Transcending traditional ideas to create purpose

Keywords

Resilience – Self-awareness – Authenticity – Creativity - Continuous Learning – Critical Thinking

In this episode of Resilience Unravelled Deevo Tindall talks about his problem-solving approach to customer service and his personal experiences of starting his own marketing agency. He emphasises the importance of self-awareness, authenticity in business narratives, and continuous learning and also discusses the pressure put on students within the American education system to achieve academic excellence and the importance of teaching students about alternative paths to success.

Deevo shares his personal experiences of questioning established norms and processes in the corporate world, the importance of critical thinking and the roles of creativity and conformity in organisations and society.

Main topics

• The 'superpower' approach in business

• Strategic growth and the importance of resilience in business.

• Personal and professional reinvention

• The importance of authenticity in business narratives and the dangers of businesses telling inauthentic stories.

• The concept of "shadow work,"and redefining one's identity.

• The different paths to success and the importance of introspection in life.

• Pragmatic, creative approaches to problem-solving

• Is tension in organisations necessary or beneficial.

• Why finding a sense of identity and fulfilment, regardless of whether one is creative or not, is key to a satisfactory life.

• The concept of resilience in setting smart goals.

Action items

Find out more about Deevo at Fusion Creative or through his social media at LinkedIn and Instagram.

 You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.   

How to survive a technology driven workplace.

The latest episode in our Resilience Unravelled series has now been released, Resilience Unravelled – How to survive a technology driven workplace.

In this episode, Dr. Russell Thackeray talks to Steve Prentice, a published author, keynote speaker, university lecturer, and full-time consultant to Fortune 500 companies. His specialty is explaining the practical and emotional impacts and benefits of technological change in regard to productivity, collaboration and life balance, and in providing practical steps to make these changes work.

Steve is interested in resilience from the standpoint of people and technology and how we manage the changes that technology brings. Although technology is a tool, we can struggle to use it. We need time to adapt and the speed of transformation over the last 25 to 30 years has overtaken our capacity for change. Our bodies haven’t learned to process the signals from technology such as the way we respond to light or even to the information itself. The false sense of urgency we feel to reply to an email immediately along can be manipulated by cyber criminals who use our response reflex to trick us into clicking a link to a piece of malware

Looking at the work scenario over the next five to ten years, Steve feels the soft skills of empathy and critical thinking will be key.  AI and robots will change some industries but the capacity to think critically will be essential to keep businesses safe. At the moment with so many people working from home, cyber security has become more important. Is the link between our home router and our place of employment safe?

A lot of people working at home have found they’ve been interrupted just as much as in the office. There have been too many Zoom meetings but Steve feels this is not the fault of technology rather our capacity to establish relationships to those making the bookings. The most powerful weapons in managing our time are being able to influence and relate to managers, customers and co-workers. Our calendars shouldn’t be telling us what to do but telling other people when we are available  

Technology means an increased speed of response is expected so it’s important to manage expectations. People get concerned if they don’t get a response straight away so we need to give them something tangible. An email saying you’ll reply within three hours or by the end of the day makes people feel more comfortable and provides a sense of structure.

There is a natural rhythm to work that has been disrupted by home working. At home we are always available. We go out for a walk at lunchtime but take our phone with us so can always be contacted.  We need to make sure we have structure to our day and have ‘time on and time off’. This can be difficult in some situations but even if we are in a continuous working environment we still have the capacity to hand over work. We need to choose this option even though it might be easier not to because it’s far healthier.

Digital literacy is the key to surviving a technology driven workplace. Information is universal and free and it’s essential to know how to keep pace with what’s important in the world.  We need to know what’s happening and have the ability to pull in information we can use for our education and career. The most important thing to remember though is that as with all information there is wheat and chaff. We need critical thinking so we consider where we get information from and question it before we connect with others.

You can listen to the podcast in full here.

You can find out more about Steve and sign up for his blogs and podcasts at steveprentice.com