In this interview, we ask Desiree Jonek , co-founder of WoMentor and the author of the brand new paper “5 effective measures to navigate the shift to an inclusive and performing corporate culture “, 3 big questions about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI):
Over the last few decades, generational diversity in the workplace has increased significantly. The youngest Generation Z brings in new energy, while the oldest – Traditionalist Generation – often clings to used structures.
Sometimes it can be difficult when different generations work together. Keynote speaker Karen McCullough talks about such generation management in an interview.
Pew Research Center defines the birth years of generations:
Traditionalists: 1928-1945
Baby Boomers: 1946-1964
Gen X: 1965-1980
Millennials: 1981-1996
Gen Z:1997-2012
Read this article to find out how you can get everyone to listen to you in online meetings and what you need to keep in mind in a hybrid setting.
You know it – sometimes you are leading an online meeting and you get the feeling that the participants do not pay enough attention to you. Even if the topics discussed seem exciting to you, it is sometimes simply not possible to keep everyone on the ball. Read this article to find out how you can get everyone to listen to you in online meetings and what you need to keep in mind in a hybrid setting.
The very start of the meeting is important. In a virtual context, we often lack “arriving in the room.” That makes it more important to pave the way for a pleasant start: make brief small talk and ask how people are doing. This can often be enough before jumping right into the topic. Activation methods, which you should use thoughtfully and appropriately, have a further influence on attention.
It is also important to clarify the expectations of the meeting and its process right from the start. If you want people to listen and participate, you should make this clear from the beginning and mention that the meeting will not be a frontal lecture. Then your participants can prepare themselves. You should always avoid monologues – keep your participants active, let them talk and discuss, contribute actively. This way you will have their full attention right from the start.
To activate people, you can use simple techniques that also work well in face-to-face meetings. Ask lots of questions – These can be short chat questions that you address directly to individuals to get their attention. They can also be rhetorical questions that encourage participants to think. Short surveys using tools such as Slido or Mentimeter, as well as scale questions (e.g. from 1-10) also work very well.
People love to self-assess. This can be a question about a specific topic, but it can also be a question about the energy level after some time in the meeting to decide if it needs a break. Break-out sessions create interaction and get quieter participants to become active. Make sure you have the right group size (never assign less than 3 and more than 5 participants to one team).
Also, try to make the content as interesting as possible. Think about what is appropriate for your audience and use storytelling to bring your facts and figures to life. Relevant examples will help you relate to your target audience. Dale Carnegie said nearly 100 years ago, “Talk to people about themselves and they’ll listen to you for hours.”
As a facilitator, you should always keep an eye on the group, proactively address quieter participants, and cut frequent talkers short to the extent appropriate. For larger groups, you should work online with the “raise your hand” function. This allows you to keep a list of speakers and always see whose turn it is next. In addition, activate the view of the participants to always see all names and try to actively address people whose camera image you do not see. Otherwise you tend to address only the people you see in front of you.
Hybrid meetings bring additional challenges. The most important thing is not to forget the online participants. It’s best to have a separate screen for the video overview that everyone can see. In addition, practice has shown that an extra moderator on site for the virtual session is very beneficial. This can also simply be someone from the group who puts on the hat to look after the participants. In most cases, the overall quality of the meeting will suffer if you’re running the meeting and managing the virtual participants on the side.
As you can see, it is definitely possible to make your online meeting so exciting that your participants want to listen to you. Try out some of the tools next time!
Trainer, Coach & MDI Partner
Peter is a partner and trainer at MDI, advising major international corporations on implementing hybrid work policies and building a hybrid work and leadership culture.
He is considered an expert in training design. With his Webinar Guru Framework he has developed a tool that helps to design training content for successful and activating virtual learning.
We provide a workation evaluation, weigh the pros and cons and look at the lessons we have learned so far.
Workation – Work and Vacation – has become a popular tool in recent years for companies to give employees a little relief. After all, who doesn’t want to escape the gray daily work life for a few weeks?
In this article, you’ll learn a little more about what we have learned from our workation experiences so far, and what possible consequences it could entail.
At first glance, it seems strange to put the two words work and vacation together. Normally, when we are on vacation, we don’t want to think about our job, we want to switch off.
In the past, digital nomads in particular, i.e. remote workers, were not tied to a specific workplace. But in the age of digitalization and technological progress, more employees get the opportunity – regardless of the industry – to work from somewhere else.
Workation is about escaping your work routine.
For a limited time, employees can travel to a specific country and do their work from there. Whether from the beach, a big city or the mountains – the location doesn’t matter. The only important thing is that the Internet connection is stable enough and that the agreed times are adhered to. The rest is mostly up to the employees.
Vacation during working hours seems like a dream at first. But is this concept really ideal? We weigh the pros and cons.
Clearly, the concept of Workation is extremely attractive to employees.
