Friday Faves - What We're Reading This Week - Ripple Effect Group

Friday Faves is our weekly blog series highlighting a few select pieces from the REG team’s reading lists. You can catch up on past Friday Faves on the archive.

Tree hugging – 2020

image of a tiger hugging a tree in the forest

Source

Anne says: It’s been one of those weeks, in fact, 2020 has been one crazy year and it’s not over yet! So – when this photo appeared in just about all of my social channels and every publication I touched, it became irresistible. Tree hugging was a popular corporate bonding activity in the ’80s, or was it the ’70s? It continues today, if you feel like doing a Google search on it. But, a tiger, hugging a tree?? Just extraordinary, captivating, I can’t stop looking at the expression on the tiger’s face…

The photo of this rare Siberian tiger in far eastern Russia, by a Russian photographer Sergey Gorshkov, won him Wildlife Photographer of the year. The National Geographic description provides the most eloquent description of the photo:

A SIBERIAN TIGER bathed in dappled light stands on her hind legs and embraces an ancient tree. Her eyes are squeezed shut, her mouth is pulled into what looks like a blissful smile, her cheek is pressed against the bark. It’s a moment of pure beauty: Siberian tigers are highly endangered, but this one, notably, is at peace.

Initially, I thought it was a set-up or Photoshopped, but the National Geographic description of how Gorshkov selected the position, and waited, and waited – in fact, he waited for nearly 11 months – reminds me that sometimes we need to stop, follow the process, believe in ourselves and wait for the results.

Take a moment and look through all the finalists and appreciate the effort and commitment that goes into capturing moments like these. And if you must, it’s OK to hug a tree!

Read: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/10/wildlife-photographer-of-the-year/

How to debug distributed teamwork, as suggested by new research

Source

Jakkii says: This is an interesting long read on the Atlassian blog, presenting findings from their recently completed research into the rise of remote work and changing work practices as a result of the pandemic. While you can read the full report (or review the executive summary), this blog takes a look at a series of insights and challenges identified through the research and then applies a ‘how might we…?’ framing technique to frame up the problem in order to find and present ways to solve it.

The insights the blog calls out are:

Distributed work could lead to an innovation drought
It’s hard for people to know you’re doing great work when it seems so invisible
Working from home brings an unexpected bonus for women
Distributed work brings latent inequalities to the surface
Everyone is experiencing working from home differently, based on three basic factors

Finally, to sum up, they use the heading “In every crisis, there is an opportunity” which I think is not only true, but also quite important for us to remember.

It’s always good to have insights and data to use as a benchmark for ourselves, or even simply as a guide about things to be wary of and things we might be able to do better, even if they seem to be working pretty well for us right now. With many organisations looking at becoming or remaining ‘hybrid’ – if not fully distributed – for the foreseeable future, it’s imperative that we continue to hone and improve our practices in how we work together, from anywhere – and everywhere.

Read: https://www.atlassian.com/blog/teamwork/new-research-covid-19-remote-work-impact

Around the house

pic.twitter.com/oPm72nAkUp

— Respectful Memes (@RespectfulMemes) October 6, 2020

Jakkii says: Another week, another round up of things to watch, read and do from home. There are a lot of jurisdictions around the world looking at re-introducing some form of restrictions – if that’s happening where you are, stay safe, and make sure you look after yourself mentally as well as physically.

Friday Funnies

How it started: How it’s going:

I’m gonna write I have
a novel during forgotten how
quarantine to read

— Randall Otis (@RandallOtisTV) October 13, 2020

pic.twitter.com/QHbq2LWcza

— Respectful Memes (@RespectfulMemes) October 9, 2020

Y’all, please watch this. I’m hollering omg 😂😂😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/a7bPSt1FVT

— Cameron (@SirCamCarter) October 9, 2020

me: it’s okay to be a person struggling with productivity during a prolonged crisis
my brain: not u though
me: not me though

— christina (@floozyesq) October 7, 2020