A day in the WFH life (Working from home) with Pedro R.

This week, I had the pleasure to be on the Company's intranet news, sharing my experience with this working from home new normal. It was a nice surprise from the colleagues in Boston and would like to share that you all as well. My main recommendation, remember to be kinder to yourself! 

With the permission of the internal comms team of the company, here the full interview.

*** 

Boston, May 29th, 2020

Working from home in Berlin, Germany is Pedro Rueda, a Learning Specialist on the Learning & Development team. Today, Pedro shares his WFH experience and most importantly reminds us to be kinder to ourselves.

How are you staying connected with your team and other individuals? 

In L&D EU we have coffee chats after lunch. They are informal chats where we talk about tv shows, restaurants, and playlists. We try to simulate our after-lunch coffee chats that we used to have on the 9th-floor sofas with barista coffee. 

How do you structure or start your day?

I usually wake up between 6:30 and 7:00 AM, I start my day with a nice cup of Colombian coffee. Afterwards I meditate, check the news, exercise for 15 minutes and then shower. I start working usually around 9:30. 

The first thing I do is check my priorities, create a list of things that need to be completed by the end of the day, and then rank them. I also check my agenda and make sure that I am ready for the meetings I have that day (either with pre-reads or if it is a meeting that I requested I make sure I have a clear outcome for the call). I try to keep my mornings clear of meetings so I can focus on operations and actually completing/finishing tasks. Since I am on a global team, my afternoon is usually full of meetings with colleagues from the US. 

What is your current work set up?

I have a screen, my laptop, and my iPad. I love my iPad for notes and also as a second screen. A plus in my WFH set up is Google Home. It helps me with some quick questions, timers, the radio, Spotify… during this isolation time, it may be becoming my best friend. 

Is there anything you are struggling within the adjustment to WFH? 

At the beginning of the WFH period (and still some nights), I was having problems sleeping. I was going to bed at 2 AM and struggling to fall asleep. It might be because I was combining my workspace with my break and personal space. My solution for it is to stand up, read a book, drink some tea, try to relax, and go back to bed. Force your body to wake up at a certain time and try to keep a routine, even in your WFH period. 

Any WFH Life Hacks? 

It is ok to be sad and feel lonely sometimes. It is ok to feel that you are not your 100%. It’s ok to feel weird. It’s ok if you don't wake up super early to do your morning routine. It’s ok if you do not complete your Duolingo lesson and it is ok if your diet is weird. Perfect lives are only on Instagram. In real life, we all struggle, and it is ok to feel all those emotions. Feel that, think about how you can improve, make some changes, share them with people, and move on stronger! Connect with the people you love or with your favorite person. Social distancing is only physical. Use this time to connect with old friends and your family. Use the time to think about what is next for you. 

How has your WFH experience evolved?

For the first two weeks, I noticed I was spending more than 40% of my time on meetings. After that, I decided to cancel meetings that could be an email or a slack. I became more conscious about meeting time and if I/we really needed them. I also noticed that I really missed social interaction. I am Latino so a nice hug is always appreciated. My walk at noon to a restaurant with my colleagues is also missed, so my appreciation for those small yet important things has evolved. 

Any current goals? 

A personal goal is to complete 3 books by the end of Q2 and organize a new trip with my mother.  I have also connected with old friends. I now have  zoom chats on Sundays with my school friends, and on Saturdays with my nerd friends (we now have a “learning space”)

Some Wayfair goals are to implement the new hire tracker for the EU, launch the Onboarding Playbook for Hiring Managers, and work on the analytics for internal mobility – Stay tuned! 

Favorite inspiring quote? 

My favorite inspiring quote, and maybe one of the reasons why I love Learning and Development: ‘It’s better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one, than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.’ -Les Brown

Favorite way to entertain yourself- movies, podcasts, music, books? 

Netflix is your friend. The last show I started watching was Update (Amazon Prime). If you are a fan of sci-fi futuristic shows, you might like this one. Strategy video games like Civilization is also my favorite hobby. If you want to play online let me know! World of Warcraft is also there to enjoy.

Regarding books, right now I am reading “The Culture Map” by Erin Meyer. If you want  some latin beats, here are the ones I listen to on repeat during the week: Mejores amigos (Morat), Morado (J Balvin), Un Año (Sebastian Yatra), Se Preparó (Ozuna), 11 PM (Maluma)… and if you are going to present something and need a wake-up song La La La (Shakira)… it’s true that if you want it then act like you mean it!

Cómo hacer tu propio tapabocas / cubrebocas / mascarilla?! Reciclado, fácil, y con algo de humor! Aquí vamos!

Red, aquí estoy con algo diferente a lo normal. Es posible que sea por una palabra, que estoy odiando en estos momentos (como profesional en cambio organizacional me queda mal odiarla, pero creo que la están usando muchos sin sentido), re-inventandome, o simplemente por tener tiempo de sobra, ser parte del grupo con alto riesgo, y las ganas de hacer algo creativo.

En el próximo video les muestro cómo hacer tapabocas de manera artesanal, sin máquina de coser, con prendas de tela recicladas, y tiempo para hacer junto con la familia, hijos, amigos. Es la nueva tendencia! Imagínense un mundo en donde la nueva moda será vestir con tapabocas, unos pedazo de tela, con el cocodrilo de Lacoste, por decir un ejemplo, van a valer unos cientos, y en general, el escenario en los próximos años va a ser diferente.

