Week notes w/c Feb 8 – human centred design, books and kittens

What we’ve been up to this week. Lots of links to read, watch and listen to some interesting stuff…

Work
The book
The Reset Show
Life and learning
Meet Coco the kitten

1. Work

Internal communications by design – an IC transformation programme

We’re wrapping up a fascinating programme we’ve been running with PeopleLab and a US tech business, helping them reinvent their internal communications using a human centred design approach. This was the last session in the series and we loved the feedback. I particularly enjoyed hearing how taking this employee-centric approach to comms is not only transforming the effectiveness of comms, but is changing the nature of the team – it’s now more connected and supportive and team members say they’re looking forward to continuing with these new ways of working. What’s not to like?

If you’d like to know more about how we can introduce a human-centred design approach to your comms team, why not sign up to the IC by Design Masterclass I’m running with People Lab on March 3rd, 2021 (new 2021 dates also on the way).

Innovation tools programme

We’ve started designing a series of workshops to introduce a CX team to a range of new innovation tools and activities as well as helping them explore new behaviours to create a more open and creative culture.

Redesigning a learning programme for a virtual world

I mentioned this global programme for an FMCG company last week, and it continues apace. This week we’ve been getting to grips with their collaborative learning platform NovoEd. The platform will provide the central hub for learning and collaboration. Our next task is to build in the right offline activities to lift the experience off the screen and into real life while connecting participants at a human level (and having some fun).

2. The book (!!)

Yes, there’s a book: EX by Design – How to Create an Effective EX for Competitive Advantage.

The book I’ve been working on with Emma Bridger is out next month. Get a pre-order with a discount here (discount code AHR 20). Or better still, join us for the book launch where we’ll be joined by some amazing contributors from around the world (details to come, but hold the date – March 3, 5pm-6pm GMT).

This week Emma and I have been speaking to the media, event organisers and podcast hosts to tee up some interesting conversations and content in the months ahead.

3. The Reset Show

There’s a new episode of The Reset Show to check out. This week with Rob Baker, author of Personalisation at Work. A great discussion about job crafting and how it relates to autonomy, purpose and employee experience.

4. Life and learning

Charlotte has embarked on an eight-week virtual mindfulness course with Sue Bolton to look after her mental wellbeing and carve out some head space in amongst the lockdown/home-schooling fug.

I’ve joined the Action for Happiness webinar with Shirzad Chamine on positive intelligence. It was truly inspiring. Do give it a watch. I’ve also taken the Saboteur Assessment which was really revealing.

5. Meet Coco (how did we keep her to the end?)

Coco came to live with Charlotte and family at the weekend. She has been joining many meetings and contributing her wise ideas. Many of them are are ridiculous!