fbpx
Category

Food for thought

Why being playful at work is a good thing

By | Belief, Food for thought, Leadership, What's new?

Being playful at work matters. Fact. 😊

In 1960 British paediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott proposed that humans have a true and a false self. While the false self can be useful, it allows people to fit into society and behave ‘as expected’, it’s also a façade that conceals the true self. That true self is, by contrast, spontaneous, free and child-like. And you can probably guess that being your true self is the state that leads to a happier life.

Winnicott’s concept of the true and false self connects to his views on play. He suggested that play helps people be their true selves and only the true self is capable of creativity. “Play was an important path by which clients could gain awareness into their authentic emotional selves. [He] believed the therapist could help a client reveal the uninhibited child within and rediscover a true sense of being.” (Good Therapy)

Being authentic or fake are concepts familiar to us now. A few minutes on social media will provide a crash course, as the worlds of wellbeing and self-help place the notion of authenticity front and centre. 

However, it’s fair to say that most of us don some kind of mask or façade for work. It’s probably not entirely fake, not a you that your friends and family wouldn’t recognise, but it is an edited version of you nonetheless. And as Winnicott said, that way of being is useful to a certain extent. But if the true self is buried deep, under layers of repression and expectation, it causes incongruence within us. 

Recognising and allowing our true selves out to play has many benefits. The true self, much like a kid with a piece of blank paper to scribble on, isn’t daunted by creativity because it’s not overly concerned with failure. If a kid doesn’t like a drawing, they crumple the paper up and start again. As adults, we get a little more constipated with this process! So there are huge benefits to incorporating play at work – colleagues will talk more freely and believe in their ability to think creatively. This means better working relationships and free-flowing innovative thinking!

💡 Self-promo! And very good way to bring play into work in a meaningful way is with an Abracademy workshop – you can choose to focus on confidence, communication, collaboration or even wellbeing. Contact our Dream Catcher, Jaxx, to find out more.

Further reading 

While Winnicott’s theory of true and false self is significant, he is by no means the first or last to explore the concept. If you’d like to read more, try Freud (of course), Melanie Klein, Ronald Fairbairn, Karen Horney, Jung and his personas and, more recently, Susie Orbach’s false bodies.

Want to play?

Get in touch

Alice Pailhès

By | Abracademy Labs, Curiosity, Education, Food for thought, Science, Team
bio

Alice Pailhès

Wizard of Science

Psychologist, researcher

Alice is a PhD Candidate and Associate Lecturer in Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her thesis focuses on using magic tricks to study the illusory sense of agency over choice. This is to better understand the subtle factors that influence our decisions without our awareness.

Alice is driven by her desire to give people a sense of wonder about how their minds work and how to best use the mind. By studying the subtle mechanisms magicians use to direct our attention, Pailhès probes the unconscious factors that subtly influence our choices. Magic tricks offer her an amazing way to collect and transmit scientific data in an entertaining and powerful way.

Alice's superpowers are:

🗲 Making science fun

🗲 Information seeking

🗲 Problem solving

Abracademy

We’re a diverse team of magicians, facilitators, learning designers, strategists, communicators, scientists and creatives who love what we do at Abracademy ♥

Meet the team

"Once the imagination is unshackled, liberation is limitless"

Walidah Imarisha

Contact us

Say hello

Florian Klaass on the magic of teams

By | Change management, Food for thought, Leadership, Learning and development, Storytelling, Team, What's new?

SVP / VP / Head of Marketing – Brand expert | Leadership Mentor | Business Advisor – FMCG, Entertainment, Culture, Social Responsibility – ex RED BULL… some of Florian’s credentials. Earlier this year we chatted with him about teams. Building them, nurturing them and helping them in times of crisis. He also told us why your luggage might go missing if you travel through Munich airport…

What’s the magic formula for a winning team?

The very short answer is: be authentic, don’t be an a$$hole!

There’s a couple of things I feel strongly about. First of all, we’re social beings so if everyone understands that when a group works or plays together, then certain rules must be adhered to. Humans mimic emotions. We synchronise, we’re dependent on each other. So, realise and acknowledge that. Respect and empathy are a great start to a winning team. Also, the team needs a joint purpose. Be 100% clear about why the group exists and what its goal is or else the team won’t work. Think about how many hours we spend at work, as part of a team, compared to time with loved ones… So, be very clear about why you’re spending so much time there at work! Have clear direction and vision. 

At Red Bull, it was clear: Red Bull gives you wings. My job was to find talent, foster ideas, bring them to life and give people an experience. Another example of such clarity that I love is Apple. Their purpose and their why is very clear. In 2001, the first iPod launched at the same time as another company’s MP3 player. The latter was, in some ways, better, but the big difference was the creative – the PR – claim. One sold itself as a 5GB MP3 player. Meanwhile Apple said 1,000 songs in your pocket. You have to be very engaged and motivated as a team to use that statement rather than the techy sell. But when you have a clear vision and formulate in a way that everyone understands it, people embrace it and live up to expectations.

In times of crisis, clarity is paramount. Organisational restructure, whether it’s shutting down or reforming, puts people under stress. Some people will lose their jobs and things will change. So, give clarity. Cut the BS. Tell the truth. Tell everyone and get them involved. Uncertainty and anxiety are toxic. Celebrate the successes, acknowledge them. That can happen many ways – champagne, a party or a team offsite. Even internal comms work, put the team on a pedestal and say a simple thank you. 

