It's Logical

Depend on Others

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 15:03:27 GMT

Practice #6 of a Mindful Leader

As with all the other posts about these practices I will attempt to look at them through the lens of leadership in the sector I know best - local government.

And while I would argue there are leaders at every level of a municipal organization I will focus primarily on the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO). Those who know our industry will know of this role very well. We are all likely in agreement that the CAO role is one where relationships are the most pivotal factor for having success and there are a myriad of different relationships from which to manage. Therefore this practice should be one where a CAO would get a lot of benefit but in my experience there are not enough CAOs that can call this a strength unfortunately. I'll explain...

The CAO is hired by an elected Council and becomes their one and only "employee". Council, as an elected body, is responsible for setting overall direction for a municipality in the form of a strategic plan, bylaws and the approval of high level guiding documents such as a Municipal Development Plan. Their role is one of the highest level of governance and they are guided by a Provincial Act that clearly establishes that role as one of direction to administration only through their one employee - the CAO. This is a good thing for all but does have some drawbacks for the relationships I have mentioned.

There is a saying in our sector that a "CAO is hired to be fired." We all know it and we all see it. The average length of tenure in one municipality for a CAO is much shorter than any career in leadership in other sectors. A newly elected Council quite often wants to hire "their person" over inheriting an already established CAO. This way they feel their aspirations and ideas for their term will not come into conflict with what the last CAO had in mind from the previous Council. While unfortunate and often, in my opinion, unnecessary, it happens all too often.

Where this comes into conflict with the practice of "Depend on Others" is that CAOs often place a lot of emphasis on their relationship with just Council. And while there is definitely legitimacy to this "strategy" given the nature of their relationship as described earlier, it takes away from other critical relationships. The CAO should depend on their executive team, other key leaders in the organization, to ensure the overall success of the municipality and the organization, which in the end would also benefit that relationship with Council.

What I have also seen happen is that CAOs can fall into the trap of being way too involved at levels of the organization they should not, in an attempt to demonstrate to their Council that they are "on it". The team around the CAO should be where the CAO should be demonstrating that trust and depend on others. In doing so the CAO's attention can then be directed at true leadership worries like organizational health, building more leaders, service excellence, values. This is why who the CAO hires as their executive team is critical. They need to be people the CAO knows they can depend on and this often comes down to trust and values not necessarily technical aptitude.

Here are a few suggested ways to enhance this ability to depend on others:

- Leaders need to err on the side of focusing on coaching, empowering and listening to others.

Perhaps CAOs can actively support things like mentorship roles throughout the organization? Look for opportunities to create teams that cross the whole organization at all different levels.

- Notice when you are resisting the urge to depend on others and embrace interdependency.

We have all said to ourselves at some point "it's just easier of I do it myself" - right? At that time we need to ask ourselves what the opportunity cost of doing this is. We are likely not trusting someone else to help us out. If given the chance they might just succeed, and if not we have created a learning experience in many different ways.

- Take time for yourself to have intention around relationships. Be aware.

Always have time to "debrief" yourself. Learn from all interactions with people. Where can I depend on others. Where can I create an opportunity for someone else to succeed?

- Ask yourself "Who depends on me?" and "How do I depend on others?"

- Use any information you have on others' leadership styles and ensure you make space for their strengths to be realized.

- Cultivate psychological safety (space for everyone to contribute positively), structure and clarity (formalized whenever possible), dependability (be there, listen, be relatable/vulnerable), meaning and impact (be laser focused on vision, values and reason).

- Use meetings as a tool to enhance mindfulness among the team plus as a place for collaboration, cooperation and support.

I would never suggest that doing all these things will ensure a CAO never gets fired. Unfortunately this seems to be the case at times in a political environment. Change for change sake. However, the CAO is hired to lead a successful organization and their ability to do so would be enhanced if they could make strides in depending on those around them in a more proficient way. Of this I am convinced.

