demonstrate a mindfulness of others.  These are just a few tips.  Matt, what are you sharing about belonging or belongingness?

[Matt Schlegel]

We have instinctual rapport-building processes that allow us to build trust with one another.  Many of these instinctual processes tend to drive us towards conformity.

Birds of a Feather Flock Together.  Go Along to Get Along.  These are just a couple of the sayings  that describe this human instinct.

An organization that strives towards making people feel they belong regardless of how they present (pause) may face headwinds in rapport-building amongst team members as they will have to consciously and deliberately explore our innate rapport-building instincts.

Robert Sapolsky in his book Behave describes the part of the brain – the insular cortex—that drives our in-group and out-group responses.  There are 3 main responses,

One is, “I care and think it’s great with distinctly-presenting people showing up;”

A second one is, “I care and don’t like outsiders;”

And a third response is, “I really don’t care one way or another.”

Organizations working towards building belongingness must raise awareness of these distinct responses and make accommodations for conversations that allow all employees to realize that mission of the organization is the one thing all have in common.  We all have differences, and we can appreciate that these differences are our strengths in helping us achieve our common mission.

Kimberly, what are you thinking about in terms of belongingness.

[Kimberly Layne]

Thanks Matt, yes, an organization can define its culture, and as a leader you are executing on that definition. Are you inviting your people to belong or are you asking them to fit in?

Fitting in or Belonging are two different cultures and Brene Brown states that belonging and fitting in are the opposite of each other.  Why?

Belonging is allowing and inviting your employees to show up as they truly are in their complete individuality and uniqueness in gender, ethnicity, education, and style. They have embraced and honored themselves and they have chosen to show up with full authenticity and vulnerability. Not pretending to be someone they are not.

Fitting in is asking your people to show up in a certain way, to meet certain criteria to “fit in.”  and therefore, meet the criteria to “belong.”  By trying to fit in they will have to betray or dishonor themselves.

True belonging doesn’t ask us to change who we are (or betray ourselves) but asks us to be who we are (and embrace ourselves).

As a leader, will you choose to create a culture of true diversity, equity inclusion, and belonging or just pretend that you are through fitting in criteria?

How is Gen Z responding to stress in the Roaring 2020s workplace?

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Gen Z is entering the workforce at an extraordinarily stressful time. Authors Twiana Armstrong, Kimberly Layne and myself discuss what we are seeing, how Gen Z is responding, and what leaders can do.

Kimberly Layne: https://www.kimberly-layne.com/

Twiana Armstrong: https://linkedin.com/in/twianaarmstrong

#Roaring20s #Roaring2020s #MentalHealth #GenZ

[Video Transcript]

[Twiana Armstrong]

Recently read an article posted in 1999 that read, “Not that the older generation, hasn’t always heaped hopes and fears on the rising one, expecting it both to carry on what adults value and avoid their mistakes.”  As we reflect on our hopes and fears, we now witness five generations co-existing in the workplace: traditionalists, baby boomers, generation x, millennials, and generation z. Overlay this context with generational differences impacted by societal, political and community ills; all of which highlight differences between behaviors and outlooks. This generational diversity emphasizes that there is no one size fits all approach to leading and managing workers, especially our younger generations, the gen xers, millennials and the gen zers. Growing up, their worlds have been shaped by extremely significant events, oftentimes violent and chaotic, that subsequently influence their daily motivations. Leaders who do their homework have identified the keys to adapt, to communicate, to accommodate and prioritize for these generational variations.  Be bold in your efforts to invest in psychological empowerment and psychological flexibility, both of which promote mindfulness and positive mental health and quality of life, allowing for employee self-care.

[Kimberly Layne|

As parents, as teachers, as leaders, if we really stop and look, I mean really stop and look, …How do we see our younger generations faring, not just physically, but mentally?

Disruption is no longer temporary, but our “new normal.” The pandemic is in its third year, and we are also facing geopolitical conflicts, extreme climate events, sexual abuse, and inequality

For many adults, we have past memories, …happier and more positive memories that keep us keeping on, but, for our younger generations their lives have been a slew of unpredictable traumatic events:

Plane attacks, school Shootings, lock downs, terrible isolation, and disconnection. These constant unpredictable events, …hit the human core and are a terrorizing threat to their internal safety.

No wonder we see increased ADHD, depression, suicide, and violence against each other There is an absence of control, understanding and a helplessness on how to fix the problem.

Our youth are fighting to gain control

They press their employers to tackle climate change and find halfhearted responses that have minimal reach.

They have inspired organizations to address workplace mental health, yet they themselves suffer mentally, and are fearful to ask for help or take advantage of resources.

How can you as a leader meet these generations where they are?

Insightful David Rock, co-founder and CEO of the Neuro Leadership Institute, states

. “When the outside world is really uncertain, we all need more purpose and control in our day-to-day.” Getting our younger generations intrinsically tied to their work and meaning of the work they are doing is one way to give them back control.

Another way to give back control is to develop higher emotional skills. Such as Empathy, vulnerability, and an emotional understanding of ourselves and our struggling youth.

Your emotional strength as a leader provides a controlled environment for emotional safety and security.

Our younger generations are crying out; we as leaders need to be able to empathetically read, understand, and motivate them through this erupting landscape and keep them keeping on in a healthy mental state.

[Matt Schlegel]

Thanks, Kimberly.

Yes,  Gen Z is entering the workforce during a very fraught time.

This is the first generation fully raised on Social Media.

This is a Generation that grew up with the multiple threats of school shootings, pandemic, and climate change.

They’ve learned that the adults in their lives ostensibly there to protect them are resoundingly failing to do so.

They have no allusions that their employers will behave any differently than other adults in older generations.

One way that Gen Z is responding is by putting their social media skills to use and organizing to create worker-led movements. Famously, there’s a wave of Starbucks workers forming unions.  As of today, over 150 stores in 25 states voted in favor of unionizing and hundreds of stores across the country are awaiting union votes.

Workers at other high profile companies are also unionizing: Amazon, Apple , REI and Trader Joe’s just to name a few.

Younger generations find that building community in the workplace is an effective way to address the mental wellness issues of our age. I am expecting to see this trend continue.

Cynically, some employers have responded by co-opting the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion movement to bust union organizing efforts. In his recent article in the Intercept,  Lee Fang also points out that employers are discontinuing using terms like “human capital” which speaks to the commodification of people at the company.

While these rebranding efforts may work on older generations, Gen Z sees these as the union-busting efforts they are, which further enrages and activates them.  They’re seeking actual material benefits, not just words.

A Gen Z version of Jerry MacGuire might say: Show me the Diversity, the Equity, the Inclusion, and the Money!

Thanks.

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