The Canadian Ski Team
Ski Cross is one of the most exciting freestyle skiing events at the Games. We’ve been proud to work with the athletes and coaches on both the men’s and women’s teams to help them build self-awareness, leverage their strengths, and perform under pressure. We’ll be cheering them on in the Ski Cross events on February 17th & 18th. Our work with Alpine Canada has also taken us to the downhill skiing events. We’ll be keeping a close eye on Team Canada at the men’s and women’s Slalom, Giant Slalom, and Super-G events.Figure skaters from around the world
Brian Orser and Tracy Wilson are not just Olympic medallists, but widely regarded as the top coaches in the sport. They’ve shared their perspectives on performing in critical moments with us, and we’ll be cheering on their skaters as they compete for the podium in Beijing.
Tracy Wilson is an Olympic Medallist and 7-time Canadian champion
The Canadian Women’s Hockey Teams
We’ll be staying up late to watch Team Canada battle to reclaim Gold. We’ll also be keeping our eye Marie-Philip Poulin who is not just one of the best pressure performers in the world, but the best hockey player in the world, full stop according to our co-founder Peter Jensen. Imagine you’re organizing an in-person learning event for a group of 30 senior leaders. You’ve spent weeks getting the details just right. It’s the first time this group will be getting together in over two years, and you can’t wait for two days of interactive, collaborative learning. And then, the calls start to come in. One week out from the event, the head of marketing tells you there is a case of Covid-19 in her daughter’s classroom, and she will need to attend the session remotely to keep her in self-isolation. Then, three days before, two more calls come from sales leaders who need to travel to meet with clients and will need to participate remotely. In a matter of days, 10% of your group needs to attend remotely. More requests are sure to come in, and your team now needs to come up with a way to accommodate both in-person and remote learners on short notice. This is the new reality. The question is no longer whether to deliver learning remote or in-person – but rather whether to be fully remote or to host a hybrid learning experience. By assuming all in-person events will need to accommodate remote participants – and planning accordingly – you can create learning experiences that are ready to adapt to whatever may come.Hybrid is to Netflix as in-person is to Blockbuster
Hybrid learning events struggle to achieve their goals when they’re treated as an in-person experience first. But as many industries have learned the hard way when undergoing disruption, you can’t do what you’ve always done and expect the same results. Much as Blockbuster failed to recognize Netflix as a serious disruptor, learning organizations stand to fail by ignoring the importance and permanence of hybrid learning.Much as Blockbuster failed to recognize Netflix as a serious disruptor, learning organizations stand to fail by ignoring the importance and permanence of hybrid learning.When L&D professionals do as Blockbuster did and try to carry on with business as usual, the result is a poor experience. The overarching problem is the lack of interactivity between in-person and remote participants, resulting from poorly adapted technology and resources, limited opportunities for participants to connect with each other, and a failure of the event organizers and facilitators to understand participants ahead of time. At the heart of solving these problems before they happen is a focus on creating a unified experience for all learners. Successful hybrid learning events do this by giving careful consideration to how technology is used, creating opportunities for participants to connect, and getting to know participants ahead of time. In delivering hybrid learning to our clients, we’ve observed some innovative practices that exemplify this philosophy.
Adapt technology to the human experience – not vice-versa
Inequality in hybrid learning environments often results when the human element is considered secondarily to technology. For example, remote participants suffer when their experience is made possible by a laptop placed near the front of the room. Thoughtful hybrid learning design considers the desired experience first and then uses technology to build quality and efficiency, creating a “one-classroom” model where all participants feel included and barriers to communication are removed.Bring the online experience into the room
One of our clients, a major quick-service restaurant chain, added a screen at the front of the room displaying the online experience. This ensured everyone in the room, including the facilitator and participants, were constantly aware of the people who weren’t physically present.Create a screen-friendly experience for online participants
In early 2020, our partners in the Full-Time MBA program at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University found a way for remote learners to experience the class in the same way as the in-person cohort by hiring a full-time videographer. As the approach has proven successful, the program is now leveraging technology to deliver the experience more efficiently with an automated system. As a low-cost alternative, the quick-service restaurant chain asked in-person participants to bring their laptops and join the online meeting, keeping their cameras on so remote participants could see faces and hear comments. An AV support team set up microphones at every table to ensure remote participants could hear discussions clearly and both the in-person and remote conversations were moderated. We like this approach enough that we’ve adopted it for our own hybrid staff meetings – with great success.Have support to bridge the gap
