Factors for success in the new era of hybrid work

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We are at a critical juncture in the evolution of business and work. After almost a year of concerted vaccination programs throughout the developing world, COVID is shifting from a pandemic to being endemic, still likely to be present indefinitely, but contained and allowing us to resume relatively normal lives.

This is leading to a gradual—or sometimes rapid—resumption of office-based work. A minority of organizations appear to be intent on reverting to work structures very similar to those before the pandemic, with standard office hours, five days a week the norm. That is an enormous missed opportunity. This is a time to move forward rather than look back. 
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Nancy White on powerful facilitation practices: self-awareness, don’t do it alone, experiment, commitment

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Facilitation is arguably the most valuable skill in the world. If you can help people to be collectively more intelligent, you unlock vast wealth. Facilitation can also be applied to individuals, in assisting them to apply their capabilities to achieve what they want.

‘Facilitate’ means to make easier. If you can ease the path to people working well together, beautiful things can happen.

A while ago on The Virtual Excellence Show I interviewed Nancy White, recognized by many as a master facilitator in both virtual and physical spaces for the last couple of decades.

Here is a segment of our broad-ranging conversation in which Nancy shares deep insights into developing facilitation skills. Recommended! Watch the video, or read the full transcript below.
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The continued growth of the economy of individuals

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I recently spoke to Steve Poor, chairman of Seyfarth Shaw, one of the world’s top 100 law firms, for his Pioneers and Pathfinders podcast.

I greatly enjoyed our far-ranging conversation, which delved deep into the future of work and as far as the future of society. You can listen to the whole episode below.

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Thought landscape: Thinking, Technology, Business, Humanity

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In order to gain more clarity for myself on what is important to me, I have created a draft Thought Landscape of primary topics, arranged across four related themes: Thinking, Technology, Business, and Humanity. This will be useful for me in filtering information and guiding the frameworks I develop on these topics.
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Report: A greener and safer global energy system will also be cheaper

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For decades one of the most reliable possible predictions has been that official forecasts for renewable energy would underestimate the actual pace of cost reductions and installations.

The chart on the left shows the actual growth in photovoltaic (PV) solar installations in black, compared to the annually updated forecasts from the World Energy Agency in color. Linear thinking prevails, while exponential factors are at play.

An insightful new report from the Oxford Martin School’s Institute for New Economic Thinking Empirically grounded technology forecasts and the energy transition takes a more realistic and empirical perspective on the likely trajectory for costs and uptake of renewable energy. The report concludes that:
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How humans and AI will collaborate to be at the center of our relationships

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Who will own our relationships?

As we shift towards Vendor Relationship Management, taking control of how we deal with the companies that we buy from, it is likely that we will consolidate our relationships towards a single intermediary that adds the most value to us.
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The 5 Ts: Terri Griffith tells how we can work towards highly effective remote work

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It is clear that many organizations are still grappling with the shift to remote and distributed work, with many leaders hoping that they can before long resume work in the way that it was before.

A little while ago on the Virtual Excellence Show I was delighted to speak with Terri Griffith, currently Keith Beedie Chair in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business, and a deep expert in how organizations accelerate performance as the nature of work changes.

In this brief video Terri gives great perspective on our shift to effective remote work, including the insights from applying her 5T framework.
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How AI could block the massive economic and social opportunity to tap hidden talent

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‘Hidden workers’ – those unemployed or underemployed seeking work who are not visible because of companies’ hiring processes – are a massive lost opportunity to society as well as business.

An incisive Harvard Business School study points to over 27 million US workers (no doubt the scope is similar in other nations) whose capabilities are underutilized.
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Beyond Zoom fatigue: next generation 3D and holographic calls

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I was recently interviewed on the Sunrise breakfast TV program on the next phase of video calling, which will shift to far more immersive technologies.

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The future of customer experience: Spotify (and most products) need a serendipity dial

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Driven by frustration with the Spotify algorithm I have just posted an Idea Submission on the Spotify community website titled Introduce a serendipity dial. What I wrote is copied below, click on the link and vote it up if you like it!
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