"Connect to the Pain of Others" - Practice #5

ted.wong@wsioptimalmarketing.com (Ted Wong) — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 14:38:17 GMT

Connecting to others is local government's superpower

We are public servants at a time when our public is hurting. And evidence suggests their trust in our relationship is low. This obviously has an impact on our emotional wellbeing and can even lead to physical ailments as a result, absences from work, decreased performance which can show up in overall performance of our municipalities driving that decrease in trust, etc, etc - a viscous circle.

As a mindful leader one must be adept at recognizing this and take intentional steps to address the issues. In Marc Lesser's book Practice #5 "Connect to the Pain of Others" becomes especially powerful given the current state. The book suggests there are several ways a mindful leader can connect to the pain of others. All of which apply nicely in our context of public service and leadership in a government setting.

Cultivate community and connection

Creating a sense of community among our teams should be somewhat easier given who we serve. What we do on a day-to-day basis is create this sense of community and connection with the programs, services and amenities we provide. We see examples of community and connection virtually every day. We see and feel community at its best as well as when it is suffering, like now.

Just like we would encourage a conversation with our communities that we are all in this together and there are ways we can lean on each other in times of struggle, the very same thing can be said of our internal team of public service champions. I assume when we decided to pursue our careers in public service we embraced the extraordinary role we can play in empowering community wellbeing. This can be our collective rallying cry in the face of today's challenges. And we are better together if we want to see success. For us and for our communities.

"When we embrace public service genuinely we can accept legitimate criticisms of our sector as valid engagement intended to be used to improve the current state." - Kelly Rudyk

The book also suggests there are typically four main ways people generally inhibit their abilities to connect to the pain off others. All, again, very legit in our sector and meaningful for a mindful leader in our space.

Criticizing others shows up as we try and deflect the pain we are feeling. As our public criticizes us we can, at times, rush to criticize as a response. "They just don't know what they are talking about." "All they do is complain." Our response to criticism is something we have in our own control. As a mindful leader we can synthesize things down to what is really going on behind it. Where is the valid critique within the criticism. What can we learn from it?

Defensiveness is a natural response to someone acting out due to their feelings of pain - that they feel has a lot to do with your actions. At times, we can be triggered to disregard current state and circumstances and weave a story of all the good things we are doing. And yes, we are doing a lot of good things, this is true. However, there is also an opportunity to acknowledge our responsibility to listen, demonstrate some empathy and grasp our obligation to help. Look at things from the lens of the current situations and do not let history only dictate our actions.

There have even been times when I have seen Contempt seep into the relationship between us and our public. And while I acknowledge there seems to be a next level of rhetoric and anger out there it does not give us the green light to feel these sentiments are not worthy of consideration. They exist. They impact us and our public. We should be trying to find out what is motivating this and see how much of that is within our control to impact. I grant that this can be difficult to do. We need to often times fall back to that sense of community and connection to motivate us.

And, finally, instead of trying to connect with someone else's pain there can be a tendency to Stonewall. Avoiding dealing with a situation by evading any legitimate response. Become strategically distracted by another issue at hand that we suggest is a bigger priority. If I don't see it then it is not there... Well obviously it is still there and it will only get worse. Anyone who knows me would recall me using the term "we get a dozen bricks before any bouquets". And I. totally get it that would it not be easier to just disregard all the bricks? Except they pile up. And by figuring out the root causes for more bricks, and planning out a way to address them we can take a bit of a hammer to them and turn them into dust.

These four ways of avoiding connecting with someone else's pain do not show up if we commit to something Lesser calls "looking under the hood". What he means by this is not just looking at criticism on the surface but finding out what is really going on. Getting very curious about how this pain can be informative to going forward strategically. We can even be very proactive and invite criticism at public forums, education sessions, etc. Mindful leaders are more and more comfortable with demonstrating some vulnerability. Sharing that we, as public service, do not always have all the answers BUT we are definitely excited about any opportunities to learn from our public. Learning everything - the good, the bad and yes, even the ugly at times.

In fact, when we are looking at the relationships within the realm of public service, it is fair to say that one of the common denominators between our public, our Council and our team is this idea of shared pain. Constructive conversations about shared pain can really bring us all together. Let's face it, things are pretty challenging right now. But we have a lot of things going for us too. That shared sense of community and connectedness can really help us out.

