Reflections Dec 2020 – Week 1: Could this be a better visualisations of progress in agencies?, remote working & team engagement, ambiguous loss, The Great Mental Models Book feature and more…

Agency musings

Better visualisations of progress in agencies

Please bear with me… last week I listened to a podcast with Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke. He mentions the strategy game Factorio. The default aim of the game is to build a spaceship from scratch. To produce all the needed components, you mine natural resources and create a complex factory that you run these resources through.

It got me thinking about parallels to building an agency. Building a company with a physical output allows you to clearly see progress and output in a way everyone can understand.

In an agency progress is often visualised by numbers, graphs or words. Revenue increase last year, profit margin increase the last 5 years, headcount, marketing campaign launched, etc. A new office is usually the most relatable visualisation of progress for everyone in an agency.

But with potential changes in how we will define the office space, do we need new ways to visualise progress?

(Ribbon Chapel by Hiroshi Nakamura)

What if building your agency was like building a spaceship. What components would your agency need for the 1st,2nd,3rd... launch? The creation of a project management process visualised as a thruster. You could create a large image that you project at every company meeting. Everyone can clearly see what areas they are contributing to. Finally it may provide the feeling of, we’re building this together and have the same end goal.

Inside Polymensa

Team Mintaka

Remote working - team engagement and management

Last week we were joined by agency consultants Form. Our special guest Mark Harland focuses on people and leadership performance at Form.

We continued to discuss the psychological impact of remote working and ways to tackle the challenges. 

Something that resonated with everyone was this simple idea: As an agency owner communicate weekly how you feel. This is a separate message from the ‘how the business is doing’. This is about how the human behind the ‘boss’ is doing with home life, personal well being, etc. It’s an opportunity for the team to feel more connected and also understood. The way this is communicated is crucial. If you want to hear recommendations around how to do this correctly, feel free to contact Mark directly.

The beautiful mind

Ambiguous loss

We have undoubtedly been dealing with an array of losses over the past 12 months. Whether it’s the heartbreaking loss of a family member passing away due to COVID or the loss of freedom to enjoy a meal in a restaurant without restrictions. We’ve all been subconsciously grieving. Some of us have accepted the change in circumstances, while others are still processing what has happened.

Ambiguous Loss is a term coined by Pauline Boss in the 1970s, who studied families of soldiers who went missing in action. It describes what happens when there is a loss without closure or clear understanding of why it happened. With the promising news of a COVID vaccine we still don’t really know when things will go back to normal or if what we lost along the way will ever return to its original state. Like with any grief, being mentally prepared for another set-back and accepting we can only change things that are in our control will be the key over the next 6-12 months.

Quotes of the week

“The map is not the territory.” Alfred Korzybski

“What is common to many is least taken care of, for all people have greater regard for what is their own than what they possess in common with others.” Aristotle

Company spotlight

Remo & The Digital Voice

Virtual conference/event app. The Digital Voice is a PR agency that specialises in this area and can help host and MC all sorts of events on Remo: Christmas parties, cocktail making courses, magician events, award ceremonies, etc.

Book spotlight

The Great Mental Models Vol. 1

Shane Parrish

The creator of Farnham Street (helping you master the best of what other people have already figured out) has written a fantastic book that highlights key mental models. Different tools for different problems, when to use them and when not to use them. The aim is to help the reader become really good at not being blind sided i.e. avoiding problems before they arise.

Random information
(entertaining at the very least)

• Vanilla is extracted from the pod of vanilla planifolia, which is a species of orchid.

• 21 grams experiment: Duncan MacDougall hypothesised that souls have physical weight, and attempted to measure the mass lost by a human when the soul departed the body. MacDougall attempted to measure the mass change of six patients at the moment of death. One of the six subjects lost three-fourths of an ounce (21.3 grams).

• Why is Soya Sauce brown? Over time, the Aspergillus mould on the soy and wheat breaks down the grain proteins into free amino acid and protein fragments and starches into simple sugars. This amino-glycosidic reaction gives soy sauce its dark brown colour.

• A map of London’s Underground system (called the London Connections Map) that reflects the geographical location of each station more accurately than Henry Charles Beck’s abstract.

Thank you for reading.

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"Be an infinite learner." - Polymensa

Have a great week!
Cheers, Daniel :)