Did you get a chance to join us around the campfire for ALIGN 2024? We wrapped up on September 26th and it’s left attendees with a lot of great insights and ideas to bring back to their organizations. The agenda was packed with great keynote speakers Stella Grizont and Adam Weber, as well as other industry experts such as Justin Jones-Fosu, Catherine Mattice, Alex Seiler, and many more. We also got to hear BizLibrary clients regale their incredible L&D successes from the past year and gained lots of practical tips from clients and BizLibrary experts alike. (Including the importance of sunscreen – isn’t that right, Jeremy? Ifykyk – had to be there.)
While we can’t rehash the entire 2-day free virtual conference, we wanted to share our favorite takways with everyone who couldn’t be there or just simply wants to relive the experience!
Wellbeing is Multifaceted
We opened ALIGN 2024 with keynote speaker Stella Grizont, a leading happiness expert as named by Time Magazine. Stella’s background and research is in positive psychology. In fact, she was one of the first first 150 people in the world to earn a master’s in Applied Positive Psychology (aka the science of happiness) from the University of Pennsylvania.
Stella informed us that there are five drivers of wellbeing – positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and achievement. Wellbeing isn’t just about feeling – it also drives positive results at work!
Wellbeing is More Than a Feeling
Pursuing wellbeing can have a big impact inside and outside of work. However, there is a strong business case for employers to support and encourage employees’ wellbeing – it can have incredible results on their performance. Employees who have high levels of wellbeing are 3x more creative – 31% more productive – 10x more engaged – 40% more likely to be promoted – 2x more likely to be alive after 60 years of age.
Focus on Gratitude and take a Complaint Vacation
One of Stella’s recommendations for improving wellbeing is to take a “Complaint Vacation.” However – it’s not what it sounds like. A complaint vacation isn’t pretending like you’re not bothered by anything for 7 days and refusing to share how you’re feeling. Instead, a complaint vacation can look like recognizing that you are troubled or triggered by something, acknowledging the feeling, and then letting it go. Focusing on gratitude rather than things that upset us can have a big impact on your brain, and reframing your focus is an important part of that.
Want to learn more from Stella and the impact of positive psychology on work? Check out her Expert Insights Series: The Science of Happiness at Work with Stella Grizont!
Choose to respectfully disagree instead of disrespectfully agreeing
Justin Jones-Fosu blew our minds in his session about respectfully disagreeing. We are facing a lot of friction in our culture today – being at work is no exception. When it comes to differing perspectives in the office, Justin presents five pillars of respectfully disagreeing that will help you hold your own opinion while seeing the value in others’ positions.
- Challenge your perspective
- Be the student
- Cultivate your curiosity
- Seek the gray
- Agree to respect
These pillars can guide you through the different stages and emotions of respectfully disagreeing with someone. The goal of respectful disagreement can be different based on setting, however, in a work environment, the goal is often mutual respect and a better understanding of the opposing perspective so that the plan moving forward is the one that is most effective.
BizLibrary is glad to have collaborated with Justin Jones-Fosu on four Expert Insights series: Inclusive Mindset, Your WHY Matters NOW, I Respectfully Disagree set for release October 2024, and Work to a Different Beat, set for release December 2024!
Listen to the third degree
This is my personal takeaway from the entire conference. You can use this technique on anyone in your life – not just at work. I’ve already put it into practice and I have seen a big difference in getting to know people more deeply! Part of Justin’s theory on respectful disagreement requires active and perceptive listening – but listening to the third degree is a tactic that you can take anywhere and use on anyone. When you’re in a conversation with someone, it’s likely that it will follow a familiar pattern – “hi, how was your day” “good thanks” There are questions and answers in the previous exchange – but in most situations, nothing is really learned. That’s listening to the first degree. Listening to the second degree is adding a follow-up question. Let’s run that conversation again.
“Hi, how was your day?”
“Good, thanks.”
“What was your favorite part?”
“Oh, I got to go out to lunch with a coworker.”
The second question adds an additional layer to the conversation and opens up an actual dialogue between the two speakers. There is an opportunity to learn that is greater than the first degree. Listening to the third degree is asking another follow-up question about the second degree’s answer, compounding the opportunity to listen, learn, and understand. That might look something like this:
“Hi, how was your day?”
“Good, thanks.”
“What was your favorite part?”