Create a safe psychological space where people can be themselves. You know when you sit in meetings and don’t dare ask something for fear of seeming stupid? You worry more about how you’re perceived than you do about solving an issue. A few years back, Google researched the parameters of great teams. Aside from goals and clarity, a safe space was the other major requirement. Let your team feel safe enough to say what they want to say. Allow them to let their guard down, be who they are, be true, be raw. When you’re a newcomer, you try to impress and demonstrate why you deserve your place there. The hardest work I’ve done in the past couple of years has been making people comfortable and letting them be who they are to get the best out of them. 

In moments of crisis, is it harder than usual to build a team?

I recommend the same rules as on any other day! I adhere to these 3 principles:

  • Trust
  • Honesty
  • Vulnerability

Trust is self explanatory. Enable trusting relationships. It’s the same for work as in life generally. There’s an interesting study by Harvard where they looked at asking for help. If you’re in a situation where you hit a wall and need help, who do you ask? It turns out that people don’t ask the most competent or the most accessible person, they ask the most trustworthy person because… “I won’t be laughed at”. It’s safe to ask that person. So, provide and receive trust.

Honesty: this can be difficult. Sometimes you have to talk about uncomfortable things, admit you’re wrong or tell someone else they’re wrong. Either way, people in a team need to know where they’re at.

Vulnerability. It’s ok to be vulnerable. Gone are the days when managers had to be tough all the time. It’s fine to show emotions. That’s widely accepted. But it’s also important to admit when you’re wrong or emotionally affected by something. Admit weakness! Many struggle with this. It’s the ego at play; it tells you what to do and how to represent yourself in work. I’ve learned that it’s not about impressing others, showing how great and impeccable you are. It’s about authenticity and dealing with your mistakes. Then you have a team that is empowered – an independent team conscious of their responsibilities. They don’t need direction, they know where they’re going.

What’s your secret to working with global teams, diverse teams?

I’ve worked with so many different people, from different countries, different ethnicities and genders, etc. There is so much diversity and variety in the world. What worked well for me was listening, learning then leveraging what was gained. Observe. Look at the world around you, see how people interact and operate. The main lesson I’ve learned in the past couple of years is to be humble, not take myself too seriously. Regardless of job title, salary etc, stay receptive, curious and eager to learn. Another thing is never, EVER, assume that your perspective or your way of thinking applies to everyone else! It doesn’t. Remind yourself of this. A sign of appreciation in one place can be an offence in another. A joke in one, discriminating in another. A simple example from German culture – you can point your finger at someone and it’s fine. But do the same in Japan and it’s highly offensive! Your behaviour is the same, but the perception and reaction is different. So, be thoughtful about your behaviour. 

What magical moments have you had in the past few years?

  1. At RedBull, we did a festival in NY for our global music programme. It was an amazing show with Solange, at the Guggenheim museum. There were around 40-50 black women in her choir. What a celebratory event for women and black culture in music. That felt magical, it gave me goosebumps.
  2. I work with international teams – great and different people. We did a workshop in Reykjavik. And Iceland is magical anyway, it’s a different world. Combine a magical landscape with a crew of 20, from 15 different countries, solving a problem together over 3 days… Bright minds using their brain power – that’s a most magical experience. You get their intelligence, their wiring, their experiences, their upbringing, their everything!

What’s your superpower?

Probably listening. I’m really good at shutting up and listening! Sometimes that’s all you need to do. People tell you things and very often they have the solution themselves, they just need the canvas to paint on.

Tell us a secret…

When I was at school in Munich, I worked at the local airport driving the small luggage lorries. If you’ve ever wondered why you didn’t get your baggage, it was me! I mixed the terminals up… Now I travel extensively and every time I see those guys, I really respect them because it’s quite a tough job. And I NEVER check bags – cabin bags only!!

If you had a magic wand, what would you change?

I’d erase social media! The whole thing, including its great sides, has failed. It highlights negatives in humanity. And sometimes you have to break things to make them great again. So I’d shut it down and come up with something new.

Favourite song?

Rolling Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want 😉

Do you need to spark magic in your team?

Get in touch

Francisco Dimitri

By | Belief, Curiosity, Education, Facilitation, Food for thought, Leadership, Learning and development, Magical Moments, Magilitator, Team, Wonder
bio

Francisco Dimitri

Abracademy collaborator

Specialist in Wonder

Francesco is an award-winning author, a speaker and trainer, and a business storyteller. He's been writing in many different forms, from nonfiction and essays to fiction, comics, cinema, digital media and for magazines.

Francesco's superpowers are:

  • Telling stories
  • Lighting fires 
  • Searching and researching

Abracademy

We’re a diverse team of magicians, facilitators, learning designers, strategists, communicators, scientists and creatives who love what we do at Abracademy ♥

Meet the team

"With the hybrid world of work, the model we should study is online dating! Here, obnoxious people can seem fine, and vice versa. We need to train ourselves to spot different cues in online interactions."

Francisco

Contact us

Say hello

Arup’s Jen Emery on making change magical

By | Change management, Food for thought, Leadership, Learning and development, Storytelling, Team, What's new?

Jen Emery brings magic to the world in many ways. She’s a leader, a thinker, a writer, a speaker and Global People Leader at Arup. Jen’s professional passion is unlocking the potential of people to help them flourish. 

