As you’ve probably noticed, the ITK website has a whole new look and layout! We’ve redesigned all the tools, added lots of new content and material, and even made it easier to filter through the tools to find just the one you need.
We hope this refresh makes the site easier to navigate and use. As with any design effort, it’s an iterative process so we’d love to hear your feedback and suggestions!
We’ve eaten a lot of Failure Cakes, and written several posts about it. Now we’re happy to announce the World Premier of Failure Cake: A (video) History!
This week’s post is by Allison Khaw. Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash.
I was sitting at my desk recently, participating in a virtual work meeting, when I sneezed.
I was already muted, so the meeting continued without pause, but this got me thinking. As a side effect of our current behavioral norms, we are effectively subduing those idiosyncrasies that make us human. Returning my gaze to the computer screen, I mused to myself: Should we be muting our sneezes?
I still chuckle at the inexplicable absurdity of this question—muting our sneezes, who would have thought!—but I also ask it with a genuine yearning to understand the answer. And the true question, as you may have guessed, extends beyond sneezing. Before COVID-19 upended our work culture, we lived in a time where in-person meetings were more common than hybrid or virtual ones. The paradigm has shifted so dramatically that the opposite is true today. Virtual meetings are prevalent out of necessity, and we’ve become more adept at handling them than ever before.
When we participate in these meetings, we possess the incredible ability to mute our voices or disappear from view at the click of a button. Our current circumstances pose seeming contradictions: our presence can be invisible; our sneezes can be silent! Ultimately, we now have the freedom to choose when to be seen and heard.
However, as the phrase goes, freedom always comes with a cost. We’re trying to appear—and be—professional, but what are we losing in return?
Of course, muting is important in many situations, whether you’re minimizing your background noise in a large meeting or finishing your lunch without wanting to moderate the crunch level of your chips. Thus, we should do our best to maintain this self-awareness in our virtual meetings while finding ways to avoid muting our own humanity in the process.
And how do we do that? Well, we can take a meaningful first step by performing small experiments, true to the spirit of the Innovation Toolkit. For instance, try showing your video while speaking for a presentation, using your authentic home office as your meeting background, or eating your lunch with your microphone off but your camera on. Another idea is to try an “active listening” exercise: pair up with a coworker, listen to them describe their day for two uninterrupted minutes before you paraphrase what you heard them say, and then swap roles. After doing this exercise in a recent “Yes, And” Innovation Toolkit workshop, I felt rejuvenated by the chance to listen to someone else and be equally heard. Whatever you decide to try, stretch outside of your comfort zone and then reflect on how it went.
As we look towards the future, we need to remember that no one expects us to be perfect, not even in a virtual setting. We need to remember that simple visual cues such as nodding, smiling, or laughing can be invaluable in bringing us closer together despite our physical distance. What’s more, we need to have conversations about these topics, now and often. In fact, if we don’t, we may find that the sounds of our sneezes are not all that we’ll lose in the end.
Today’s post is by guest blogger Riley Fujioka!
Did you know that 2.2 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water? Or that globally, 1 in 4 healthcare facilities lack basic water services? You can help bring clean water to these underserved communities.
At MITRE, we have to come together to put a dent in these statistics by partnering with Wine to Water, an international non-profit organization focused on ending the root cause of global poverty. They provide sustainable water solutions in communities around the world, and we’re working with a student-led team at The Madeira School on a volunteer event. Our goal is to reach over 1,000 people with clean water by raising money to build clean water filters and to make a difference through the power of clean water.
Between now and late January, we invite you to join our fundraiser. Your donation will enable Wine to Water to obtain and distribute filter building kits that will be sent to all fundraiser contributors. Then, during our virtual filter building event on World Water Day, March 22, you can build the filters at home. These will be distributed globally to communities in need and also support disaster relief efforts.
Leading up to this event in March, we will host a series of keynote speakers from the Wine to Water team as well as members of communities around the world who will be directly impacted by these filters, so you can learn more about the positive impact you will be making through this effort. We’ll be sharing registration details as the virtual events are scheduled.
According to Shared Justice: ‘Unclean water can cause serious and costly health issues, and studies have found that poor and minority communities across the U.S. are disproportionately affected by polluted waters.’ The issue is much worse outside of the United States, where lack of sanitation and access to basic health care led to millions of deaths each year.”
Each filter costs around $50 in materials to make and distribute. To participate in a virtual hands-on experience to build kits for families around the globe without clean drinking water, contribute to our fundraiser, and register for the event here.
Please join us in fundraising and building clean water filters for communities all around the world!
©2021 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved. Approved for Public Release; Distribution Unlimited. Case Number 20-3448
This week’s blog post is by Maria Altebarmakian, one of our new ITK Trainees!
By now we have all felt the pain of trying to collaborate and communicate with others remotely. Messages go unseen or unanswered, a train of thought is interrupted by a constant stream of notifications, and collaboratively iterating on ideas requires more intentionality. The online environment completely transforms how ideas can be shared, how they are communicated, and how they are understood.
Different mechanisms for online communication impact the extent and ways in which a group works and makes progress. Sometimes a quick chat message is enough, while other situations require a more in-depth video call. Intentionally designing the way participants communicate and collaborate online can make it easier for groups to work together on a task.
Here are some tips for three types of online communication for collaborative environments: text-based, audio-only, and video + audio.
The best method for online communication will vary from one collaborative situation to the next. The key is to be thoughtful when deciding how to organize your team’s online collaborative sessions.
What have you found to be challenging when it comes to effectively communicating online? What tips and tricks do you use to address those challenges?
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