The Smith MBA program addressed cross-medium communication challenges by placing a staff member in each classroom to act as a moderator, managing the incoming Zoom information and filtering it to the faculty to ensure the remote participation was managed efficiently.Create opportunities for participants to connect with each other
What we know as we gain more experience through this hybrid world is that people are craving more opportunities to connect on both a personal and professional level with their colleagues – a part of the experience that’s often neglected for online participants. At larger events, we’ve seen this solved with formalized “brain dates” in which participants have scheduled time to meet one-on-one or in a small group, and indicate their preference to meet live, online, or hybrid. Meetings can be on a subject relevant to the event or less-formal opportunities for networking. Our team at Third Factor has addressed this by scheduling a regular meeting with cameras on to share from our learning experiences and connect about what’s happening at a personal and professional level. We don’t just stop there though, many of us set up informal coffee chats to reconnect with each other, have a laugh, and sometimes we actually have a coffee!Understand the field before playing the game
In our 3×4 Coaching program, we teach that people can’t commit without having clarity on what’s expected and why it matters. Successful hybrid learning events require the organizers and facilitators to have clarity on who the participants are and what their needs are. One of our favorite ways of building clarity comes from the legendary basketball coach Jack Donohue, who would ask: “what would you see,” and “what would you hear.” I.e., what would you see and hear if you were a remote participant having a positive, engaging experience? The Smith MBA Program called this “understanding the field before playing the game.” The instructor got to know remote participants’ names and locations ahead of time, and was able to use that information to engage them – acknowledging them personally and asking questions of them throughout the session.Keep your eyes wide open
As Albert Einstein said, “you can’t use an old map to explore a new world.” To execute successful hybrid learning events, learning & development teams need to recognize that the choice isn’t between remote and in-person learning; it’s between remote and hybrid. Every in-person event will inevitably need to accommodate remote participants, at least in the near-future. To ensure your next learning event is successful, this shift in designing your learning experiences will require thoughtful planning to put the human experience ahead of technology, create opportunities for participants to connect with each other, and get to know your participants ahead of time so everyone can be included. What’s the most pressure you’ve ever been under? Dane Jensen joins CTV’s Your Morning to discuss what he learned by asking this question and share his advice for how you can use the energy that accompanies pressure to thrive.Give meaning to the change
While the value of returning to in-person work may be clear to the senior team, it’s unlikely that everyone in the organization will find it apparent.In the absence of information, people tell themselves storiesIn the absence of information, people tell themselves stories – and those stories are rarely positive. Without a clear understanding of the benefit of returning to work, people are likely to tell themselves that it’s because they’re not trusted to do their job while working remotely. Or, that it’s because of their leaders’ own discomfort with remote work. To combat this, organizations need to be able to clearly articulate the value of why people are being asked to come back to the office, beyond “you get to keep your job.” People need to understand how it benefits the organization, how it benefits their team, and how it benefits them personally. A client I work with, League, provides a useful example of this in their communication to employees about their plans for a hybrid model. Their Chief People Officer, Kim Tabac, has promised their people to, “strike the balance between the ‘I’ and the ‘We’ by focusing on the intersection of the employees needs for meaningful work, and a continued focus on their mental health and wellness, with the company’s focus on high performance, innovation, and connection to our mission.” In addition to helping motivate people who would rather continue to work remotely, being clear about the value of working in-person can help to ease the pain of change for everyone in the organization. A few months into the pandemic, we asked leaders about their challenges in the remote work environment and almost one in five said their biggest obstacle was others not being open to change. By giving the change meaning, organizations can reduce this friction point and accelerate the pace at which the benefit of the change begins to outweigh the discomfort of the change itself.