But we also come across some benefits for companies themselves. According to statistics from workation.com
In the end, however, it is worth giving the concept of workation a chance. In most cases, employees return more relaxed and can continue working with renewed energy. Complications can’t be avoided, but after all, they also arise during normal travel.
We at MDI have already tested workation ourselves. If you want to know how it went, you can read about it here 🙂
Long-term OKR scheduling
Long-term scheduling makes it easier to adjust to spontaneous changes on short notice. OKR meetings should become a routine. Habits, once achieved, require little energy. When team members have learned that, for example, the OKR quarterly planning meeting is always on the last Thursday of the quarter and an OKR check-in meeting is scheduled every other Thursday in between – OKR becomes a no-brainer.
Experience has shown that only the timely meetings are a challenge due to many other planned events. If you always send the appointment invitations for the entire next year, the company will get used to it and you will have more energy for content-related work.
Very practical are serial appointments with individual corrections, e.g. if they fall on holidays or on the Christmas vacation.
The optimal OKR meeting size
4 – 8 participants are an optimal size for quarterly planning meetings, in order to consider sufficiently different perspectives on the one hand and to be able to discuss actively and time-efficiently on the other. However, if the team consists of fewer members, that is also OK. 2-3 people can manage with much less time.
In planning meetings at higher hierarchical levels, such as when developing the OKR set for the entire company, more people often want to be present. This is understandable, since the quarterly priorities are set for the company.
However, discussions with more than 8 people can be lengthy or lead to different levels of participation.
One proven way to keep the number of participants low is for owners of similar departments or functions to take turns participating. If you personally do not have a place in the next meeting, you can make your wishes known in advance via the backlog list or another representative.
Never has it been more important to adjust continually to a dynamic environment. OKR proves to be a great method to overcome crisis situations – read more about it here.
Discuss your progress regularly
Choosing well-worded OKRs is one side of success, the other is discussing progress regularly, e.g. bi-weekly. For this, it helps to visibly grade progress. Some prefer to work with color codes from the beginning. I.e. all Key Results start in red and partly reach the colors orange, yellow and green during the quarter. Others prefer to work with the numbers 0,0 – 1 during the quarter and use the colors only at the quarterly review. A third possibility are progress bars, where the filled area increases step by step.
Progress visualization increases motivation because messenger substances such as dopamine and endorphins are released in the brain.
CEO | MDI Management Development International
Gunther Fürstberger is a management trainer, author and CEO of Metaforum and MDI – a global consulting company providing solutions for leadership development. His main interest is to make the world a better place through excellent leadership. He has worked for clients including ABB, Abbvie, Boehringer Ingelheim, DHL, Hornbach, PWC and Swarovski. His core competence is leadership in digital transformation. He gained his own leadership experience as HR Manager of McDonald’s Central Europe/Central Asia. At the age of 20 he already started working as a trainer.
And here I am, sitting in Croatia, on the decked patio, at the dining table with my work laptop and a sleeping cat – that came with the all-inclusive holiday home 🙂
Spontaneously I decided in the morning to have a “Work from Anywhere” day instead of my current holiday day – because the weather is not looking inviting. Instead, I put my holiday day on next Monday. With bright sunshine, a day at the beach is simply more fun and the relaxation factor is much higher.
Luckily, our CEO feels the same way – one WhatsApp message later, the plan is set. Partner and holiday companions have flown out, so the necessary rest is guaranteed. Let’s get started!
I immediately informed our team via Microsoft Teams message @all – about the changes in my availability. When you are not visibly on site, transparent communication is all the more important. Some team members quickly took the opportunity to clarify urgent issues with me.
Aline joined MDI in 2020 as a Marketing Manager with over 10 years of B2B marketing experience. She is primarily responsible for the overall coordinated organisation of MDI’s advertising activities and the management of marketing projects. This includes, among others, the MDI Business Unit SDI as well as Leadership Horizon and personalist.at. Aline is a strong marketing all-rounder with a passion for leadership development, digital transformation and event organisation.
In this article, Aline shares her personal experiences and some “Third Place Working” learnings.
Personally, fewer distractions are better for me. By that I mean children, family, friends, etc. In other words, people who are not working with me at the same time. Because I am definitely a “people person”. If other people who are not working talk to me frequently, I get distracted more quickly.
So my tip here would be: get to know your own working style. I am very creative, for example, in moving forms of transport (plane, train, bus, car, etc.) or when things are happening passively around me (coffee, park, waiting room, etc.).
It shouldn’t be too quiet for me. I love music in the background and vary the style of music according to the motivation I need (chill out always works, classical music helps me to concentrate, 90s songs motivate me and encourage me to sing along loudly).
It’s also good to have several seating options so that you can remain at least somewhat ergonomic. A pool to cool down and get some exercise in between is of course a big plus. But a yoga mat or a short walk will also do.
If there is little/no opportunity to work quietly or more ergonomically, look for co-working spaces (with daily or weekly rates) in your area. There are now an increasing number of them. Apart from the better quality of work, you can network during breaks and make new, exciting contacts.
