There was one piece of advice in particular that has always stuck with me; “Be open to trying new things. The things you don’t want to do or don’t think you can do usually end up teaching you something about yourself.” This particular piece of advice was especially helpful for me this week, when I had my Offsite with the RIPKIT Team. Though I was terrified of what my first Offsite with this amazing team would look like, I promised myself I would keep an open mind.

The Offsite is a process that requires honesty and a willingness to share your thoughts and ideas which is why I’m happy I entered the Offsite with a positive outlook. Through this Offsite, not only did I learn a few new things about myself, I learnt that my team has confidence that I can accomplish some amazing goals. Setting RIPS not only gave me a sense of direction, but also confidence by seeing that my team believed in me. This was one of the most rewarding realizations I experienced this week. RIPS created clarity for me this week.

Shannon Holder

So what can an Alberta based business do to remain immune to the poaching and salary expectation ransoms that could paralyze them?

One word: culture.

Or, maybe it’s closer to 13 words: invest all the energy they can muster into creating the healthiest culture possible.

We’ve known for decades that culture is a critical ingredient to business success. What’s becoming increasingly clear, is that culture is the critical ingredient to business success. Culture trumps leadership. Culture trumps strategy. Culture trumps innovation.

This isn’t to say that leadership, strategy and innovation aren’t enormously important. But the success of those elements are limited by the health of the culture.

With Innovation Strategy being pushed as the magic-must-have-bullet of this second decade of the milennium, it’s critical to foster a culture that understands its importance and is aligned with its purpose. Without that, innovation becomes inNOvation.

Below are two charts from Booz & Company’s annual study on innovation that drive home the critical nature of alignment of Culture and Innovation Goals.

Les Mottosky

My experience began on a Sunday evening and went straight through to Thursday afternoon. I had just enough time for a bottle of Granville Island IPA and 6 hours of sleep each night before returning by 7 am the next morning. Grid is not about sitting back, listening, and taking in a lecture from someone who has just published a best selling book. Grid is about a scientifically proven methodology and participation. Specifically, Grid is geared towards understanding how our behavior affects teams and ultimately, the results we achieve as a team or organization. The scaled up view of this is called culture, but on an individual level, Grid is about recognizing the attitudes, values, and beliefs that we hold that influence our behavior each and every day.

Our initial team exercises compared individual results from our Grid pre-work to our team results. If a team is achieving synergy, the results of the team should be higher than the highest individual score. Suffice it to say, our team didn’t achieve synergy and after the first day I was ready to switch to a more successful team.  How does a team underperform when compared to the individual? Underutilization of resources. Everyone would likely recognize that each team member brings a valuable tool-set of experience, passion, and knowledge to a team. But when that resource is not fully cultivated, utilized, and leveraged, the overall results of the team are diminished. This should be an easy fix, right? Bring your A game and we’ll achieve big things. It’s not that simple, because what I learned is how my behavior can diminish the resources that a team brings to the table.

My biggest issues were related to how I took initiative and how I made inquiries. My team brought up that I act as if I am always right and that I believe that my idea is best, and although I listen to what others have to say, I am really good at convincing others that my way is really the best way. So is my way really the best way or have I been closed off to finding the best idea because I have a need to be right?

How I  take initiative in a team environment sometimes came across as overbearing. If I am going to serve up a powerful serve, I expect you to hit it back. What I came to realize was that some people just toss the racket in the air and duck for cover. Serving up an ace means that I win, but what I failed to recognize is that we are in a team sport. Just because someone can’t return a serve doesn’t mean that they are incompetent or that what they have to say is not valuable, my learning was that I can be more inclusive of others and get them to rally by easing into a team situation. If I truly believe that everyone has something valid to contribute and something valuable to say, it is my responsibility to ensure that everyone is heard and gets a chance to hit the ball.

Grid is not rocket science so why is this so hard to figure out and execute? As a colleague once said to me, we perceive ourselves through our intentions while others perceive us through our behavior. I have been viewing myself from within my own reality distortion field and have been blind to how others see me. The reality of who I think I am and who I really am are quite different. How could this happen? This is the one area in my life where I am not going to take responsibility. This isn’t my fault. It’s everyone else’s fault. Why is it that when someone is fired that they are surprised, stunned, shocked? Why are we always the last to know? It’s because we don’t want to be impolite. We usually never say the things that need to be said. We bow out because we are uncomfortable giving others candid healthy critique. Unfortunately we do a disservice to our teams, friends, and family because we think it’s better to withhold the truth than be open and honest with one another. This doesn’t come easy and what the Grid provides is a framework and methodology to building trust and approaching candor and critique from a place where we can grow together as a team and an organization.

