ConnectMinds | Collective Insights | June 2022
Are you and your team getting enough out of your ConnectMinds membership?
Sunny outdoor lunch with members in the Boston | Leading the Employee Experience Group during May
Bright minds everywhere,
The ON LOCATION groups are meeting again after a long pandemic-induced break. Once again we travel to where you are and hold in person meetings. We appreciate that in some places we are among the very first to do this despite the ongoing challenges, such as sudden local spikes in infection rates with all that this entails.
We naturally ensure the venues we hire have enough space, top-notch hygiene and we offer those who simply cannot be there in person a hybrid alternative. Reigniting the groups truly feels like the beginning of a new chapter.
We need more bright minds
The pandemic has had a rough impact on the network and we need new members in most of our groups.
Fact: the most effective way - by far - of getting new members to join is when existing members tell peers in their network about what they gain from it; the value they get out of it.
So we ask you to help us grow the network back to where it was - and in return we offer you a choice of valuable rewards! Read on for further details.
Knowledge & learning to match your needs
When we are not on the road meeting the groups, we spend a lot of time reaching out to every member to find out what is topping their priority lists and which challenges they are battling. We listen carefully to ensure we align and adapt to the ever-changing circumstances of members on the front line. If you haven’t yet joined / rejoined, now is a great time to to get back in: we are planning the programme for the rest of the year and you can be part of shaping it.
Be more ambitious with you ConnectMinds membership
For a detailed look at how you and your team can now to a large degree map out and decide what you want would want to cover, discuss and explore in the network, click through and read the article on how you can be much more ambitious with your ConnectMinds membership.
Finally, the email edition of this Collective Insights only contains parts of the content, so remember to click through and read the browser version for the full length.
We look forward to continuing the conversations with you - and to seeing you both online and in person over the coming weeks.
Stay connected!
Your ConnectMinds Team
Rewards for recommendations
ConnectMinds launches a referral campaign:
Introduce a bright mind to the network. If they become a member, we reward both you and the new member.
Why are we asking you to help with this?
We need more bright minds in the network! Two years of COVID induced hibernation has had a rough impact on the network.
Also:
It is a fact that the most effective way - by far - of getting new members to join is when existing members tell peers in their network about what they gain from it; the value they get out of it.
So we ask you to do just that - and if it turns into a new member joining, they receive a generous “WellConnected pack” and you can choose between a MINDBLOWER conference ticket, a free annual membership or a pair of BOSE state of the art noise-cancelling headphones.
Meet a Bright Mind: Ernst Décsey
In each edition of Collective Insights, we talk to a member in the network about their work, challenges, priorities and opportunities - and about how they make use of the network. This month, we talk to Ernst Décsey.
Ernst is Digital Workplace Specialist at the Unicef in Geneva. He has been a member of the ConnectMinds network for a number of years and been a great contributor in the Leading the Employee Experience group in Geneva.
The epidemic ate the strategy, but accelerated the digital transformation.
Over the past two years, it has become abundantly clear, that strategies for organisational digital transformation have been accelerated enormously by COVID. Back in late 2019 it was hard to convince people to stop using shared drives in favour of online collaboration sites and their associated tools.
Overnight we had to work from home and that accelerated our digital transformation intensely. Like so many others, we´re still trying to find the best way to combine the freedom and flexibility of working remotely with the organisational need to preserve the fabric and culture of the workplace.
Read the full interview with Ernst.
Fresh insights from the ConnectMinds network
On the topic of Employee Advocacy
It’s not advocacy. It’s corporate spamming!
Let’s zoom in on… Employee Advocacy. I see a growing number of profiles on LinkedIn and similar platforms gradually turning into advertising boards for the profile owner’s employer…
Even if the term Employee Advocacy makes it quite clear what the desired goal is, it is much less clear how this is best done; how it’s achieved in ways that are effective, manageable and both feel and are genuine.
Some organisations have invested in apps that make it easy to amplify corporate messages on people’s personal social media accounts; yet, these fail in one way or another time after time.