This is a conversation we had with Jen in November 2020. Naturally we spoke via Zoom as much of the UK was back in lockdown again.

As with all of our conversations, we ask the audience a question before we start chatting with our guest. Given the nature of the conversation he was about to have with Jen, Rubens asked: How do you feel in a space of change and transformation? 

Back came the typed responses: challenged, inspired, frightened, out of control, anxious, worried… Most people were certainly not positive about the concept of change. 

Then we started chatting with Jen:

Where does the passion for working with change come from and how do you link what you do with magic?

The answer to that is in the response of the audience to your question… There’s such tension in the concept of change; there’s fear, negativity and resistance. But there’s also great potential, the scope to unlock something positive and magical. I found that, in every aspect of what I was doing professionally and personally, I was dealing with change. And I actually find change hard, I’m hopeless at endings. I almost cry if someone leaves the room, never mind emigrates or leaves my life in some way! I’m also someone who worries about every possible permutation of what could go wrong. I grieve in advance for stuff that might never happen. Yet I am also someone who loves unlocking potential, moving people and organisations. 

How do we grapple with the complexities, tensions and dilemmas inherent in change? How do we ensure we have a relationship with change that is productive and positive? Where’s the magic in that?? Well, magic is about changing things from one state to another – visible to invisible, black to red, square to round. And in the same way that magic needs spells, rituals and stories, change needs stories, patterns and rituals to work.

What’s the secret to making change magical?

The first thing to acknowledge is that change is scary. Your brain makes no distinction between the uncertainty that comes from a change in social status or what’s expected of you professionally, and a tiger chasing you down the street. In your brain, it’s all real and it’s all scary. The neuroscientist, David Rock, has an acronym that I find useful – SCARF. It’s a reminder of what happens to us when we’re uncertain or afraid:

S = status changing
C = certainty
A = agency
R = relationships
F = fairness

(You’ll find the TED talk at the bottom of this blog 👇)

Before you can get to the magic of change, you first have to put those things on better footing. If something uncertain is happening, how can I give people the status and standing they need? How can we create even a little certainty and give people agency? How can we keep people in good relationships with one another and make sure what we’re doing is fair, and that people understand it? You can play away the fear and then supercharge some of that. Then you can make relationships central, give people confidence and agency. To do that there are three things you need to give people. And we need to talk about this over and over again…

  • Great leadership: authentic, wholehearted, sleeves up leadership
  • A clear sense of purpose: knowing where you’re going and why – individually and collectively
  • Storytelling: make it magical of course!

What’s the power of storytelling in change?

I love words. Like you, I used to be a lawyer. Lawyers use words for precision and to make things happen, you write detailed words on a page and stuff happens in real life. Now, I write poetry and the use of words there is different. It is about precision, but it’s also about beauty. I keep a list of words that I want to use because they sound beautiful. Nimbus, subterranean, polarities. I’m going to try and get all those words into poetry soon!

But in business, we do the opposite. We so often use bland, abstract language – process, systems, programmes, talent management, governance. At best it’s uninspiring. At worst, I don’t think it’s benign because it keeps us unquestioning and compliant. Storytelling cuts through all that. It gets rid of all the jargon, the nonsense, the obfuscation and hiding. Stories move us beyond the surface, beyond the rational part of the brain that we want when working on change at work. Stories actually move us pre and post rational because they ignite the animal part of ourselves – our passions and fears. They also ignite the spiritual part of our brain – what are we here for, what inspires us, what’s our purpose. Stories engage at a different level. They need you not to be a dispassionate observer. What stories make happen in the brain is quite complicated. There’s plot, different perspectives, empathy, cause and effect, implications. All that triggers cascades of perceptions and motivation that enable change to happen in a way that legal rationale doesn’t. And that’s the power of storytelling.

What blocks change from happening?

Not very much, but the blockers are disguised. Sometimes they look like process, governance, resources or money. But really, the two big blockers are fear and greed. We’re scared to change, which makes neurological sense. We understand and weigh up the potential losses and downsides of something. It’s much harder to imagine what the future upsides are, the gains we haven’t seen yet.

As for greed and power – if the current way serves you well, you want to preserve that. There are always winners and losers, in transactional terms anyway. So, to enable change means seeing what people are afraid of and addressing that. If they stand to lose something, address that too. Then things like due process, governance, etc, tend to fall into place.

How do you align process and belonging, and why?

Every organisation is its people. It’s more obvious in professional services – law, consulting or engineering. There we sell time and expertise. However great your tech or your brand is, you only have your people. Purpose is why we’re all here and we get out of bed in the morning. Meaningful work, feeling that what we do matters, being able to put our shoulder to the wheel in service of something. That’s what ignites us. I keep talking about the brain don’t I, as well as the heart! When you trigger those pathways, it enables people to make discretionary efforts. And that’s what will help us, our businesses, and the world flourish. So you need to talk about purpose for people.

But purpose isn’t one single thing – it’s like a Russian doll. There’s a big, broad corporate purpose. There’s the purpose in relation to the particular change you’re trying to effect or the project you’re working on. Then there’s my purpose or your purpose, which will have some relation to the wider purpose. But it’s also for me. What’s in it for me, what am I learning, where am I growing, what are the relationships I’m in that matter, what’s my sense of reward from this? Purpose matters in all those ways and that’s intrinsically linked to motivation.

