I am pleased to welcome Melissa Shaffer, author of today's blog on mindful team engagement.
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There has been a rapid development of new technologies claiming superior approaches to leadership development and team engagement. However, big companies continue to struggle with creating inclusive cultures and retaining diverse workforces. Why? Technology clearly has its place in the game. However, we believe culture change also requires dedicated face-to-face time for connection, vulnerability and mindful team engagement.
What do teams and communities need to mindfully engage and create inclusive environments where each individual can communicate and contribute to their greatest potential? This is a question our team at HiveQuest thinks about deeply in our work.
An alternative approach to group learning
How many times have you sat in a room with
one person speaking at the front, while you simply sit and “receive
knowledge”? When you leave, you have to then figure out what to do with
that knowledge, and have no context for how others received it. We feel
this is not the way adults learn best and want to actively work to flip
that model.
A community of practice is a research-based
structure that makes a major paradigm shift in adult learning. It
offers an ongoing space for people to meet and have room to surface
dilemmas in their work and discover new approaches from the wisdom of
others.
To test the impact of this group learning approach, we have been hosting in-person “Community of Practice”
events with Culture Labx in San Francisco. Over the past couple of
months, we’ve brought together local culture builders to have deep
conversations and crowdsource their ideas about supporting belonging,
inclusion, and diversity in the workplace.
We posed the following inquiry: How do we interrupt inequitable patterns of participation to engage in courageous conversations around inclusion?
To address this, we focused on practicing
norms for inclusive collaborations. We theorized that attendees would
gain valuable new insights from the co-construction of knowledge and
peer-to-peer learning.
Through our experience facilitating these
networking events, and thanks to the willingness of all involved to
share openly and vulnerably, we arrived at some key takeaways to bring
back to your workplace.
Using Norms to Foster Inclusion
We began
each event by setting agreements about how we would engage with each
other as a new community. For example, one norm was to “withhold blame,
shame, or judgement”. Then a Block Party protocol allowed us to reflect more deeply on the norms and begin building trust as a group.
From our own experience using the norms internally, and from event participant feedback, we’ve found norm setting to be crucial in holding safe space for everyone.
What’s important to know about setting norms:
- PURPOSE: They help level the playing field. Everyone has access.
It’s much easier to give your 100% when you don’t have to climb a mountain to do so. - PROCESS: They can build team connection from Day 1.
Each person gives input and takes responsibility for developing the company culture. - PRACTICE: They take time to internalize and integrate into your culture.
Setting intentions and interrupting old ingrained behaviors that aren’t serving the greater good requires awareness of self and others to enhance communication.
Norms are important because they create
equal access for all community members to make their voices heard in a
positive and organized way. Extroverts can agree to pause more to allow
others to speak. Similarly, introverts can agree to speak up and request
time to process information when needed. Norms help account for
different communication, processing, learning, and engagement styles.
Furthermore, giving everyone a chance to share their ideas and
perspectives sparks greater innovation.
One of our event facilitators had this to say after the event:
“Voices of dominant culture loudly communicate their discomfort and disapproval of messages that would fall outside the normative conversations. Ears are not trained to hear the silence of the oppressed.”
When we establish norms for mindful team
engagement, we make space for the voices of the oppressed and ask
dominant voices to embrace their discomfort. The deviant conversations
that emerge often lead to the most creative and innovative results.
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Melissa is the Community Relations Manager at HiveQuest.
An important component of their work is using the Mindful Engagement
cards. The Mindful Engagement cards can help you strengthen your
community norms, core values, and organization's culture. Check them
out at EngageMindfully.com
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