Unfortunately I have been killed with kindness and this has significantly impacted my ability to be the best person and team member that I can be. Now that I can take responsibility to ensure that I am open and honest to my team, and vice versa, we can now begin to harness the full resources that each of us has to contribute. When we understand how we can affect a team in a positive way and reduce the ways we affect that team negatively, we now have the ability to create synergy. 1 plus 1 now equals 3, or 4, or 5 and we now can fully leverage our resources and achieve bigger and better results. We now have the potential to create more with less, or even more with more. My experience at Grid has changed me in a profound way. I have seen a glimpse of what others see in me and for the first time in my life I have a starting point. I can now move forward with confidence and with a destination because you need to know where you are before you can decide how to get to where you want to be.

Aaron Moseson

Pentland is a Professor at MIT, the director of MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory, the MIT Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program, and the chairman of Sociometric Solutions. Alex and his team have spent years developing a discrete monitoring system for teams in the form of a small personal badge. This badge is attached to your lapel. The purpose of the badge is to monitor all the movements and interactions of the members of a team. During the first hour or so of use people tend to be very conscious of the badge and alter their behaviors as such, after a few hours, much less a few days or weeks, humans cannot help but interact in their normal behavior. The badges and system have been tested now over several years and are revealing some of the most fascinating behavioral data that is now available on the performance of teams.

Most fascinating about the research to date is the fact that the #1 most important factor to a team’s performance is not what is communicated but how it is communicated. Seriously, the content is less important, by far, than the delivery and the setting. The more a team is given the opportunity to create personal connections in a professional setting, the stronger the team interaction will be.

Pentland goes on to say, “The thinking is that what is known as Patterns of Communication matter so much because language is a relatively recent development and was most likely layered upon older signals that communicated dominance, interest and emotions among humans. Today these ancient patterns of communication still shape how we make decisions and coordinate work among ourselves.

Consider how early man may have approached problem solving. One can imagine humans sitting around a campfire (as a team) making suggestions, relating observations, and indicating interest or approval with head nods, gestures, or vocal signals. If some people failed to contribute or to signal their level of interest or approval, the group members had less information and weaker judgment, and so were more likely to go hungry”.

The overarching finding was that high performance teams were ones that had the most even distribution of communication and influence as opposed to those teams that had little communication and one or a few individuals dominated any communication that existed. Several techniques and methods are available to ensure that a high performance team can thrive. Interestingly, almost always the first recommendation that Pentland makes to improve team performance is to make it more social. Have teams take coffee breaks together, do lunches, have group check-ins, and constantly mix things up so that casual interaction can take place across all members of the team.

Cameron Chell

For a start, we have a much bigger personal space than Canadians. I especially notice this in a crowded environment such as public transit, a restaurant or in a circle of people  – where I often feel the need to create more physical space around me.

Also, generally we’re a lot more direct and therefore less likely to hide our facial emotions. In a polite culture such as Canada, at times this can be interpreted as difficult, abrupt or even downright rude.

An interesting article I read recently discussed nonverbal communication – and in particular which cultures most control their facial emotions.

It stated that collectivist cultures that tend to value fitting in and conformity are the most likely to hide their negative emotions with smiles, whereas individualist cultures that emphasize the importance of individual autonomy and power are the least likely.

Given this fact, it was no real surprise to me to then learn that the culture with the least control over their facial emotions was the Americans and the most was the Russians.

This proved to me that nonverbal communication is not a right or a wrong, but more of a spectrum that is highly reflective of your cultural upbringing and the nonverbal ‘rules’ you learned as a child.

Kate McKay

Shomit Ghose, in his March 12 Forbes article, very aptly pointed out that with the cost of IT has practically dropped to nothing. The barrier of entry for competition is so low and the fight for market share so high that the notion of charging a customer for the privilege of using your infrastructure or code is almost nonexistent. What John Smith is suggesting is the only business model left is collecting your data and selling your information.

The amount of information that is now being produced is so vast, estimates suggest that in 2012 alone we will produce 2.7 Zettabytes (2.7 x 1021) of information. IBM recently announced that that it will be analyzing the data received from Project DOME, an upcoming telescope project that will produce more data in a year than in all of data produced by the Internet throughout its entire history.

With this much information we have the ability to analyze it all with so much more relevance due to the sheer number of data points. The analysis of this data gives us thousands of new perspectives on any given scenario, problem or event.

How many times did the word hope appear over the social graph after a presidential speech and by whom and where?

Why were phrases with the word purple used after new news stories would break in relation to Arab Spring? Anything with a pattern now becomes a point of relevant interest and is relatable to any other point of interest and relevance. The loop is endless and the potential insights are mind blowing.

Superstar startups of the near future are the ones that can produce data points from their user base, combine them with other data points and produce unique and relevant information based on their proprietary algorithms, or the algorithms of others.