Belonging is slightly different. There are many longitudinal studies, which show that belonging – far more than weight, age or general health – is a predictor of longevity and health. We’re made to be in relationships with each other. In a corporate business context we forget that. We undervalue the importance of making people feel that they have an identity vetted in the corporation, that they have relationships at work that matter to them and that they’re part of a tribe. These things help your people and your business flourish. But it’s also how you build loyalty. It’s how people accept accountability, take risks on your behalf, make decisions and effort. It’s not about aligning everybody like droids or robots, all preaching the same thing, with the corporate purpose planted into their brains! It’s about harnessing all the motivation that comes from people when they belong and have a purpose.

Arup's leadership team

Arup’s leadership team

What’s your approach to change and how has the pandemic affected that, what still works and what doesn’t?

At times, particularly at the start of the pandemic, I felt that it was like launching a fast horse the year the steam train came out! To have written a book about how to ‘do’ change before the pandemic… unfortunate to say the least. But, if I can get my own ego out of the way, it’s been the richest learning experience ever. Looking at what I believed, studied and held onto, and what I thought held water… then working out whether it does now. The changes I talk about in the book were largely self-initiated, so somewhat in my control. Take something like a big merger. Every person in the company might not control it, but it is a human-initiated change. But it’s certainly not on the scale of a pandemic.

The central thesis of the book is that change can be good. Not because it takes you from a bad place to a better place. But because the change period itself can be rich, productive, full of growth, learning, added value, and so on. I talk about all the ways that can manifest. Building greater belonging and confidence. Creating energy. Enabling things to be done more simply and people to be more agile. But it depends on those three conditions I mentioned earlier. Great leadership. A clear purpose. And great stories. So, that’s the premise of the book.

I do think those three basics work though, they’re still 100% right in the pandemic world. What we’ve desperately needed, in business and in life, has been great leadership. A north star, a unifying sense of direction and purpose. And sense making – understanding what the heck is going on and what will the future look like. We need the opportunity to evolve and simplify.

What did I underestimate in the book? I used the word energy rather than resilience. I wanted it to feel positive, that change can be a generative experience. You get to grow and spark ideas off each other. But the pandemic has taught us that protracted change of this scale – with this amount of uncertainty and lack of control – is so draining and so hard for people. Thinking preventatively, how do you build resilience and wellbeing to enable any change? A second edition of the book would reflect that – I’d put in more about wellbeing and resilience.

How do you create space in the change process where magic can happen and people can flourish?

What should leaders do? It’s been hard. Over the past few months I’ve been working closely with our senior leaders at Arup. They feel overwhelmed, there are so many things they have to do. Leaders aren’t just leaders at the moment. They’re parents, doctors, teachers, counsellors and coaches too. We’ve been distilling it down to what they really need to do to create this magic space. So, what does being a great leader in this moment mean? It’s about creating a context for your people where they can make sense of what’s going on, for them. It’s about giving people a vision – help them tell their story, elicit what their purpose is and explain the corporate purpose to them. It’s also about creating a place where action can happen – where people feel they can act and are trusted to act. There are three great gifts leaders can give to people.

  • Attention: show up for people; be there, be present
  • Permission: tell people it’s ok to take a break and role model that by looking after yourself
  • Trust: empower people to act and make decisions; show you believe in them to act in the best interest of the organisation

How do we change the nature of leadership given so many operate in a top-down manner?

One of the things the book has a go at tackling, and that I’m constantly thinking about, is advocating a shift in the leadership paradigm. A shift from top-down, paternalistic, shouting loudly and resisting change. Instead, embrace uncertainty and show a degree of vulnerability. That shows courage because you’re prepared to admit you don’t know everything. Co-create solutions and listen to other people. That’s a big shift in paradigm.

But how do you do that? With time, development and support. And to some extent a change in the actual people. Role model to show people that better results do happen if you step into things. Listen and create with people from the periphery of your organisation who have the knowledge you need. Cut through the BS and the façade to what people are afraid of. Show up as a real human. Address everyone’s status, their relationships, what they need to protect. And highlight where they have agency and choice.

We always finish our conversations with three magical questions…

What’s your superpower? 

An encyclopaedic knowledge of random pop lyrics, mostly from the 80s and 90s. And the ability to inject them into any conversation! More seriously though, I have the ability to synthesise. I see patterns and make complex things simple. I can tell a story back to people. I love to do that.

Tell us a secret…

I have four kids and we had mugs made with their initials on them. Only two mugs are left, one with an F and the other with an E. In my head that means friend and enemy. When I make cups of tea for people, I give them the mug I’m in the mood for. So, if they’re annoying me I give them the E mug, for enemy. It’s so unbelievably petty!!

If you had a magic wand, what would you change?

I’d enable us to have better conversations with one another. Remember the Tower of Babel story from the Bible, where people talk different languages? I’d reverse that so we can all connect and truly understand each other across every border that exists. It could be so beautiful if we took the time, insight and capacity to understand each other better.

💖 Thank you so much to Jen for taking the time to talk to us. We’re sure you’ll agree there’s a lot of food for thought here and well managed, there certainly can be magic in change! This conversation is also available as a podcast

Want to bring magic and storytelling to a change process at your company?

