Welcome back to Collective Bookmarks. This week’s newsletter has a special product launch from our friends at Canoa, an awesome community session, and tons of other great insights.
We have an incredible event happening in our community this week. We’ll be going live on LinkedIN and within our community on Thursday with Kirsty Angerer from Leesman Index. We’ll dive into their workplace research and what they call the “Workplace Reset.”
Collective Bookmarks is sponsored by HQO, the world’s leading workplace experience platform.
In This Week’s Issue:
- Three Things You Should Know
- Product We’re Into: Canoa AI
- Books We’re Reading: Pieces of Action – Vannevar Bush
As always, if you have feedback or questions please reach out.
Three Things You Should Know
From The World of Work and Place
1. Three Project Management Strategies for a Hybrid Workplace
This recent HBR article emphasizes the importance of careful planning and execution for hybrid projects. It notes that assembling the right team, clarifying expectations, and setting communication norms are vital but more challenging in a hybrid setup. A skilled hybrid project manager can navigate these challenges effectively. The article suggests three key areas for success: first, consider team logistics and adjust for collaboration needs based on time zones; second, ensure everyone is proficient with digital tools and select them together as a team; and finally, manage meetings with intention, using them to build relationships and trust among team members, especially in the hybrid context. Ultimately, it underscores that effective project management in hybrid settings can improve overall project management skills.
What We Think: We really appreciated this authors note that hybrid projects are in fact, just projects. As they point out, the rigor required for good PM work is even more important in distributed settings. Teams got away with a lot of bad PM rigor in a less distributed world, but that’s no longer an option. If you’re looking for a good place to start, check out Atlassian’s resources for kicking off projects.
2. Surviving as a Team of One
In her recent Collective Thoughts article AnnE Diemer emphasizes that the most effective teams are those that incorporate diverse perspectives and opinions. She elaborates on how establishing your own Council presents a valuable opportunity for individuals or small teams to access the support they need. As workplace practitioners are so often a team of one, this article is a great read for anyone who’s had to build their own support structure.
3. Five Workplace Skills that AI Can’t Replace
In a recent Fast Company article Johnny Warström discusses the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on employment and highlights that while AI has its benefits in improving workplace productivity and efficiency, it’s crucial to acknowledge the irreplaceable value of human qualities. The author emphasizes that AI is just the latest technological advancement and won’t render human workers obsolete. Five human strengths are highlighted: creativity, innovation, leadership and mentorship, collective intelligence, and connecting the dots. These qualities, such as creativity’s ability to generate unexpected ideas and innovation’s requirement for human imagination, demonstrate the unique attributes that humans bring to the workplace. The text emphasizes the importance of recognizing and nurturing these human strengths to create effective and enjoyable workplaces in the age of AI.
What We Think: The rise of AI has everyone a little bit concerned. However, we agree that by focusing on what makes us uniquely human – we can perhaps use AI to augment our productivity and create an even better present for workplace. We’re optimistic but there’s a lot of work to be done here as well.
Together with
HqO converges data, technology, and the customer to transform and optimize the complete end-user experience of physical space through a powerful suite of applications and services.
And today – we are excited to offer The Collective community an exclusive sneak peek at our next-to-launch product, Intelligence.
Intelligence is the ultimate real estate and analytics engine that delivers the first and only industry standard for assessing and benchmarking workplace performance. With Intelligence, you can:
- Access global real estate insights gathered from 1.3+ million employees and 8,000+ workplaces, powered by the trusted methodology of Leesman, an HqO company.
- Gain location-specific insights by deploying Intelligence across your portfolio.
To learn more, speak with one of our experts.
Someone You Should Know
In the world of Work and Place
A second-time founder, Federico Negro started CANOA as a response to the commercial interior industry’s failure in addressing current environmental issues. Technology and design have always been an early interest. His first start-up, CASE, focused on developing design technologies for built environment businesses and was acquired by WeWork in 2015.
A Product We’re Into
Canoa AI
Canoa AI launched on 10.17.23. This new AI assisted, collaborative online tool for interior designers lets designers create and share data-rich mood boards, furniture layouts, and product schedules all in the browser, assisted by a first of its kind proprietary AI engine. Using hundreds of millions of product combinations to give recommendations of similar or complementary pieces, designers can quickly identify products from an image or search for new ones across from Canoa’s product catalog. Recommendations can even be targeted with prompts like ‘low carbon’, ‘in stock,’ or ‘quick ship’.
What We Think: Canoa’s new design tool is the kind of thing that would have been unimaginable a few years ago. We got the chance to test it out early and were very impressed. Beyond the ability to have real time recommendations, an incredible library of product, and to collaborate on a design seamlessly – the tool also has a schedule feature which automatically updates your pricing sheet in real time as you add / subtract items from your board. The beta is now open to all below.
That’s It For This Week
We Appreciate You
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