“Oh, I got to go out to lunch with a coworker.”
“Oh, cool. How did that improve your day?”
“Well, I really like to collaborate with that coworker but I don’t get to work with them very much so it was just nice to see each other and catch up and trade ideas. They are really clever and knowledgeable so I appreciate getting to work with them. It helped with a project I was working on.”
From there, you can begin the process of listening to the third degree all over again. While obviously not every conversation is a scripted as the one above, there are opportunities to truly get to know and understand someone better in every conversation – it just requires some practice on asking questions to get people to open up. There’s also practicing authenticity, empathy, etc – but I loved the idea of being willing and brave enough to not just accept answers at the base level and instead diving into the deeper truth behind the answer.
Organizational culture shift requires a tri-prong effort.
Catherine Mattice is a leading expert on anti-harassment and psychological safety at work. Her session on creating a respectful, psychologically safe work environment had a lot of great insights on culture, compliance, leadership, and more. Catherine asserted that in her experience, successful culture shift requires a tri-prong effort between Individual Behavior Change, Organizational Change, and Leadership Change. This often requires both policy changes and training for everyone on individual contributor and leadership level. She also noted that manager training on proactively building a positive culture is rarely offered but can have a great impact on preventing poor culture before it happens.
Turn core values into core competencies
Another practice that Catherine has seen work in the past is taking the behaviors that a company prioritizes (core values) and making them core competencies and added into a performance management system. This type of system can hardwire culture into an organization – so it’s important to choose your values carefully and be mindful of inclusion and equity.
If you’re interested in learning more practical tips and techniques for creating a culture of respect at your organization, follow up with Catherine’s Expert Insight series The Culture Cure and her series on Anti-Harassment!
Work flexibility and work wellness are related.
In a great complement to Stella Grizont’s session on wellness, Mike Gutman presented a session on work flexibility for HR and L&D professionals. Flexibility can have a huge impact on work wellness – people want choice in their lives and at work. In order to promote flexibility and wellness, HR professionals should note that there are two parts to flexibility: policies and programs. Company policies that impact flexibility are often PTO, parental leave, remote work, compensation, etc. Programs that can impact flexibility can be wellness programs, DEI programs, Employee Resource Groups, or professional development programs. Building policies and programs that encourage flexibility have a greater effort on wellness, productivity, retention, and more.
Mike Gutman is a hybrid work expert and has shared his expertise with BizLibrary clients in two Expert Insights series: Essential Hybrid Training and Thrive While Working Remotely.
Frontline managers need more support.
Kevin Eikenberry is the Chief Potential Officer at the Kevin Eikenberry Group, an organization focused on training, consulting, and coaching with a specialty in leadership. Kevin pointed out that frontline managers are some of the most influential people in your organization, and they have the largest ripple effect on the rest of your workforce. Frontline managers need training and support. Kevin recommends that frontline managers need clear expectations, earlier opportunities at learning and training, stronger peer learning and support, coaching, and opportunities at ongoing learning to strengthen their abilities as managers and to ensure that the ripple effect they have on the workforce is a positive one.
Kevin has so much more to say on developing strong leaders that are going to lead your organization into the future – check out his Expert Insights series From Bud to Boss on the challenges of being a new manager and his series on remote work – Being a Remarkable Long Distance Teammate!
A New Formula for Change in HR
Adam Weber of Adam Weber Coaching has over ten years of experience in leadership development and culture industries – he’s seen a lot when it comes to HR. In his closing keynote, Adam noted 98% of HR professionals report feeling burnt out. Many HR individuals also report feeling like they don’t have a seat at the table when it comes to organizational decisions. Adam’s session was jampacked with insight and breaking down the five secrets of successful HR leaders – but his formula for change in HR was what really caught my attention.
This simple, actionable formula is that in order to see change in HR, professionals should understand business context, use business data to inform focus and action, and align with executives. In other words, the goals of the company should become the goal of HR – and HR strategy should be fixed upon meeting those goals through people management.
Join Us in the Future for S’more L&D Goodness!
ALIGN 2024 certainly made me a happy camper – but if you didn’t get the opportunity to join us on the trails next year, there’s always next time! We’re also offering access on-demand to some of our favorite sessions – click here to register!
& we know it might seem a little early, but we don’t want you to miss out on the fun this time around – so keep your eyes peeled for BOOST! Coming Spring 2025.