In my area, currently Pula, there is for example the Club Kotac with free admission, air conditioned, fast internet (30/20 Mbit/s), 10-18h Mon – Fri. A great alternative!
Currently, however, I don’t want to abandon the cat, so I’ll stay 😉 .
There are already some search tools to help you with your quest here:
By coincidence, the new issue of Personalmanager is lying next to me at the moment. The main theme of the issue is “Employer Attractiveness”.
So, what makes an employer attractive to me?
I don’t have to think about that at all: definitely high flexibility, personal responsibility, fair compensation as well as opportunities for further development, the team and the common purpose. If you look at the latest surveys on this topic, then I am not alone in this.
Deloitte surveyed 23,000 Gen Z’s and Millennials about their workplace experience. The strongest topics communicated were purpose & financial security. Due to the current global situation, both generations are worried and uncertain. This has an impact on loyalty. Almost 40% (Generation Z) want to leave their job in the next 2 years.
As an employer, you should take a closer look here. Flexible working hours & locations, purpose as well as fair remuneration should be at the top of the list of must-haves.
We at MDI have been embracing the hybrid work concept, also known as the synchronous hybrid model, for some time now. Our team likes to work this way and, according to a study by Cisco, it is also very popular with other employees.
Specifically, this means a mixture of office, home office and third workplace (on the road). MDI’s hybrid work concept currently includes 60% office, 40% home office and 3 weeks third workplace (e.g. workation). I combine one week of this with a week’s holiday in Croatia, for example. The other two weeks will be spent by two other MDI colleagues and me in Greece (Rhodes). This strengthens team bonds and increases the motivation to work on location.
Of course, the respective work concept has to fit the company. The larger, the more organisationally complex.
The right way will look different for every organisation. However, I think it is important to have a clear, open and authentic corporate culture.
Potential new employees should know exactly which working concept applies and which working modalities have to be dealt with. That way, they can get a clear picture of the future work in advance. As a company, this can also reduce the fluctuation rate.
I nevertheless plead (where possible) for more flexibility. As an organisation and/or leader, have the courage to trust – because flexibility boosts mutual trust.
In my opinion, employees should be given the highest possible flexibility in order to even be able to fulfil their role as a strong and reliable member of the team.
From my own experience, I can report that this increases motivation and loyalty immensely. And sometimes all it takes is a simple WhatsApp message …
You don’t need a crystal ball to know one thing: The future world of work is flexible!
As a company today, you have to be willing to experiment and remain open to trying new things. At MDI, we always strive to maximize our team development and the possibilities of hybrid working! That’s why in spring 2022, we introduced the possibility of 3 weeks of workation / third place working for the entire MDI team.
Since December 2021, Anja has been successfully working as a project manager at MDI. She ensures the smooth running and organization of a variety of international leadership trainings.
Anja is a true world explorer #globetrotter. She loves to travel and most of the time she even does it on her own. Culinary and culture are at the top of her list of preferences. She also photographs and documents her experiences on Instagram.
Office, home office, third place working – there are more and more options that companies can offer their employees to pursue their work. For many, like me, being able to work from the home office is still a privilege. Also, having the freedom to work from anywhere in the world is nothing short of a miracle – provided the internet connection holds up.
Even though I appreciate the possibility to work from home, I tend to go to the office – a clear separation between work and private life, a wonderful team and the possibility to talk to others personally – even about private things – lure me there every day and sweeten my workday. All the more surprising was my own reaction when I got the opportunity for Workation – excitement!
As soon as the opportunity was communicated to us – the team – I started making plans with my friends who live abroad. Especially with longer distances it is more difficult to visit for a weekend or to take time off at the same time. With the possibility of Third Place Working, we could continue to pursue our work, but enjoy the end of the day and weekends together – just like before.
A perfect plan, right? But before I dare to try Workation outside of Austria, I did a trial run and nestled myself in my family’s home in Upper Austria for a few days to work. My sister and I have done home office together before and it worked out wonderfully.
This time, however, I was on my own and it turned out to be quite a bit more difficult to maintain the boundaries that had been set up with respect to those who were not at work. It turned out to be very tempting to go down to the garden or stop by for a coffee after all.
As much as I enjoyed being with my family for a few days, I found for me that I can concentrate better when I work together with others – location independent.
Note: Third Place Working is not possible for every position in a company, so offering Workation adds a bit more planning for the individual and the possibility of an imbalance in the team.
An important form of learning for leaders is self-reflection in order to be in tune with yourself and function well as a pillar of support for the team. However, what if as a leader you just can’t find time in your calendar to take a break just for you?
At the end of each day, you take a structured look back at what happened with the help of a few questions (Inspect). From this you then derive a course of action for your further leadership (Adapt), which contributes to self-improvement.
Rapid change actions and the review afterwards create the iteration, triggering an ongoing L&D process.
This is useful for learning from leadership practice to leadership practice.
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