"Connect to your Pain" - Practice #4

ted.wong@wsioptimalmarketing.com (Ted Wong) — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 14:43:15 GMT

Practice #4 - Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader

When reading this practice I initially wondered about the use of the word pain in the context of our industry - local government and specifically around leadership in this sector. But the more I thought about it the more appropriate I believe the word to be. We are experiencing real pain right now. And we are hearing the real stories day after day. And what will follow is some helpful advice from the book around how to recognize discomfort and leverage it to get ahead of it becoming worse.

It is important to acknowledge discomfort because it actually helps you determine what is truly important and likely the most meaningful to us. For a local government leader there are a myriad of things that could be causing this discomfort. A mindfulness practice is so very helpful here because of the intentional time that it affords a leader to determine where the most discomfort is being felt and gauge how it aligns to our bigger picture. The term "don't sweat the small stuff" comes into play here. We only have so much time in the day to address issues therefore it is extremely important to use that time wisely.

The author Marc Lesser suggests that every type of pain needs to be acknowledged. Just as physical pain assists a doctor in diagnosing a patient, so to can emotional pain help a leader ascertain organizational disfunction. So many times in my career I have witnessed a Council Meeting where you can actually witness, in real time, where an issue is starting to encounter discomfort. You can literally see the emotions start to show up physically on a presenter's face. And it often spreads to their team around them. Everyone having a hard time not reacting with some facial expressions that show the tension being felt.

There is a real skill in performing a "pre-mortem" for this very occasion. We are all likely more familiar with a "post-mortem" where after someone passes away doctors examine the body to determine a cause of death. What factors led to this person passing away. This becomes helpful for everyone but the diseased. A "pre-mortem" is an exercise of proactively attempting to determine factors that could lead to both a positive or a negative outcome in certain situations. In the case described above a leader going into a Council Meeting should perform a "pre-mortem" with there team to determine where tension may arise and plan accordingly. Good "pre-mortem" work here could include using Council's strategic plan and the goals identified within it and gauging how well what we are brining forward aligns with furthering those goals. Anticipating where Council may feel some pain is hugely beneficial for more successful engagements with them.

One can even, on purpose, contemplate the worst possible scenarios and the pain that comes with them. For example, in my time I worked with a Chief Financial Officer who would always share their very harsh experience in losing an enormous amount of assessment where they worked previously. Their single biggest taxpayer left the community with very little warning. You can only imagine the pain this caused. It forced a very stressful identification of the truly most important things required for their community. Historically significant services provided to the community were lost and those that remained looked much different. This CFO carried this experience with them as they moved to new communities. They always had people thinking about the "what if" scenarios. This practice injected resilient thinking and proactively thinking about value of our offerings in their current state. Awareness of a worst possible situation also provided perspective. Things seemed not as bad as they potentially could be.

For our industry I feel this chapter is very relevant these days. Yes, we are experiencing pain today, perhaps like we have ever felt before. However, there are mindful ways to use this pain to inform us of what is truly most important right now. Take the time to understand this very well. It serves everyone.

"Don't be an Expert" - Practice #3 of the Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader

ted.wong@wsioptimalmarketing.com (Ted Wong) — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 14:52:40 GMT

Don't be an Expert

Before anyone gets upset about this practice we need to remember the context in which it is being shared. A practice demonstrated by a mindful leader. And remember mindfulness involves being curious about everything going on and trying to take the time and demonstrate patience. Trying very hard to move from acting in a reactive manner and pursuing contemplation and responding with more precision. Using all the information available to us - including what is happening more subtly and spurred on by emotions.

And for us in government this practice will be especially challenging because many of us are hired, at least partly, because we are an expert in a certain area. Naturally we can be considered an expert in our field. So while the term says "Don't be an Expert" I feel we can safely suggest that Marc Lesser means "Don't show up only as the Expert". I am thinking of an interaction with a Council. We are in the room because we are an expert. But, can we show up with expertise and share it without coming across as "the smartest person in the room"? Even if we are...just kidding. Can we show up with confidence while not looking over confident? Can we share and invite Council curiosity? Remember the concept of "beginner's mind". While what you are sharing is not new to you it is the first time you are sharing it with Council and it is potentially their first time learning what you already know. Invite their curiosity. Anticipate it. Be glad for it.