Get in touch

A look back at 2020

By | Belief, Curiosity, Food for thought, Leadership, Learning and development, Magical Moments, Magicians, Team, Wonder

In November we took a trip through a virtual maze to look back at 2020 together as a team. Here’s what we found on our way to the heart of the labyrinth…

2020 started normally. Refreshed after a break, we were looking forward to what the new year would bring. In early February we looked into our crystal ball. “It’s time for a team get together – a week in London, all together, to make plans and strategise“, said someone. It’s almost as if we knew what was coming…

That same week we took the opportunity to launch our magical magazine, The World Needs Magic, at Mama Shelter. They’ve never had so many magicians in their bar. Ever. We lost count of how many playing cards appeared in unexpected places that evening. Later in February, the magicians travelled to another dimension, aka the Blackpool Magic Convention. Who knows what they got up to, but they came back with new tricks up their sleeves. We then delivered a couple of Open Workshops and we worked with Sony, and Netflix.

“An excellent start to the year”, we said. “Can’t wait to see what’s next…”

March 2020

Coronavirus hits the UK and everything changes.

Our team was already partially remote so that aspect of lockdown was less of a shock for us. Nonetheless, it was the start of many challenges for Abracademy, personal and professional. The immediate hit for us was not being able to deliver sessions in person and clients cancelling workshops. Overnight, everything fell off a cliff. Making sure that you are always connected during this time can take its toll, there is always worries but in the face of something like this it can be tenfold. It was important that internet signals were high and so were spirits, that is why things like suddenlink internet plans, or something similar to it, was needed for everyone to keep in contact and communicating.

We had to completely re-think what we do. How do we pivot? How do we deliver what we do online and still make it magical, meaningful, and engaging? We had already been contemplating online delivery, but now we had to figure it out. Fast.

Spring 2020

Step 1 of pivot. We adapt one of our most popular Magical Moments – Unleash Imagination – for online delivery. We test it in a virtual Open Workshop. And it works! Participants stay engaged and we get great feedback, which, of course, we use to refine and improve the session.

Online events started popping up like bunnies out of hats. Rubens takes part in a House of Beautiful Business event and does a talk at FCB Brazil. Never ones to lag behind, we also launch our webinar, The World Needs Magic. Taking advantage of our talented network, Rubens invites a weekly guest chat with him. We want to highlight the magic of people, showing how resilient and adaptable we are when we need to be. Like now…

Meanwhile, we polish up another session for virtual delivery, Raising Resilience this time. It felt very relevant, something almost everyone needed more of. And we deliver our first client workshops, for Thomas More University and Echo in Belgium. The university, like many institutions, had shifted all their learning programmes online. They felt a need for creative sparks and ways to brainstorm together, online. We ran Unleash Imagination with them – the perfect session to unlock creative problem solving.

In May, we said goodbye to Julie and we decide to let go of our office at Containerville. Sad times, but we bid both a fond farewell and embrace the good times we’ve had.

Summer 2020

No basking in the sunshine for us! Well, a little bit of outdoor working perhaps 👆

In June, we organise a team day. We’ve been in firefighting mode since March so it feels like a good time to pause, reflect and plan. Katy and Priya put all their energy into strategy, structure and process. We establish monthly quests to stay agile and responsive, given all the uncertainty.

The Magic of Teams is ready for online delivery – ninja L&D skills from the learning design team! We deliver Raising Resilience to Start It KBC in Belgium. Having benefitted so much from that programme, it was great to give them something back. We also start planning Bridging the Impossible – a symposium combining the science of magic and wellbeing (with Goldsmiths / Magic Lab).

July was unexpectedly busy, but some of us manage staycations. Rubens delivers a talk to a huge university audience in Brazil. We deliver to Netflix again, yay! They introduce us to SumUp (who we eventually work with in November). And we start working with Unilever on Unite4Growth, an internal innovation programme. We also pitch to Montezuma. Time for some sweet, sweet magic…

In August, we take advantage of a little down time to make podcasts from the webinars. We also challenge ourselves with a design sprint for a scalable product. And last, but not least, we deliver a session to Civicus in South Africa. They’re a human rights organisation doing incredible work (check out how you can support their campaigns).

Jules’ gorgeous new kittens 👇

September 2020

Our lead generation campaigns pay off! Lots of potential new clients are conjured up, including Spotify. We do workshops with the students at The Farnborough Academy. Our friend and frequent collaborator, Sonia Benito worked with us on those. She’s a dynamo, an inspiration and brilliant with young people.

Rubens took part in an EduJam, we delivered to Netflix teams around the globe and held a couple of Open Workshops online. We also did our first sessions with Spotify. Not just one session mind you. Five sessions, delivered simultaneously to five teams! 😲 Ta-da!

Did we take on too much this month?! Maybe, but it was amazing and sometimes you do your best work when you push yourself out of your comfort zone.

👇 That’s Katy’s Faces in Magical Places

October 2020

October is Mental Health Awareness month and we had the great pleasure of working with Mind again. We also started workshops at Carthage College in the US – supporting student wellbeing. Continuing the theme, Geoff MacDonald was one of our fantastic webinar guests this month. He talked very frankly about his own mental health journey and Minds@Work. Listen to Geoff’s full conversation – it’s very moving.

We also worked with the London Business School again. It’s great to work with clients on a longer term basis and see the growth in people. We deliver to the Spotify Soundtrap team. And Rubens does a talk at the Brazilian Space Agency 🚀 Our crystal ball definitely didn’t see that one coming!

