Reflections on amazing workplaces - day 1

I spent yesterday at day 1 of the CIPD Northern Area Partnership conference (#cipdnap16) and before I head back into the breach today, thought I'd capture some reflections - mainly because my brain is quite flighty and I don't want today's content to push yesterday's out!

It's my first of these conferences and I was drawn in by the theme - Even more amazing workplaces - because, well, who doesn't want one of those? It's also very relevant to what's going on in my work world, as we seek to create a culture where people are empowered to work wherever suits them best, and managers have the skills to support them, and be confident that we will achieve the outcomes we need. So I approached each session studiously, pen and paper at the ready, and found loads of interest...my main highlights and reflections being:

@profcarycooper on Wellbeing - I haven't had the pleasure of hearing Sir Cary speak before and he was brilliant. I am a data geek, and he used a massive depth and breadth of research to outline why mental health and wellbeing have a such a big impact on productivity and the economy. I'd heard the message but not the research which gives it credibility before. In relation to a long hours / presenteeism culture, we discussed various IT policies to stop people accessing emails out of hours - but I can't help but feel that this is a sticking plaster, which wouldn't in itself change the culture. It surely comes back to managers knowing when and how their team are working, and being close enough to see and discourage a consistent habit of checking emails when they are meant to be resting and enjoying home life. For me the big takeaway was the focus on hr's role in creating a strategy which reduces stress and equips managers to reduce stress in the environment, rather than reactively focusing on helping employees to deal with it, or picking up the pieces when it goes wrong (though both of these are important!). The question which stayed with me was how we select line managers - how do we assess whether they have or could learn the interpersonal skills to manage humans! Slightly soberingly he estimated that around 10-15% of people managers shouldn't be in charge of people and are unlikely to be able to take on the skills they need!

My first workshop was @timpointer on culture, a really fun interactive session. I loved his image of culture being like a backpack which gets fuller and fuller - sometimes we need to consciously take things out before we can put other things in. A few thoughts which stayed with me from that session - we tend to focus on employees when we think about culture; what about all the people who aren't technically employed but are working in and closely with us? They'll impact culture too. We challenged policies which hold us back - dress codes being a popular one, I was delighted to say we don't have one! - this made me think about whether as we look at big culture change, we may need to do more to policy than just change the ones which directly impact on process changes. Some ideas around welcoming new people - I love the idea of new starters receiving a welcome card from their new team on their first day, and seeing induction as a ritual of welcome - one way of bringing it to life and using someone's first weeks as an opportunity to inspire and engage, rather than a painful period to endure of not quite knowing enough!

I wrote loads down whilst listening to the story of how James Cropper changed their culture to have more of a performance focus. Three striking things. The distinction between who wants change and who wants TO change - how to help people see they are part of the solution. Pace of change - leadership are usually way ahead of the rest of the organisation when it comes to change readiness, but if you go too fast and don't work really hard on bringing the organisation with you, people will get left behind. I think of it as leadership being in a speed boat which can turn on a sixpence, and sometimes forgetting that the organisation is a cruise ship which takes quite a lot longer to turn.

And finally the Ignite sessions - I didn't note much down during these as I was enjoying listening to them too much. But I seem to have ended up with one thought from each speaker. From @timscotthr, let's throw away everything that's stopping us treating people like human beings. Just - yes. There's a day to go but this is a top contender for quote of the conference! From @trustcallhr - it's ok for different parts of an organisation to have different cultures as long as they're built on similar principles (then highlighting the need to be intentional about working out what principles and values are fundamental to us). And @gary_cookson - ten minutes in rhyme, brilliant, with the perfectly expressed reminder that fun doesn't have to be about Google and hammocks and sh*t.

I deliberated for too long this morning about whether it was ok to wear jeans to an event with a business smart dress code, but given how many times we rubbished dress codes yesterday I decided it was ok!

A modern fairy tale: the Inbox of Horrors

Once there was a princess.

The princess lived in a beautiful castle with many rooms, and lots of interesting things to see and do.

Life in the castle was happy.

Except...

...that in a tiny room at the top of the tallest tower, the princess had an Inbox of Horrors.

The princess tried as hard as she could to keep the Inbox of Horrors under control. She kept popping up to the tower to keep an eye on it, even though this meant that she couldn't properly concentrate on any of the other things she was trying to do.