Sometimes, because of our familiarity and expertise in certain processes and subjects, we tend to move into autopilot. Let's take, for example, our budget process year after year. We spend endless hours building out a budget for Council to consider. And, in my opinion, this process changes only very slightly year after year. Thus autopilot can be engaged. And this can come across when we present to Council. We are the experts, we have done this so many times, and yes, some long term Council members can also get to the point of hitting cruise control. I have been in budget deliberations when this has led to eye-rolling and even exhausted sighs when a curious Councillor asks a question. And we, as administration, leave the session asking things like "Why don't they get it?" or "Why are they asking such silly questions?"

Remember how tipped the scales of information are for us as admin. The hours mentioned before. The fact that this is our expertise. We have a number of supports helping us get to the recommendations we make, we are a bigger team than Council, we have numerous meetings with our colleagues to ruminate. We are the experts and they are not. They have placed trust in us but we can not react negatively when they get curious. They absolutely should get curious. Now, there are times when their curiosity gets overly emotional and, especially nowadays, tip toward being disrespectful. There are no excuses for this but we still have the ability here to take the high road whenever possible. We should try and be precise and logical with our responses and come back to the issue at hand. Knowing where to tapout on these types of interactions is another blog in itself. But we can only really impact what we bring to these interactions and try to influence positive behaviour with our colleagues.

In the end, we are trying to set up Councils to make great decisions. And to do this requires all the tools in our toolbox. We need to complement our expertise with an effort to ascertain what we do not see. What is motivating Council comments or questions? Have they been approached by someone in the community feeling threatened by something we are recommending? Have they become too singularly focused on something without seeing the bigger picture? Do they need reminding of our community wide aspirations and how we are focused on achieving this? Curiosity on both sides helps us toward making great decisions.

I certainly wish I had learned about this practice earlier on in my career. I learned about a budgeting methodology called priority based budgeting while away at a conference. It was like a lightning bolt hit me when I heard how compelling it was and lead to, in my mind, great decisions being made. Excited, I mad hit my mission, to bring this home and get other people excited too. And I was ultimately successful in that we committed to implementing it. Mission accomplished right? Well far from from it. Our implementation took a long time and for me it took too long. And my own "showing up as the expert" can be partially blamed for this. This was a very big change to ask of a big organization. It was a best practice and not a legislated, or even industry wide, change. And we were not in a situation where it was condition critical. Yet, here I was showing up in rooms with my colleagues trying to drive a change they knew little about and were legitimately questioning the Why. I clearly needed to spend more time allowing for my bigger team to get curious. I needed to make space for learning, for everyone, including me. Not surprisingly, for those who I did spend more time with, we saw the biggest returns on the implementation. Later, we did make space for sharing these learnings and inviting more curios questions but did lose some time and some critical potential champions along the way.

We learn from experience. In fact, "every experience is experience". This specific initiative has helped me immensely. I am far better equipped to recognize when I am coming across as the expert. And am able to take a breath and determine the best course of action, if any, to take to invite curiosities and questions for a learning experience. I hope this is helpful.

Do the Work - Practice #2 (Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader)

ted.wong@wsioptimalmarketing.com (Ted Wong) — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 14:56:19 GMT

Do the Work

This may be challenging for leaders in our sector. This is because when we hear "do the work" we take it to mean provide the services, clear the roads, fix the water mains, clean the paths, etc. And we should always be doing this work. In the context of mindful leadership however, Do the Work means making intentional space for and staying true to a mindfulness practice. Just like anything else in our lives, things very rarely just happen and we do not often inherit being amazing at things. We must demonstrate due diligence and practice them to get good at them.

I like to use the word discipline. It comes up a lot in strategic planning sessions with Councils. I always share the dual meaning of the word discipline because I see it showing up in both ways in local government. And it must be shared where both can be appropriate and where they cannot be interchanged. Here are two very different meanings of discipline.

