We're moving Icke notes

At interactive tools, we believe that we work better together – in self-organised teams with shared responsibility. Teams consist of people, and people are complex and multi-layered. That's where it starts to get difficult, but that's exactly where the potential lies.

To reduce this human complexity, one could try to reduce being human to a work role – as 95% of all companies do. But that only works to a limited extent anyway, and the price is high: you miss out on the incredible capabilities that emerge when people work together in self-organised teams without structural power hierarchies (in short: the classic line-manager model). As trend researcher John Naisbitt already put it back in the 90s, fantastic possibilities lie within the human:

#we-are-moving

At interactive tools, we're moving towards becoming an evolutionary company. With #wir-bewegen-uns we label actions, workshops, methods and formats that help us work together better across disciplines - agile, self-organised, with shared and joint responsibility. The whole thing is a path along which we try out, develop and allow a lot. We are open and mindful. What matters to us here is that we don't install finished programmes from above, but move forward situationally and iteratively: understand, rethink, develop ideas, condense and try out. If the idea works, we spread it, or it spreads itself. In doing so, we keep questioning our way of working: how do we do this?

Leverage human diversity

Knowing myself and the others in the team in their diversity vastly improves teamwork. What matters to me? What do I need to be able to work well? How does my colleague tick? Where can we support each other? A simple sheet that everyone fills in at project start changes team spirit and collaboration:

1) Everyone is clear about their strengths and quirks

2) Everyone feels better understood

3) Everyone knows what the others need in order to work well

4) No one needs to hide

5) No one needs to play ego and everyone enjoys working together

“This matters to me…” - the Icke note in detail

With the help of the Icke sheet, each team member formulates their strengths and needs and shares them with their colleagues. These fields need to be filled in:

• This matters to me e.g. a sentence, slogan, quote …

• My strengths: what I'm good at

• I want to develop - areas where I want to grow

• I need - environment, things, behaviours I need to be good

• Support me - something I'd like to do with others / where I need help from others

• Argh - that drives me up the wall

• My spleen - what I do, what I love, and what might seem odd to others

This is how we do it with the 'Icke' note

1) Distribute Icke notes - about a week in advance

2) Everyone fills out the sheet themselves

3) The team meets: everyone introduces themselves in turn using their Icke slip

4) Feedback from everyone: "That surprised me", "You forgot that"

5) Once everyone's done, on an extra team poster – derived from each person's individual strengths and needs:

• Team values: what matters to us together

• Actions: what we do to work together better

Join our team! Here's the link to our job openings...

The superhero side of the self

Reflecting on oneself, presenting oneself, formulating one's needs and revealing things about oneself is never easy, even when the purpose is a good one and the team environment is a safe one. After all, I take myself seriously and important. The result: the area between the eyebrows tenses up, the shoulder and neck area gets tight, and thoughts circle and circle around rather unimportant formalities of my CV-self.

Actually, my thoughts should be broad and I should be open to myself and others. Superheroes help! Superheroes provide us with imagination and help create breadth. With the counter-model to the me-note, the hero canvas, we try to see things a bit more loosely, more playfully, and open up a new cosmos of thought. Everyone is a superhero, designing a cover with themselves as a superhero. The template:

Title / name of superhero

Photo / sketch / drawing

Slogan / Claim

Superpowers

Fights against …

(Alternatively, depending on the team, Pokémon or fictional characters from the Star Wars universe may work better.)