Three big future-facing things happen too: 1) we ignite the hiring process for a new team member, 2) we pitch to Google and 3) Miro champion the boards we created for online sessions. As well as being in their Miroverse, we’re also featured as Miro Experts. We are beyond delighted! Miro’s helped us bring our online sessions to life in a whole new way.

👇 Our map of 2020 magic

November 2020

November brings another major lockdown. It’s not great for anyone’s mental health, but luckily client work keeps us busy. A project with Spotify NY starts, and we work with two more great organisations, Young Scot and SumUp (we were introduced to them by our Spotify client 👌 – new business at its best). We also continue to work with Unilever and the Unite4Growth winners. The client has scaled the project and take us with them on the journey. This means global deliveries and 6am workshops with Asia! No complaints here – just a sleepy delivery team come UK lunchtime… 💤

December 2020

No pre-Christmas slow down for us. This month we’ve worked with Unilever, Minds At Work, This Place, Rock Your Life!, Pfizer, more Unilever, Zinc VC and RCKT.

We manage a little Christmas get together on Zoom to celebrate the year’s achievements. We’re exhausted. But happy. But exhausted. We play, we chat, we drink cocktails out of cans. We’re now in the middle of a two week break. Bliss. We’ll be in pyjamas hugging our magical bunnies, making 💤s appear.

Below is a little video we made earlier in the year. We were playing with Zoom communications, trying to bring joy to being online all day!

How was your 2020?

As you can see, ours was eventful. We don’t think we could have predicted most of what happened during 2020 – good and bad. Like many, we faced challenges that were scary and difficult to navigate. But also, we blossomed in unexpected ways. That’s partly because we seized the opportunity to work fast and adapt to the moment – unlocking something we’d been meaning to do, but kept postponing. It’s also partly because other companies did the same. So it felt like there was a mutual window of opportunity that we jumped through. To be able to close 2020 with clients like Spotify, Netflix and Unilever is real magic

We’re very grateful to be here, celebrating the end of the year and welcoming 2021. We’ll hang onto that an agile mindset though… just in case.

Want to kickstart 2021 with your team?

Get in touch

Links

Blackpool Magic Convention: where magicians go down the rabbit hole once a year

Brazilian Space Agency: 🚀

Bridging the Impossible: a symposium to explore the science of magic and wellbeing

Carthage College: supporting the wellbeing of their students with Abracademy workshops

Civicus: a truly great organisation supporting human rights campaigners and campaigns

Containerville: the place we called home, where we stirred the cauldron and conjured ideas 💡

Echo: Belgian marketing and storytelling agency

EduJam: an educational response to the pandemic, providing skills, tools and community

Farnborough Academy: they embraced magic to develop the soft skills of their students

FCB Brazil: global advertising agency

Geoff MacDonald: ex Unilever HR, and mental health advocate

Goldsmiths: University of London

House of Beautiful Business: a think tank for making humans more human + business more beautiful

Julie Donckers: friend and alumni

London Business School: embracing magic to support their student community wellbeing

Magic Research Lab: our friends and collaborators in magic, and the science of magic

Mama Shelter: where we spent our team week and launched the magazine in February pre 😷

Mind: the UK mental health charity

Minds@Work: co-founded by Geoff 👆

Miro: fantastic collaborative whiteboard tool, online!

Miro Experts: featuring Abracademy… thank you 😉

Miroverse: projects, workflows and templates from the Miro community (Houdini’s Locks, Faces in Magical Places and Hidden Truths by yours truly)

Montezuma: they make chocolate. Need we way more?

Netflix: surely we don’t have to explain this lot!?

Pfizer: 💉👏

RCKT: digital innovation brought to you from Germany

Rock Your Life: a mentor network supporting vulnerable young people in Germany

Sonia Benito: magician and dancer extraordinaire

Soundtrap: Spotify’s everywhere studio for music makers

Spotify: needs no explanation 🎧

Start It @KBC: start-up accelerator in Belgium

SumUp: set to become the first ever global card acceptance brand

This Place: a digital retail agency

Thomas More: school of applied sciences, Belgium

Unilever: many fingers in many pies, parent to several B Corp brands

Zinc: venture capital with a heart

Young Scot: travel, information, support and discounts for young people in Scotland

 

Abracademy links

The World Needs Magic, webinar: weekly doses of inspiration with special guests

The Magic of Teams: a virtual offsite workshop to spark the magic of your people

The World Needs Magic, podcasts: if you didn’t catch the webinars, listen to the podcasts

Open Workshops: personal development workshops open to all

A magic potion for leadership

By | Belief, Curiosity, Food for thought, Leadership, Wonder

Leaders face many challenges in 2020. Adapting to the constantly changing times is probably top of the list right now. We work with many leaders, all kinds of leaders, and we’ve come to understand some key skills for the job.

Here’s our top five:

1 Self-awareness

You may be surprised to learn that leadership starts, not with your team, but with little old you! So, take a moment to look within…

2020 has presented us with uncertainty by the bucket load. As a leader, how do you feel when you don’t have all the answers and don’t know everything? One of our recent webinar guests, Anna Gullstrand, told us: “Show vulnerability, don’t always know the answer”.

We’re trained to avoid uncertainty. It’s a space of ambiguity and discomfort. You can’t control external factors, but if you know yourself well, you can make better choices.

2 Drop the assumptions!

Our perception is limited. We see the world as we are, not as it is.