Discipline - "punishment inflicted by way of correction and training" (www.dictionary.com)

Discipline - "an activity, exercise or regimen that develops or improves a skill" (www.dictionary.com)

You can see how very different these meanings are.

In the first meaning I am envisioning the old meter stick at schools or even the strap. Some of us will remember those days when this type of discipline was employed. These days in our industry if someone was to act outside of the bounds of an employee conduct rules and regulations they might be disciplined by way of a formal letter on their employee record acknowledging the act of contravention.

In the second meaning I see a professional athlete or someone at the Olympics. They have a very disciplined approach to their daily activities, exercise and training. We have all heard stories of how many years successful athletes have been focused on their craft. Attempting to master their performances and peak at the optimal times. We see this show up in our sector, in my opinion, most often in the financial world. We always approve a budget. Both corporate wide and at the department level. And we are compelled by legislation to stay within the means of that budget or, in exceptional circumstances make the commitment to address overages in a very short timeframe. Local governments are really quite skilled at this practice of staying on budget - despite what some may think - but more on this later.

Again, in the context of a mindful leader, this discipline means setting aside daily time for a mindfulness practice. Like an athlete, it means being mindful of our daily activities. Making this practice a routine. Setting aside time to work towards improving our skill. This will not just happen.

The more time we spend on anything the better we get a it. With mindfulness this will show up in the form of being far less reactive in all situations. We will be far more calm, we will be more comfortable in what may seem to be a tricky situation, those around us will see this as confidence and stability. These are all inspiring attributes for any leader.

In the book (Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader - Marc Lesser) he shares a question that a leader could/should be asking themselves before reacting to any situation.

"What is the most appropriate response?"

I might add to this "...if any".

When attempting to figure out the most appropriate response (if any) to any situation we must give ourselves the right amount of time to decide exactly what this is. With precision. And right now, in these times of immediate results and responses, this has become increasingly difficult. But, it does not mean we should not still do it. A correct and precise response is always better than one that is likely tainted by emotion.

This time should be filled with what Lesser terms "generative listening". This type of listening is done with curiosity and openness. Listening for facts while also trying to suss out feelings. What is being implied. One listens for clues as to what the bigger picture is. This also requires listening with compassion, for others as well as yourself. All of this lead to clarity being enhanced and allows for far better outcomes.

Mindful leaders must "do the work" by mastering the ability to recognize their own triggers. What are the subjects, words, etc that "set you off" or illicit an emotional response? Once we are able to better recognize them we must then submit the pause that is required for generative listening. And think of that ever useful question mentioned earlier "What is the most appropriate response?" (if any). I add this option of "if any" because I strongly believe we are hard-wired, especially right now, to respond to anything and everything that comes our way. Even if it can be determined that the issue at hand does not align with any meaningful objectives we have determined that will further our goals. Often times we respond to non-priority issues and end up impairing our ability to move the needle on actual priorities.

Any leader contemplating a mindfulness practice is embarking on a change. And change can be scary for many. But we must acknowledge the fact that there must be something going on for us that has led us here. We are seeking improvement. For us and for those around us. Lesser suggests that when we encounter this fear it is always helpful to "ground truth" ourselves. What he means is to continue to come back to the big picture. And then seek alignment to that big picture. Again, take the time and ask "What is the most appropriate response?" Is any anxiety being felt because we are acting not in alignment with our big picture? For a local government leader our big picture is community wellbeing. Would looking to improve ourselves and the organization not. by extension, see improvements in decision making? And, as a result, wouldn't better decisions lead to better results for our communities?

Mindful Leadership - Local Government

ted.wong@wsioptimalmarketing.com (Ted Wong) — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 14:59:23 GMT

Applying mindfulness in local government leadership

I am currently reading "Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader" by Marc Lesser for the second time.

When I left a close to 30 year career with many established comforts and security I experienced anxiety like I had never before. Many around questioned this move. They assumed I had it made. And, from the outside looking in it may have appeared so. However, I longed for another challenge and quite frankly I thought I was in an environment of complacency. So, off I went. Big challenge ahead. Starting my own business.

