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Welcome!

neoco.io�loopers.co

ben@loopers.co�linkedin.com/in/benbland�@ben_bland

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Agenda

12:30 – 13:00 Insights from Neoco

13:00 – 14:00 Panel: Mapping the Future of Work

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Insights from

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Thank you!

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The Question

What would you say to people� who are seeking better ways of working and �don’t want to go back to the “old normal”?

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Talking to the Pioneers

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Neo: “new…

...Company

...Collaboration

...Cooperation

...Community

...etc.”

Resources�for�Radical�Operations

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neoco.io

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Insights from

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Tooling

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Communication

Synchronous vs asynchronous
Layered/threaded & multimedia
Private
Video conferencing – obviously!

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Collaboration & Production

Whiteboarding
Prototyping
Product workflow
Seamless handover
Bleeding of capabilities
Cloud-first
Instant publishing

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HR & People Management

Benefits/incentives
Gamifying work
Cooperative budgeting & decision-making
Distributed workforce

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Digital Office & Work OS

Knowledgebase / bus-factor flexibility
Intel is widely accessible & cross-device
Project management → work platforms
Personalisation & app creation

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Data & Dev at All Levels

Data science & AI/ML (e.g. visualisation)
Process automation
Lo-to-no code dev
Build-or-buy
Free/cheap media, licensing & production

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Plays

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Culture Eats �Strategy Tools �for Breakfast

Less What & Which
More How & Why
Soft skills are the hard part

knows...

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Question Every Corporate Norm

Innovate on the social stuff
Norm-busting & norm-building
Design your business

does...

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Loosely Coupled �But �Tightly Structured

Beyond remote
Decentralisation
Social technologies
Deliberate practice

stays...

Look at orgs that were remote-first, all-remote or remote-ok before Covid.
Remote is just the start: look to decentralised, distributed and virtualised models, and consider breaking legacy hierarchies for flatter or more dynamic org charts. Expand beyond “staff” to embrace more “members” such as contract & gig workers, fans, advisors, customers (!), etc.
Ask: what is a company? DAOs and mutual-aid collectives.
Replace in-person social heuristics and water cooler “collisions” with “social technologies” – highly intentional social behaviours (more than tools), deliberate practice, such as visual communication cues, structured meeting processes.
We see a simultaneous decoupling (less structure, e.g. hierarchy, fixed roles) and tightening (e.g. tools and process frameworks) – these don’t have to be antagonistic. Calculated implementation of formalised tools, patterns and frameworks can allow us to let go of traditional ties such as power-based hierarchies.

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An Evolving �Digital Mindset

Iteration + Evolution
Frameworks + Integration

has...

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Ethical �to the �Core

Ethical innovation in all sectors
It’s good business
Empathy is the master key

is...

Beyond “obviously” ethical (e.g. charities) are those who do good despite their sectors, e.g. for profit, and they can be more innovative and instructive.
There are lists of ethical companies, often naming examples like Patagonia and W. L. Gore (GoreTex)
And there are many ways to be more or less ethical: technology processes, sustainability, fair trading, supply chain, minimising footprint, etc.
I don’t want to fixate on specific companies or methods – that is an ethical position in itself.

VVV

Ethics is not your marketing campaign. But it is good marketing. And recruitment.
Staff and customers are becoming more ethically savvy and demanding.
Ethically-aligned organisations are more innovative, they choose their paths and do the hard things.
How to develop organisational practices that embrace and manage diversity, transparency, social justice, environmentalism and a workforce that is healthy in both body and mind?
Many approaches are human-centric (or planet-centric) – similar to user experience, Design Thinking – in a word: empathy.
Empathising with audience, customer, stakeholder, etc. informs positive and effective strategies.

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The game:

Progressive Operations

The goal:

Transcendent Cooperation

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He aha te mea nui o te ao

What is the most important thing in the world?

He tangata, he tangata, he tangata

It is the people, it is the people, it is the people

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Panel: Mapping the Future of Work

Fiona Bennington – Head of Entrepreneurship and Growth, Catalyst. Founder: Nuli Design, Hug wearable Heatpack Designer, Engineer, Entrepreneur.

Michael Torrans – Innovation Design & Research Lead AM at The Dock, Accenture’s Global Centre for Innovation.

Kristel Miller – Reader (Associate Professor), Ulster University, specialising in innovation and strategy.

Ed Morgan – Chief Operating Officer, DisplayNote.

Michael Torrans is an industrial designer turned design innovation consultant, who is always looking for ways to unlock the creativity in others. He has worked as a designer across a range of industries from special needs postural care to architectural lighting to design thinking facilitation.

He currently focuses on creating exceptional legacies for the world's biggest companies at Accenture's Global Innovation Hub, The Dock, by driving human centric design and experimentation approaches to solve their most complex problems.

Kristel Miller is a Reader in Strategy and Innovation at Ulster University. She is also a director of Innovation Ulster Limited. Her expertise is within the areas of business models, innovation management, university-industry knowledge transfer, technology commercialization and competitiveness. She has presented her work in international conferences and published in books and internationally recognised journals. Kristel is the co-editor of the Irish Journal of Management and an expert adviser and reviewer for the European Commission and the Economic and Social Research Council. Kristel also works with organisations to help them develop their innovation capabilities and grow.

Ed Morgan is Chief Operating Officer at DisplayNote, a technology company that creates connected experiences for the world’s presenters, educators and learners. Working across all areas of the business, from strategy to product, commercial, engineering and all in between, Ed’s main focus is figuring out what are the most important things to build and ensuring everyone at the team knows why they are most important.

Fiona Bennington is an award-winning product design engineer and entrepreneur with a keen interest in the power of design to improve lives. She has designed products for NGOs such as Oxfam; for disaster relief, animal rescue, worked with Leckey to develop products to enhance the lives of kids with special needs, and Shnuggle to create lines of products for new parents. She is the Director of Heroshield Ltd, a not-for profit consortium developed to rapidly and locally produce PPE in response to the early stages of the Pandemic, launched her own product, Hug wearable heat pack and runs design consultancy Nuli Design, based in Belfast.

She now sits as the Head of Entrepreneurship and Growth at Catalyst Inc, to provide support and advice for new start-ups and entrepreneurs who wish to make their ideas a reality.

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Thank you

wearecatalyst.org

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ben@loopers.co�linkedin.com/in/benbland�@ben_bland

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