Three sects of power brokers will emerge from this.

1. Those who can position themselves to uniquely capture or create a data set.
2. Those who can analysis this data.
3. Those who can market and spin this data.

My prediction is that this data knows as BIG Data, (Yes we at Business Instincts Group, BIG, love the name of this new industry) will become so valuable and pervasive in our society that infrastructure cost will not just figuratively, but actually reach zero point.

Just an FYI, all of the startups we are building at BIG and financing at PODIUM Ventures, already incorporate some form of BIG Data in their business model.

Cameron Chell

Well, guess what we were actually talking about last week:

Yes, this bus.

This is the leader of the Wildrose Party, Danielle Smith’s, Campaign Bus as it was unveiled last week. As you can imagine, there was a bit of a debacle surrounding the placement of Danielle’s head and body in relation to the wheels on the bus…

The bus made national, and international headlines. Jay Leno even poked fun at it on his late night talk show. This has become a pretty funny moment in Alberta pop culture.

Thankfully, Ms. Smith handled the situation with grace, and became somewhat of a media darling – even poking fun of herself on twitter by tweeting that her husband thought it was hilarious and had sent her this photo:

A less jovial politician could have taken this so far away from funny, heads would have rolled and let’s be honest, if they weren’t laughing with us, we would definitely still be laughing at them.

The importance of the lesson to be learned here can be explained with this blog dedicated to terrible public apologies and Rush Limbaugh’s “non-apology” of a few weeks ago. There is even a book called “My Bad: 25 years of Public Apologies and the Public Behaviour That Inspired Them”. It’s obvious how much the public values a sincere apology (or how we like to poke fun at a terrible one). The way that public figures react to slip-ups is extremely important for their personal brand. Whether their public relations team crafts a polished statement, or the offender tweets something from the heart, it’s important that the reaction is timely, authentic and respectful.

Ms Smith’s reaction to the bus wrap was classy, and honest; being able to poke fun at herself and laughing along with the public certainly made a difference. Although the bus design has now been updated, we can be sure that the placement of those hubcaps will be on a lot of people’s minds for the rest of the campaign.

Judy Garvey

Upon arriving at the speaking engagement, I found myself captivated by Craig’s story. At the age of twelve, Craig was inspired to make a difference in the world, after reading the story of a young Pakistani boy who was killed as the result of pursuing the fight against child labor. Compelled by the report, Craig gathered his friends and formed “Free The Children” – an organization focused on making the world a better place through education and sustainable development. Free The Children has since brought world-wide exposure to child labor issues, and has encouraged children globally to get involved and take a stance. Craig also co-founded “Me To We” – an initiative that brings attention to socially conscious products and services.

Listening to Craig speak was inspirational to say the very least. His passion and conviction for the work that he does is clearly defined, and within the hour that he spoke, Craig brought many global and societal issues to light. Emotions ranging from empathy to empowerment were felt; leaving us, as an audience, to ponder the age old question ‘can one person really make a difference in the world?’

Since attending the speaking engagement, I have come to further understand the importance of discovering your own individual passion – just as Craig has done. It is what is derived from that passion that will affect the world around us.

“The power of one – yes, one person can make a difference in the world. Small differences can mark the beginning of substantial change.” – Craig Keilburger

Kelli Myers

Here are the rinks before we got to them.

Pat showing his team the basics before we start curling.

Team planning meeting – there was definitely some strategy involved, especially among the people who could actually curl!

Getting used to sliding down the ice!

Kate prepping the first rock.

More strategy

And finally to close it off, a great shot from the end of the evening.

Her book is about the near epidemic of shame in North American society; the result of the personal belief that “I’m not _______ enough”. This belief not only unravels our fundamental human need for connection and belonging, it motivates us to “hustle” for our worth. This hustling is often manifested in the way we do things and present ourselves. So instead of being real, we pursue “being perfect” in an effort to gain a feeling of acceptance and belonging.

The obvious bad news is that “perfect” isn’t possible. The good news? There are three gifts that come with accepting the imperfection we all personify.

The three gifts are connection, compassion and courage. Connection comes from reaching out to people we know are on our side, who accept us – flaws and all, and champion our efforts to be authentic in the world. Compassion comes first from being kind to ourselves, because only then can we treat others with respect. And courage is practiced by showing our vulnerability and expressing ourselves to others. If we practice these gifts consistently, Brené says a joy for — and engagement — in the world replaces the shame that prevents us back from living a wholehearted life. (“Wholehearted” meaning operating from a deep sense of worthiness.)

She shares her findings in a real, vulnerable and comedic voice that makes you feel like you’ve known her and been friends for years.

It’s a great read and if this post hasn’t convinced you, take a peek at her TED Talk. I promise, you’ll be riveted.

Les Mottosky