One of the first challenges was trying to deal with this anxiety I was feeling. It was very new to me. And in hindsight obviously brought on by all the newness and the unknowns that I would be facing. Questioning myself around almost every turn. As is often the case when I am dealing with a new challenge I started researching anxiety, especially and specifically in my set of circumstances. Why it is happening? What does it do to you? How can you go about improving the situation?

Well, here is where mindfulness comes in. Turns out that getting yourself into a place of calm and steady breathing is a powerful tool when combatting anxiety. Go figure. And yes, this may seem obvious but, like so many other things, there are ways to do this and then there are ways to do it well. With intention. Long story short, I have embraced a practice of mindfulness and meditation and am committed to trying to achieve mastery of the skill. Not with any pressure on myself just a challenge that I believe has enormous lifelong benefits as I improve.

My learnings have included many books. "Think Like a Monk" by Jay Shetty has literally changed my life. I highly recommend it, even if you are not aspiring to become a monk. This is his point. "Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader" is very topical and potentially very powerful for any leader - and in our case any local government leader. Marc Lesser suggests there are 7 practices one can follow in an attempt to become proficient at using mindful practices for self improvement but also performance enhancements as a leader.

The Practices are as follows: Love the Work, Do the Work, Don't be an Expert, Connect Your Pain, Connect to the Pain of Others, Depend on Others and Keep Making it Simpler.

I will be posting a series of blogs. One for each Practice. Relevant in the context of our industry - local government (perhaps government in general).

Practice 1 - Love the Work

This Practice seems simple enough. Love the work of being in local government.

However, in the context of mindfulness and leadership, it becomes way more informative and instructive. I know of many people in local government who I truly believe love the work but their "reality" within the work has beaten them down and they feel unappreciated. I see if often and it is disheartening. We have to find a way to recapture that which inspires us to want to do great things and love doing them.

This is where mindfulness and meditation can be powerful allies. When we carve out time to approach our work with care, intention and purpose we can see challenges in front of us as part of a bigger picture and look at the best possible ways to overcome them. A local government leader needs to make space to always come back to what Joseph Campbell terms "the calling". Marc Lesser suggests

"The calling represents a profound shift of attention, a shift in one's way of being in the world; the calling asks us leave the ordinary and pursue the extraordinary."

This brings me back to my story at the beginning of this article. Until I realized that one of the biggest motivations for me, in leaving a place I had worked for close to 30 years, was to further what I felt was my calling, I would continue to feel anxiety. For me, I needed to find a place where I could create as much value to communities as I possibly could. At that time, it meant I needed to be vulnerable and challenge myself in a way I had not contemplated before.

Local government leaders that make intentional space to ponder their own calling will inevitably come back to this idea of service to others. Service to community. When leaders do this it opens up the opportunity to realize what is truly most important while at the same time what now, because of this intentionality, seems quite trivial. Local government leaders need to inspire those around them to achieve greatness. Mindfulness and meditation offer this space. In fact, the word inspire comes from the Latin inspirare which means to breathe into.

Local government leaders must also have the courage to be vulnerable and share this idea of Love the Work with those around them. Yes, right now, in the face of people saying this is all fluff or this is not a good use of your time and the overall sentiment of instantaneous gratification, this Love of Work is even more critical. I cannot be convinced that the greatest value we can bring to our community is being able to respond to Facebook rants 24/7 or spend hours in a Council meeting going over a vitriolic letter to the editor. These are the very obstacles/challenges that we need to acknowledge exist but take time to see, bigger picture, how much they should influence the Work, if at all.

Mindfulness within a team of local government leaders allows for everyone to detach themselves from the emotions that are often at play at a moment in time. These emotions are usually not just from an external stakeholder but among ourselves. Taking a step back and looking at things through the lens of Love the Work leaders can mine for any logic or alignment to ultimate goals, free from bias and being open and curious.

