A year ago today the WHO declared Covid-19 a global pandemic. It's been a year filled with uncertainty, learnings and... resilience. Many of us have managed to adjust quickly to all the changes these past twelve months have brought. Today we'll look back on a year of working remotely, virtual bars and offices and how to combat Zoom fatigue. Plus we've collected some really interesting innovation finds.
01Twelve Months of Remote Madness
A year ago, when the pandemic hit and millions of the world's population started working from home, we arranged our first Online Discovery Session, collaborating with a global crew of change-makers to take our minds off the news for a brief moment. Looking back at it now, we're amazed by what the teams came up with and how coherent it is with today's status quo. The brief for one of the teams was "Companies are closing, brands are going bankrupt, millions are to be jobless. But there is opportunity to be found in times of crisis. What are the opportunities and challenges in creating new business at this time?" . This is what they came up with:
One year later we see how companies have adjusted their business models, ways of working and attitude towards change. Tech giants such as Twitter and Spotify will have flexible "work-from-anywhere" models for their employees, giving them the freedom to choose whether to continue working remotely or coming back to the office. At the same time, many of us are longing after deeper connections, physical meet-ups and the regular banter at the coffee machine. As we've learned from some of our clients and collaborators such as Patagonia and Stockholm Business Region, whom we've had the pleasure to work with during this turbulent year, many are looking to find a flexible model enabling us to work both in the office as well as remotely. What about you?
If you miss the social part of working somewhere else than in your own home, check yourself in to a bar or a virtual office.
02Innovation & Design Thinking
> Design Thinking Learners Journey For a very interesting project, we've been looking into a typical learning journey of individuals when it comes to design thinking and different innovation methods. It's common for big organisations to work with these different methods but it's very likely that not everyone in a team is on the same level. Here's some reading that might help to understand the different stages of a Design Thinking learning journey.
> Netflix: LEGO House — Home of the Brick LEGO is known for its innovative thinking and well... bricks. Watch this documentary about how they built the LEGO brand house turning dreams into reality.
> Podcast: Women in Innovation In honour of Women's Day in the beginning of this week, March 8th, here's a podcast tip with Melanie Bell-Mayeda, Partner & Managing Director at IDEO reflecting on the toolkits she built working in financial services, licensing, and strategy, and explaining the challenges of working on "wicked problems" — areas that often require systems change — and the opportunities for innovation.
> 4 types of Zoom fatigue and how to combat them We summarised the four types and ideas on how to tackle them for you below. Find the whole article here.
1. Close up eye contact is exhausting therefore minimise the face sizes of attendees into grid view, and sit back a bit to allow yourself more personal space.
2. Watching yourself is exhausting. Make sure that your lighting and setup are good, and then adjust the settings to hide your view of yourself.
3. Sitting immobile is exhausting. Create a wider visual field for your camera through using an external camera instead.
4. Video Chatting is cognitively exhausting. When it's feasible, turn off your camera and turn your body away from the screen.
Until next time, stay safe and stay curious! / Team Another Tomorrow
Another Tomorrow helps organisations thrive in an uncertain world. Our mission is to create a better tomorrow through navigating the unknown together with our clients. Always with a prototyping mindset and proven processes that create impact and real change within the organisations we work with.