Our beliefs can have us work in a very automated way. But when change happens – again, look at 2020! – we have to re-evaluate our beliefs and assumptions about the world. Ask yourself – what assumptions am I making? Understand where you make assumptions and judgments. Be interested in how everyone and everything works rather than how you think they work. 

In doing so, you can become a better, more open version of yourself. You’ll stay curious and accept the new. Remember, you’re the only one that can change your perception of yourself, others and the world.

3 Build resilience

The leadership journey is a long and tricky one. We naturally resist new ways of being, new ideas and new leadership styles. To thrive as a leader, you’ll need passion, empathy and endurance. You’ll need to invest a lot of time and energy in your leadership. It helps to have great people around you. Building positive relationships provides you with a necessary support network.

4 Have compassion

When the road is arduous, you’ll need to be compassionate with yourself. Understand that sometimes you need help or a break. The ability to recover is one of the secrets of resilient people. You’ll need compassion towards others too. Treat people kindly, care about them and act as a leader with good intentions.

5 Be humble

Last, but definitely not least, stay humble and curious. Look at everyone, including yourself, and everything with fresh eyes. Ask yourself: what am I not seeing, what am I missing, what are my blind spots and my prejudices? If you can do this, you’ll inspire the people around you because you’ll lead by example, not by dictating.

Here’s our Director of Spells, Rubens Filho, with a few wise, and of course magical, words about managing change. 💡

Facing changes that you'd like help with?

Get in touch

Tips: how to make remote workshops excellent 💥

By | Education, Food for thought, Learning and development, Magical Moments, Magicians, Music, Team

We’ve learned a few unexpected ways to make remote meetings and workshops a great and human experience. Apart from the usual video call etiquette that you’ve no doubt learned recently, how about…

  • Hiding self view
  • Unmuting everyone
  • Creating virtual magic

Self view

We’ve probably all looked at our own faces far more than is healthy in recent months! Hiding self view allows you to focus much more on other participants. Less Is my hair really that straggly? and more I never knew that, very interesting indeed. Heed this warning however: don’t forget you’re on camera. Everyone can still see you even though you can’t! No nose-picking, texting on the side or stuffing your face with a sandwich and wearing it for the rest of the call…

Unmute

The generally agreed protocol is that everyone should stay on mute unless they’re talking. This cuts out all unnecessary background noise and allows whoever is speaking to be heard by all. But it’s fun to create a little audio chaos and allow everyone to talk at the same time. We guarantee it will liven things up. You can have a lively debate, like in real life. Remember that?!

Magical energisers

Obviously we perform and teach magic in our sessions. But magicians never spill their secrets, so you’ll have to get in touch with us for this one. We’ll send you a video of one of our magical energisers. You must watch it and then destroy it 😉 (leave your name in the comments or contact us directly).

Less unexpected, but still worth mentioning. Here are some more tips to help remote connections feel good.

Hand signals

When you’re on mute and you want to say something without interrupting the speaker, devise a visual language that suits your company. We had fun creating ours: see our video below 👇

Spotify 

We have various Spotify playlists ready to go. Integrating music into meetings and workshops creates energy and sets different moods. Use quiet, non-verbal music when people need to talk or think. And something more lively to perk people up at the start or during breaks.

Miro

What a great invention Miro is! A virtual white board with sticky notes you can scribble on. We use it all the time for both client workshops and internal sessions. The best thing about it is that it’s visually familiar so needs little instruction. Plus it allows everyone to get involved. People can share thoughts and ideas, vote and doodle. No more zoning out during long meetings! 

And finally, Spotlight

This Zoom function pins one person as the primary active speaker for everyone on the call. This is really useful when you want people to focus on the speaker and hear reactions to important information. We also use it when the magicians are performing. That way they stay in the spotlight without anyone having to tweak screens and miss crucial magic-making secrets.

All of these tips add up to fun and engaging online experiences. If you have more, we’d love to know what they are. Share @abracademy 🙋

Let us make your virtual off-site magical!

Get in touch

The World Needs Magic: wonder-full conversations

By | Belief, Curiosity, Food for thought, Learning and development, Magicians, What's new?, Wonder

No longer a spacey futuristic vision of life on the moon, video calling has become normal. Very normal. Captain Kirk would be impressed at how normal. Personally, we still prefer meeting face-to-face, but video calling is much much better than nothing and it has its own charm… (do let us know 😉)

Like many, Abracademy has adjusted to the new way of being. We’ve changed a lot about how we work and communicate. One way we’ve evolved our practice is to start a weekly webinar. It’s something we had talked about doing for a while. And in March this year, the moment presented itself and we got on with finally doing it. Of course we had to learn a few technical things and we made mistakes along the way, but we got there.

Each week we invite someone whose ideas and work we admire. They either have something to do with the world of magic, psychology and science, or learning and development. Or all three! 

It’s selfish… The webinar gives us the opportunity to talk to someone interesting about things that interest us. We enjoy learning from our guests and hearing about their personal and professional lives – how they feel about the pandemic, how it’s affected them, and so on.

Our guest in April, Nathalie Trutman, observed: “… Our automatic reaction is to replicate patterns that worked for us in the past. Unfortunately, they aren’t necessarily going to get us through this time”. On a previous pause from work, she learned to sail. ”Have a wild dream that you think is impossible. Then break it down like a puzzle and take the first step”. It doesn’t matter what your wild dream is or even if you succeed. Just dare to dream. We like that sentiment.