Ditch broad-reaching incentive programs in favour of personalized motivation
Skilled workers are leaving their jobs in droves because they don’t want to go back to the way things were. But it would be wrong to assume that people are most motivated by having flexibility in where and how they work. There are many different things that motivate people at an individual level, as diverse as the team itself. Organizations can drive performance, reduce turnover, and facilitate organizational change by discovering each contributor’s top motivator and connecting it with their work. We recently ran a workshop with 220 leaders at a financial services company on the subject of how to hold more effective career conversations. When we asked the leaders what motivates them in their careers, there was no consensus. A top three did emerge (interesting work, money, and meaningful work, respectively), but none showed a clear majority and only 10% said they are motivated by all three. What this tells us is that a broad-reaching program for this group focused on interesting work, money, and meaningful work would only be a perfect fit for one in ten leaders. What’s more, a program focused on improving work fit to life would only capture the attention of a little over one in three. To effectively motivate individuals through the return to in-person work, and beyond, organizations need to shift to an personalized approach.Leverage people leaders to put plans into action
As the soccer coach John Herdman said, “People do things for people, not things.” For organizations to successfully communicate the value of returning to work and tap into what motivates individual contributors – and therefore retain skilled workers – people managers need to be at the centre of a culture shift that makes leadership their first job.People do things for people, not things.Too often, people leaders feel like managing their team is a “to do” along with the rest of their job. In fact, when we asked the same group of leaders what gets in their way of having career conversations with their people, 42% told us they don’t have the time. Organizations need to give leaders a clear expectation that helping their people grow and develop is their first job, rather than something to be fit in around other tasks. By investing in people and having these conversations, that’s how the work’s going to get done. It’s not the other way around. As the plan is set in motion, focus on three priorities to enable leaders through the transition to in-person work:
1. Encourage leaders to build relationships with their people
At the heart of all this is emotion. Whether someone would rather quit than come back to the office or whether they’re motivated in their job, all comes down to how they feel about the situation. In order to tap into the power within emotion, leaders need to build relationships with their people and earn permission to do so. And if they’re leading a team that’s distributed or working on a hybrid model, they need to pay close attention to their relationships with the people they don’t see in person on a daily basis.2. Give leaders the skills to coach their people
Telling leaders to find out what motivates their people is about as helpful as a basketball coach telling you to shoot a three pointer. Leaders need to understand their role as a coach; they need questioning and listening skills to open and carry out effective conversations; they need the ability to give their people clarity on what “good work” looks like; and they need to be skilled at giving recognition in ways that’s going to motivate their people.3. Make regular career conversations a formal part of performance management – and empower leaders to connect their people with what motivates them
With the relationships and skills in place, ask leaders to hold regular career conversations with their people. Make it every leader’s responsibility to understand what motivates each individual on their team and support them in using that information to create connection points between the work and what motivates them.Avoid the “brain drain”
Enough companies have already learned their lesson the hard way – requiring an entire workforce to undergo a significant and rapid change can lead to a drop in engagement and a rapid “brain drain” if not handled carefully. To ease the transition and retain skilled workers, engage your leaders in a culture shift that puts leadership first, gives leaders the skills they need to motivate their people, and encourages them not just to have career conversations, but to create meaningful connections between what their team does and what motivates them. At Third Factor we work across many different disciplines, not the least of which is elite sport. Working with Olympic and Paralympic athletes and coaches, and bringing their best practices for coaching, resilience and collaboration to business, is what got us started some 30 years ago. And it’s what’s led to our flagship leadership development programs like Building Resilience and 3×4 Coaching. With the Tokyo Games officially underway, we’re cheering on a number of the Canadians who we’ve had the pleasure of working with. Here’s who we’ll be watching:The Canadian Women’s Soccer Team
The Women’s soccer tournament is already underway in Tokyo. We’ll be cheering for the entire team, and cheering just a little harder for captain Christine Sinclair who appears by video in some of our programs with helpful advice on using negative emotion as fuel for performance.Rosie MacLennan, Trampoline Gymnastics
In Dane Jensen’s new book, The Power Of Pressure: Why Pressure Isn’t The Problem, It’s The Solution, Rosie shares how making connections with others helped her recover from an injury and regain confidence in her sport. We’ll be watching her attempt for a third Gold Medal at her fifth Games when she competes on Friday, July 30th.
Rosie MacLennan recovers from injury / Source: Instagram
The Canadian Women’s Basketball Team
Basketball has become hugely popular in Canada, and we’ve been proud to work with Canada Basketball and the Canadian Men’s National Team in recent years. While the men just missed out on being one of only 12 teams to qualify for Tokyo, we’ll be cheering just as hard for the women, who start their tournament on Monday, July 26th against Serbia.Erica Wiebe, Wrestling
We’ll be taking a break from cheering for Erica in the Executive MBA Americas program, a partnership of Queen’s and Cornell Universities to which we contribute, to cheer her on in the women’s 75kg event.A few others
Martha McCabe, who retired after her third Olympic appearance at the Rio Games and runs Olympian-led mentorship program Head To Head, which we proudly support, is running the ‘Athlete Concierge’ in Tokyo. Follow her journey on Twitter at @MarthMcC. We’ve worked with managers within the Canadian Olympic Committee to develop coaching skills, including the head of the Athlete Mentorship Program, Anh Nguyen, and athlete mentor Lizanne Murphy. This article in the Toronto Star has some great details about the mission of athlete mentorship in Canada. As we anxiously await the launch of Dane Jensen’s new book, The Power of Pressure, the Summer Reading List has arrived just in time to give us the distraction we need. This is our favourite summer tradition, in which members of the Third Factor team offer their best picks for your summer. Diverse as always, this list includes novels, nonfiction, a collection of short stories, and even an audiobook about dragons. Whether you want something lighthearted or something to chew on, your next favourite book is in this list. Here are this year’s picks.