Right now there is a lot of stress in our industry. It is impacting our Love of the Work we do. It is imperative that we take the time to remind ourselves of why we are public servants. We love to serve. We get to see impacts of our work every day in the communities around us. I wish for all of us to take the time to breathe. At home and at work. Love the Work we do and have that be a positive influence on our days. Local leaders that do so will have a team around them that is inspired to achieve the best they possibly can.

Where's Waldo

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 18:49:27 GMT

"The Reward is the Experience"

Full confession, this blog is inspired by a mindfulness session from this week with Jay Shetty. And "the reward is the experience" are his words.

I was inspired however to use his session and apply it to strategic planning efforts in the local government sector. I hope you also see the parallels and how this might move some thinking.

I am sure you are familiar with Where's Waldo. This is where Waldo shows up in a very busy tableau of art and the purpose of Where's Waldo is to find him among all the other images in the picture. It may seem his trademark shirt and glasses make it easy but, at least in my case, it is not.

Jay suggests, and I agree, there tends to be a couple of different strategies for finding Waldo. One would be very intently going over the image inch by inch intently focused on finding his image. This requires a great deal of focus and determination because similar images are within to distract you and cause frustration. Another way would be to "Zoom Out" (Jay's term) and take in the entirety of the picture and see all the different things going on while having in the back of your mind Waldo's image.

Having done this several times while thinking about the blog my experience tells me the first method is far more successful at finding Waldo. However, I will tell you I enjoyed the second method a lot more and came to appreciate all that goes into the whole image and the efforts made to distract. It caused a bit of a re-think - perhaps the creator of Where's Waldo prefers the second method? In that they would have those that experience their work take more time with it, see several different scenes and art and if they are like me, enjoy the time spent more.

Jay suggests that "the reward is the experience" in trying to find Waldo, not felt in any frantic way of finding Waldo as fast as possible. Enjoy the art. Appreciate the thinking of ways to distract.

This same sentiment can be applied when commencing a strategic planning effort. As many would be aware I am a big advocate in this being a longer term process embedded within a Strategic Planning Framework. The Framework consisting of sequential steps in a logical process. Acquiring from the public their future dreams for our community, applying the lens of our elected officials to interpret the public's desires in to a strategic plan, creating both a corporate and several department business plans to align effort, resources and time toward achieving on the goals in a strategic plan and finally a Priority Based Budget that allocates our resources toward programs that provide the best return on citizen investment in terms of relevant value within said programs.

What can happen in this framework is that the stakeholders most "engaged" in a certain area can become laser focused on that area alone. For example, Council may just focus on their strategic plan and maybe even more specifically to an area they prefer the most within that plan or perhaps just the Vision Statement in the plan. Equally, a department within the municipality might hone in on only their department business plan while neglecting any effort made to understand their colleagues' or the Corporate Business Plan. And, of course, as they are preconditioned to do the budget becomes a huge focus and in the least strategic or big picture way - line items become a huge focus.

Zooming out from these specific areas allows us to recognize the alignment between all these areas, the relationships that must be strong for a well functioning environment to exist, the trade offs between different departments when searching for maximum corporate value for community. Seeing the big picture and all the moving parts required while making progress provides much perspective on both the challenges and opportunities within the whole. Trust and respect for all stakeholders is enhanced as we see the myriad of different scenarios that play out while making our way collectively through the whole framework. The tableau created might just look like a Where's Waldo creation and to appreciate it all requires time, patience and determination. But the results are worth it - we are rewarded by the experience.

The Benefits of Gamification

Tue, 14 Nov 2023 18:57:59 GMT

Nowadays, when I say games, most people think about video games. That's ok. Our family likes board games, so when I say games, I mean games in general. Perhaps this is a generational thing? Although I have an app on my phone, it is definitely a "video game" – Clash of Clans. Apps on your phone are more than just games, but many people are engaging in fun distractions like Candy Crush or Fruit Ninja.

When researching this topic, I found many studies that share different statistics around those who enjoy games. In general, however, I would share that the numbers are on the rise for every demographic. It is becoming a huge part of the lives of Gen Y or younger. Apps are really impacting the way a bank operates or the travel industry for sure.