Sarah Gregersen talked about a circular economy and how nature can inspire us. A love of nature came early to Sarah, as a kid she thought “we’re breaking the earth!”. She suggested that we “think about our surroundings [suppliers etc] as part of our ecosystem. Develop new practices, new ways of operating”. When you’re annoyed in a traffic jam, remember that you are the traffic!

Doctor of Wonder, magician and scientist, Dr Matt Pritchard answered the question: what kills wonder? with “Busyness… work, home, technology. Learn to stop, pause, reflect, adjust. Make space to notice things, discover things. See the extraordinary in the ordinary. The magical in the mundane”. He quoted a study of 135k people on wellbeing. The #1 aid for wellbeing was having people around who care about you. But #2 was learning something – discovering new things helps your wellbeing. So perhaps we can use some of this time to pause and learn?

Another magician and psychologist, Goldsmith’s Dr Gustav Kuhn warned us that “if 3 small kids appear, I didn’t just magic them up!😄 We never did see them so they must have stayed in the hat… Gustav said of the positive emotions of magic: “use them in education to enhance learning experiences and wellbeing”. We couldn’t agree more!

There’s a sense of embracing the unknown throughout these conversations. We can’t ignore that for many this has been a very difficult time. However there can also be benefits – extra time in the day, more time with friends and family, more conversations around wellbeing in the workplace, more meetups on Zoom without leaving your house! Accepting that things have changed enormously and proceeding with the positives as best you can. And, always be learning!

Have a look at forthcoming webinars here.

Links

I have an idea for your next webinar guest 💡

Get in touch

How I worked my way from ‘distracted’ to ‘better’

By | Curiosity, Education, Food for thought, Magical Moments, Priya

I’ve worked at Abracademy for nearly three years now. During that time I have experienced many magical moments. I’ve also experienced some Magical Moments. But not as many as I’d like 😭

The very first workshop I attended was at software development company, Pivotal. A group of employees from offices all over the world gathered in London for a weekend of information sharing and bonding. Some had never met, though they had spoken via email or video call many times. Many were members of the same team, working on the same projects, but in different locations. Pivotal invited us to spend Saturday afternoon with them. I mean, they invited us to inject magic to their Saturday afternoon… A small, but significant difference!

For three hours that day, we played, learned and got to know each other. It was amazing to see the effect Abracademy’s workshops have on people. I was impressed at the creativity of the Pivotal team, who entered into the spirit of the workshop with aplomb. And I was impressed by how democratic magic is. Outgoing people are, well, outgoing so they’re naturally active participants. But what about the shy people, the ones who don’t like to be centre stage (I include myself in that group)? Well, they were also able to shine in their own quiet ways. It was an eye opener to see how they engaged and grew in confidence as the afternoon progressed.

Cut to present day. In the light of the Coronavirus situation, Abracademy, like many many other companies, has had to pivot. As of March 2020 we couldn’t deliver workshops in person any more. That stopped overnight. Suddenly, the remote learning product we had been developing in the background, had to be at the forefront of our services. It had to become our offering and fast. To achieve this, we handbrake turned and quickly learned what ‘agile’ product development is!! We developed faster, tested workshops on ourselves, learned from the feedback and developed the product some more. Repeat that loop a few times. But it meant that, finally, I was able to participate in workshops, not just observe and / or photograph them.

The Raising Resilience session surprised me the most. The day that we tested that one (on ourselves and some work friends), I was feeling restless, irritable and frankly anxious. It was in the early days of lock down – need I say more. Everything was up in the air for me. Plans were halted and cancelled. So many question marks were hanging over me about every aspect of life – the future of work, my daughter’s schooling, my mum’s health, even a relatively new relationship. And – dramatic pause – I could no longer go to my favourite coffee shop for amazing coffee and laptop working (I know, I know. Sometimes it’s easier to channel anxiety into something seemingly silly than face the big things).

During the session, we were asked to turn off our cameras and mics, and meditate for five minutes, guided by Rubens. I cannot tell you how unbelievably hard I found this. It took a huge effort for me to sit still and at least try to empty my head. I did my best, but I certainly didn’t achieve nirvana! I did, however, surface one particular issue affected by Coronavirus that was bothering me a lot. And so, for the remainder of the workshop, this is what I focused on. With Priya Ghai’s brilliant facilitation, Rubens’ magic and Zoom’s breakout rooms to work in pairs, I worked my way from distracted to better.

A series of exercises gradually broke the problem down and helped me see it from different points of view. I was astounded that an emotional block could be addressed through a practical process. It’s magic! But it’s not magic because you do the hard work. The problem hasn’t vanished, it just ceases to be a huge mountain to overcome. It shifts to being a series of smaller issues that are less overwhelming and easier to turn around.

At the very end, we took turns to tell a story about our issue while performing a trick Rubens taught us. And I really did feel better! Better for having looked right at the problem. Better for having met some lovely people. Better for having shared and listened to others’ worries. And better for having learned that trick with which to impress the next time I can actually perform it to people IRL!

So, any chance I get to participate in one of our own Magical Moments again, I’ll grab with both hands. You should too 😉

Links

Anne Brassier
Wizard of Words 📝

Yes! I want to try an Online Magical Moment ⚡

Get in touch