Read the full article on employee advocacy.
ON LOCATION
Insights, notes and open questions noted at the in person group meetings in April and May 2022
The evolution of the workplace: improving the hybrid meeting experience
The topic of hybrid workplace was running through all meetings. Those who had been tasked with organising hybrid meetings (participants online and offline in the same meeting) unanimously agreed that planning a successful hybrid meeting requires more than double the effort compared to meetings that are exclusively online or in person; not only are you having to design 2 very different, but equally important participant journeys, but also ensure they work seamlessly together and on top of this monitor that the online participants don't feel left out of the loop at any stage, e.g. in the run up to decision making moments, when social interaction occurs in breaks etc. This is a huge effort and make the hybrid format very demanding to get right.
Upcoming Learning Events
*** LAST CHANCE - WEDNESDAY 8. June ***
ConnectMinds ANYWHERE
Online event | 8. June
11 - 12.30am EDT / 4 - 5.30pm BST / 5 - 6.30pm CET
Focus:
Creating an Experience-led organisation with ROX (Return on Experience)
“Happy employees make happy customers”
is a saying most of us have heard about. However, only a tiny fraction of organisations manage to bring together the customer and employee experience. In this session we will take a closer look at an approach - Return on Experience - or ROX, that can help you get started on your transformational journey towards a more experience-oriented organisation.
ROX is the approach that brings your customers, employees, and leadership together.
Volvo does not sell cars, but safety, Patagonia does not sell outdoor clothing, but sustainability and IKEA is not selling cheap furniture, but “a better everyday life for the many people”.
Join us for an exclusive interactive session with Sujay Saha, President at Acquis Cortico-X, and one of the masterminds behind the ROX framework to learn how to use ROX to turn your organization into an employee AND customer-centric experience company.
ConnectMinds CURATOR
Online event | 16. June | 9am EST / 2pm BST / 3pm CET
CURATOR sessions celebrate interesting, innovative & inspiring work from across the network and talk to the bright minds behind the work about how they did it. Watch brief CURATOR video
This is not an award ceremony or a “best practice catalogue”; we simply wish to bring examples of great work and smart solutions we spot at group sessions or through conversations with members to a wider audience. It’s a win-win format: we celebrate the hard work of those behind the success and other members will have an opportunity to talk to those who made it happen, leave with inspiring new ideas and alternative approaches; then sign you and your colleagues up for the event.
***LAUNCH***
ConnectMinds EXPLORER
Focus: A new framework for measuring impact
Online event | 23. June 2022
9 - 10.30am EST / 2 - 3.30pm BDT / 15 - 16.30 CET
Note: members can join for free. Non-members can join EXPLORER groups for €100 / month (min. 3 months and must be paid by credit card online)
This EXPLORER group sets out to develop a new model or framework for measuring the impact of the digital setup and endeavours;
not just the reporting of raw data from analytics tools, but one that provides actionable insights and does so using references that makes sense to the business.
Welcome (back) to the network
In the last few weeks, we have welcomed / welcomed back the following bright minds:
Anders Magnusson at AXIS Communications (SE) rejoins the Nordic s | Leading with a Digital Mindset Group
Nick Oldford and his team at Thermo Fisher Scientific (US) rejoin the Boston | Leading the Employee Experience Group
Mette Klint at DANSK RETURSYSTEM (DK) joins the København | Leading the Employee Experience Group
Kate Herrick at Richemont (US/CH) rejoins the NYC | Leading the Employee Experience Group
Jennifer Bainbridge at APG Asset Management (US/NL) rejoins the NYC | Leading the Employee Experience Group
Dante Ragazzo at Tapestry (US) rejoins the NYC | Leading the Employee Experience Group
Trine Dalsten at ISS Facility Services (DK) joins the København | Leading the Employee Experience Group
Thank you
We appreciate having you in our network - more now than ever before - and look forward to many more fruitful discussions.