En los países europeos y en general, occidente, el tapabocas será el nuevo normal, entonces la invitación mía a todos es, a cuidarnos, a dejar los insumos medicos a quienes verdaderamente los necesitan y a re-invertarnos  hacer lo que nos haga felices y que aporte al "nosotros" en sociedad.

Disfruten el video, ríanse de mi barba de cuarentena y de mi pijama de M&Ms.

Challenges during the implementation and the paradox in the Agile Methodology

Challenges during the implementation and the paradox in the Agile Methodology (Part 1)

By: Pedro Rueda

The implementation of the agile methodology brings many challenges, some of them will be exposed below with the objective that organizations that want to implement this methodology take them into account and can create different mechanisms that reduce the risk that these challenges could bring. A significant challenge that organizations have when moving to the agile methodology is to make all their employees move in the same direction. In the example and implementation analyzed above, it is possible to observe that the three organizations consider that the implementation is a whole "journey," and it is not a process of change that happens radically. The challenge, in this case, is not to make people move or start the process of transformation, to recognize the concepts and internalize the issues that bring the agile terminology. The challenge is that, along the path of transformation to be traveled, all teams are "walking" in the same direction. That is why the creation of a vision that transforms the mindset of employees is necessary and is an integral role of the leaders to make all employees live that vision and recognize where the organization will be after implementation and the importance of the change management process. 

Another element that generates a challenge for the implementation of agile methodology is what could be defined as the anxiety that the constant need for change brings. In the book The Agility Shift, the author calls it from "False security" to "Anxious Confidence"*. In this sense it is considered that instead of working with the false security of having everything stable and having "sure" what will happen later and what should be delivered as a result, without learning to improve the project, it is good to have a level of healthy anxiety that psychologists call it "anxious confidence"**. Individuals know that at any moment something can happen that is not expected, and that is not planned; however, they are in the capacity to assume these changes, so that anxiety does not translate into something negative, but on the contrary, they know and are clear about the goals and the established vision. The challenge at this point is to find a relationship or positive tension between the anxiety with new scenarios, the inability to plan precisely and the unpredictable events and the self-confidence that can be demonstrated by an individual or an agile group. They are willing to see the obstacles as opportunities so a characteristic of agility will be the confidence that a person generates in their ability to face unpredictable events beyond the confidence that a person can generate due to the ability to plan with an amount of time in advance. 

One of the challenges of agile companies is the paradox between stability and flexibility. In the design and implementation of the methodology, the question arises between maintaining the speed of execution and creating stability in the business. Generally, small companies could be considered to adapt more quickly to an agile methodology since they do not have as many bureaucratic processes as in a large company. When considering the implementation of the agile methodology, it is possible to contemplate that it is necessary to choose between flexibility and stability when the company starts to grow, however, the challenge is to be able to maintain a combination between these two.

Start-ups are a clear example of companies that, often intuitively, take parts of the agile methodology without realizing it. According to the consulting group of McKinsey***, a truly agile organization is the one who manages to maintain both sides of the paradox actively, on the one hand, stability, efficiency and resilience and on the other the flexibility, speed, and adaptability. To achieve this, companies have the challenge of creating a "fixed backbone" where dynamic, changing, and adaptable elements can be continuously added. In the article "Agility: It rhymes with stability," McKinsey compares this paradox with a Smartphone and considers that companies that want to implement an agile methodology should compare with a Smartphone. A cellphone of this type usually maintains standard hardware, a body that gives it the stability and the ability to execute several applications. That hardware is the core of the telephone where all the processes are administered; however, it has applications that are updated continuously and that are installed or deleted according to the needs of the end-user. For McKinsey, telephone hardware refers to the stability that an organization must have in terms of three main elements: structure, governance, and process. The applications correspond to the dynamism and the capacity to be flexible that the organization must have. Example of this dynamism or these "apps" that are installed and uninstalled depending on the user's need are the "self-organized" teams established for particular specific objectives, talent reviews, allocation of resources to projects and feedback.

To be continued.

* Meyer, P. The agility shift. Creating agile and effective leaders, teams, and organizations. 2015. Pp. 82

** Mirvis, P. Variations on a theme-practice improvisation. Organization science. Vol. 9., No. 5. September-October 1998. Pp. 586-592.

*** Aghina, W., De Smet, A., and Weerda, K. Agility: It rhymes with stability” McKinsey Quarterly, McKinsey. December 2015. Retrieved September 2018, from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/agility-it-rhymes-with-stability.

Un Colombiano en Londres

Un Colombiano en Londres

Clasificaría a Londres como una de mis ciudades europeas favoritas. Estimaría que esta en el mismo nivel de admiración, amor y deleite del que le tengo a Barcelona y Atenas. Londres es una ciudad vibrante, global, que combina tradición con modernismo. Esto se ve no solo al caminar por sus calles, al ver su política, su arquitectura, al ir por un trago, al hablar con la gente. Londres siempre será la dear darling. 

Un Colombiano (and a Dutch) en India! - Parte I

Un Colombiano (and a Dutch) en India! 

El sueño se cumplió. Y si, niguna foto puede respetar la verdadera grandeza del Taj Mahal. India es un país hermoso, que reta tu status quo. Definitivamente te saca de tu zona de confort. Te recuerda también la desigualdad en la que vivimos. Como lo dice su marca país, con la cual estoy totalmente de acuerdo, Incredible India. Aquí el primer video de una serie de varios! Espero les guste, y usen los comentarios si quieren saber algo más! 

- For English speakers, the video is actually in English. The first part is in Spanish with subtitles. So, guys, you are also welcome to join!