25 july 2019, text: Michaela Schaub, photo: Lukas Fütterer
Katja Seibert works in the CTO Office’s Human Capital Management & Change Management team, and is one of Switzerland’s first Working Out Loud mentors. She is promoting Working Out Loud across all areas at Helvetia. Together with her WOL colleagues, she is introducing this way of working into Swiss companies and encouraging lively discussions across all sectors.
It’s in my nature to grow and pursue lifelong learning, in both my personal and professional spheres of life. I’m also naturally very inquisitive. This includes questioning things – why is something the way it is? why not do it differently? And ultimately, my self-motivation spurs me on. I believe you cannot motivate people, but only create incentives for them. They've got to motivate themselves. Without motivation almost every scheme, private or professional, will fail to generate results. Only if I’m motivated to do something will I enjoy doing it and, most importantly, do it well.
I've chosen four factors here, but there are many others too:
As individuals, we must adapt to these challenges more and more speedily. Of course, we could call this evolution. But as you know, that takes time. With WOL, we are nurturing digital collaboration and developing our learning and working culture, thereby strengthening our powers of innovation.
WOL helps every single person individually to react to these factors. For example, by learning better and networking in a more long-term manner. We already do this in our personal lives, in swimming groups, music clubs and on Facebook. People enjoy being in groups to share experiences and provide mutual support for each other. But how can we build long-lasting networks in a professional environment? How can we find the right networks online? WOL helps us to learn how we can share our knowledge and how we acquire knowledge from others. We share our knowledge every day, and obtain information from the Internet and from colleagues. WOL shows us how to do this even better and more efficiently.
A small group of four or five people from different parts of the company get together to form a circle. Everyone sets themselves an individual objective for the next twelve weeks. The group meets (either virtually or in person) and works together for an hour each week. Through the feedback received from the other four participants, people learn not just how to deal with this feedback, but also experiment with how to give feedback to others. how do I provide others with feedback.
Many participants have noticed changes after taking part in a WOL circle. With time, they have left their comfort zone, assumed more personal responsibility and developed more confidence and courage. WOL also helps break down silos within the company and promote interdisciplinary collaboration and purposeful progress, as well as helping to filter and focus large amounts of information. Participants are also able to improve their networking. Every circle is different because not only the objective but also the participants change, resulting in totally different dynamics. In each circle, the participants therefore learn new ways of thinking and looking at things, and that is extremely instructive.
Public WOL meet-up in Basel on 28 August 2019, in which anyone interested in WOL can take part. First live gathering of the virtual Swiss WOL meet-up. Start: 6pm, Steingraben 25, Basel – Registration here
Stefanie Moser and Monika Schlatter are organizing a monthly virtual Swiss WOL meet-ups for people in Switzerland who are interested in WOL. Anyone interested in WOL can take part
Participation in the Circle Mentor Master Class, with the help of the WOL training programme, enables internal WOL mentors to develop a new form of collaboration within the company – networked, cross-functional and therefore creative and highly focussed on problem-solving. It forms the ultimate basis for a learning organization in complex times. This master class is led by Sabine Kluge of kluge+konsorten GmbH.
In this WOL Deep Dive, practitioners and senior experts from Swiss businesses discuss at an advanced level how the WOL work attitude and training programme can be anchored within a company. This Deep Dive is led by Stefanie Moser and Sabine Kluge (kluge+konsorten), together with Katja Seibert, Sabine Born-Hofmann and Regina Kiefer (Helvetia). Helvetia is hosting this event.