So, knowing that:

- Most people enjoy games;

- Their lives are being impacted in a big way by apps on their phones; and

- There is a potential for these types of distractions to be just that during hours of work...

What could or should be done to recognize this and maybe even take advantage of it? Let's talk about gamifying the workplace.

What is gamifying?

According to the Miriam-Webster definition, Gamify means "the process of adding games or game-like elements to something (such as a task) so as to encourage participation."

So, using the example I know best, a municipal workplace, what could gamification look like? I would argue that some of the current planning that is done mirrors gameplay already. Perhaps the best example would be how traffic engineers design roads and traffic lights to maximize vehicle movement efficiency.

Of course, they need to layer in filters like safety, cost, aesthetics, etc. Still, these lend themselves well to the parallel of resources, abilities and rewards in many games.

I wonder if this type of scenario could work elsewhere in a municipal workplace?

What if the recreation area planned programming and new facilities based on a metric or return of overall community satisfaction around their physical wellness? Perhaps we could use some base data after asking our public which programs and facilities they think would provide them with the most benefit. We can then layer in things like cost, time, staff required. The public would be engaged our different levels of the recreation department to "create" a strategy to maximize benefits going forward.

Gamification in our day-to-day lives

How many of us are tied to our Fitbit or Apple Watch and feel compelled by them to get those last few steps before an hour ends or have made a habit of trying to get better sleep as a result?

As suggested earlier, this gamification of our lives is becoming the norm. How many of us are tied to our Fitbit or Apple Watch and feel compelled by them to get those last few steps before an hour ends or have made a habit of trying to get better sleep as a result? This will only become more pervasive in our lives, no getting around it. Whether or not this, in general, is a good thing or not is a topic for another blog; however, how could a workplace benefit from introducing this type of engagement strategy for employees?

Gamifying our workplace

Attracting talent can undoubtedly be improved by sharing an innovative culture that inspires inclusion and fun. Gamification has been known to encourage more participation in special initiatives. Those engaged in this type of work tend to spend more focused time on those initiatives because they are designed to be socially interactive, bring emotional responses forward positively, and be personalized and reduce the anxiety of the introduction of something new. Gamification can be tailored to bring together the elements of team building, crowd-sourcing input and using that data to then strive for outcomes that stress mutual benefit.

The most engaging municipal planning sessions invite participants to create their own end-product with the knowledgeable subject matter experts in the room. This provides guidance on what may or may not be possible within specific parameters, explained and understood upfront – in essence, given the game rules before playing.

What is the allure of games?

People love the idea of succeeding at a task and receiving a reward of som

e sort. This is a big part of games, instant gratification and some kind of sense of accomplishment. As can be the case with gamification at work. Then, believing in your ability to succeed in such a way has lasting benefits to performance and a sense of purpose.

Gen Y and younger certainly gravitate towards gamification more quickly than older generations. This is the young talent required for long-term resiliency in municipal government. Gen Y is motivated by mastery of skills and a sense of relatedness or purpose. Gamification brings those attributes to the workplace in an enjoyable way.

A nice balance of collaboration and competition can have some profound results for a workforce. In the short term, there is the transformation of how people are trained in new positions. In the medium term, you can think about enhanced productivity due to capturing discretionary effort. Finally, the long-term impacts can be seen in the improvement of overall employee and organizational well-being. These observations are all commonly reported in workplaces that have introduced gamification.

Effects of injecting play in our work

The increases in well-being resonate strongly with me. I feel that this is the reason for being a municipality. Much of my narrative has been around citizen and community well-being. Still, I am not surprised to hear of the benefits in employee well-being due to the happiness that comes with being engaged in this way.

At corporate level strategic planning, I suggest a "civilization-type" game where all of what we do as a municipality is gauged as to its returns in the form of well-being. The gamification that could occur is having the municipal team develop the winning combination of programs that maximize well-being? Sound familiar? If not, go back and check out previous blogs.

If the topic is of interest to you and you know of examples that exist, can you please share them? I would love to hear more about what is out there. Thanking you in advance. Be well.

Kelly

(This blog was originally posted on Mar 25, 2020 by Kelly Rudyk)