She tried methodically opening, reading, and replying to every Horror - but this seemed to just attract more Horrors to the Inbox.

She tried many ways of ordering the Horrors - but the Horrors just would not keep in order.

She tried allocating particular times of the day to look at the Horrors - but leaving them unattended for any period of time just seemed to give them time to multiply, and they were ever so noisy when she opened the box.

Eventually, the only room the princess ever visited was that tiny room at the top of the tower. She spent all her time trying to keep the Horrors under control - but they still weren't happy. And she wasn't doing any of the interesting things that she wanted to do.

She asked her wise fairy godmother what she should do. The Horrors weren't happy; she wasn't happy; she couldn't work out what to do.

The wise fairy godmother thought for a few minutes.

She suggested that the princess reread the Productivity Ninja book which she was so excited about a few months ago. The princess agreed that this might be a good idea, but that it was hard to concentrate on reading whilst sitting on top of the Inbox to keep the noisy Horrors inside.

She reassured the princess that almost everyone had an Inbox of Horrors at the top of their tallest tower, and that almost everyone felt the same way about it.

The princess felt a bit better, but thought it was ridiculous that everyone was spending their time worrying about keeping an Inbox of Horrors under control. She asked the fairy godmother why we couldn't all just stop sending Horrors.

The wise fairy godmother thought for a bit longer.

Sadly, even the fairy godmother wasn't wise enough to answer that question.

But she did at least wave her wand and say a few magic words, which was enough to neatly order, file and flag all the Horrors in the inbox...which kept them happy for the rest of the day.

Rome, Rome, Rome

Last weekend, we had the pleasure of a sneaky weekend away in Rome, child-free.

I did a lot of research around places to eat before we went (capital cities, good restaurants book up fast, there are a lot of terrible touristy restaurants...) and we had some amazing food. I'm mainly writing this post so that I don't forget the names of them for the future.

So - Rome. Wow. Really fantastic place with a lot of annoying ticket touts, and people constantly trying to give you sad looking red roses, but somehow spectacular enough that you can really enjoy yourself anyway. Spectacular churches on every corner, such a lot of amazing art, and history everywhere.

I was saddened by the number of people viewing the city entirely through smartphones mounted on selfie sticks - don't people just look at things any more? - but that's a rant for a different day.

Places to eat...

For a great lunch:

Gina (http://www.ginaroma.com/) - just near the Spanish Steps, bright and funky cafe with beautiful soups and salads and pasta, full of Italians on their lunch breaks.

For another great lunch:

Pianostrada (http://pianostrada.com/) - tiny place hidden down a tinier side street in Trastavere. Street food concept, with about 16 seats squeezed in, watching the food being prepped in front of us. Our starter decision was made easy by seeing a foccaccia come out of the oven - that, with fig jam and prosciutto, was possibly the nicest thing I've eaten. Ever. We also had a squash soup with all sorts of interesting flavours sprinkled on top (almond, orange, pickled something or other, parmesan), and a burger which was so beautifully flavoured and so tender that the meat element sort of melted into the rest of it to make one amazing whole. With craft beers. I want to go back...

For a great dinner:
Roscioli (http://www.salumeriaroscioli.com/restaurant/) - a deli and wine shop with tables tucked in amongst the shelves of wine. I had a burrata with sun dried tomatoes....basically a plateful of white, creamy cheese, with tomatoes. So. Much. Deliciousness. And two wine lists: 53 pages of Italian wine, and a second called "Foreign Wine". Really nice atmosphere and they were most kind when Martin poured his wine into his pasta...

And another great dinner:
Casa Coppelle (http://www.casacoppelle.com/) - a bit more fine dining, brilliant cocktails and really interesting menu (red prawn tartare on corn cream - for example!).

All in fairly easy walking distance of the Spanish steps.

I think my favourite sights were discovering the Trevi Fountain at night (having never seen a picture of it) - I raved about this for some time (I may have had some wine first); and also the Forum/Palatine and Colosseum - for sheer scale of archaeological interest. And for art, the collection at the Borghese Gallery (prebook a 2 hour slot) has lots of big hitters (Caravaggio, Bernini) in a very small space.

I have very few pictures - I think I was reacting to the selfie sticks...luckily I looked at things while I was there and have the memories of it!

Do go to Rome...