What you can do for yourself and your team

1. Technology Wellness in the Nonprofit Workplace
Beth Kanter, Master Trainer, Speaker, and Author
Rutgers – Institute for Ethical Leadership
March 21, 2017

2. Agenda
• The Big Picture
• Technology Wellness Assessment
• A Few Tips for Individuals
• Bringing Tech Wellness into the Nonprofit
Workplace
• Peer Coaching
• Raffle
http://bethkanter.wikispaces.com/rutgers

3. Who is in the room?

4. The Bigger Picture: The Problem

5. Our technology use is
changing our brains

6. We have no downtime
52% of smartphone owners check their phones
a few times an hour or more.

7. We are losing our
ability to focus and
remember.
“Google Effect on Memory”
-- Daniel Wegner, Harvard University

8. What is the
average human
attention span
online?

9. Attention Spans Online …
Source: National Center for Biotechnology Information, US National Library of Medicine
Flickr photo: Josullivan59
Attention Span Statistics Data
The average human attention span in 2000. 12 seconds
The average human attention span in 2013. 8 seconds
9
seconds

13. Not Saying To Stop Using Technology

14. Tech Wellness
Assessment
Questions
Is Your Technology Use Healthy?

15. Information Overload
What’s Your Tech Wellness Score?
1. Is the only time you take a break from your tech when you’re sleeping?
2. Do you check your phone before you go to bed or right when you wake
up?
3. Do you have problems recalling information and resort to searching on
Google?
4. Do you feel that you often have a hard time paying attention or focusing
on a single task?
5. Do you experience frustration at the amount of online information you
need to process every day?
6. Do you frequently or constantly check your email, Twitter, Facebook or
other online services?
7. Do you sometimes check your mobile phone for messages while in the
bathroom?
8. Do you find yourself reaching for your phone even when you’re with
others?
9. Do you sit at your computer at work or home for longer than 30 minutes
at a time without getting up to take a break?
10.Do you ever check your mobile phone while walking outside?
Add up all the questions you answered “YES” to for your score

16. 0…1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9…10
Source: Lulumonathletica
Healthy……………………………………………………Unhealthy
What’s Your Technology Wellness Score?

17. Tips for Individuals

18. Don’t Sleep with Your Mobile Phone

19. Manage Your Attention: 18 Minutes A Day

20. Tip: Standing Desks
Beverly Trayner-Wenger
Walking As Work Resources
http://bethkanter.wikispaces.com/walk

22. Tip: Turn Off the Damn Computer and Go for A Walk

23. Walking At Work
• Pick the best type of meetings for walking meetings
• Walk inside when the sun don’t shine
• Plan your route
• Notetaking
• Wear comfortable shoes, bring water
Tip: Walking Meetings

24. Tip: Unplug regularly & often

25. Tip: Apps as Agents of Self-Care
Happy Healthy: There’s An App for That
http://bit.ly/HHNP-apps

26. Tip: Try Meditative Art

27. What is one small
action step that you
can take around
technology wellness?

28. What is your burning question about
technology wellness?

29. Technology Wellness in the Nonprofit Workplace

30. Collaborative Overload
● Burnout from too many e-mails,
meetings, and collaborative tech
tools that limits our ability to get stuff
done
● More connectivity externally and
more collaboration internally is
positive, but can lead to being
“overwhelmed”
● Research shows that today’s office
worker spends 90% of their time
engaged in tasks with other people.
Research Source: Rob Cross, Adam Grant

31. ● 15% of organization
time is spent in
meetings
● Four hours a week for
status update
meetings
● There are an
estimated 11 millions
a day in America
● US businesses waste
more than $37 billion
year in unproductive
meetings
Source:
NY Times, “Meeting is Murder”
2/28/16
Fuze Infographic on Meetings

32. Is this familiar?
• Long work week
• Come home to realize
you didn’t get stuff
done
• You start doing solo
work in evenings and
weekends
• You don’t do it because
you are too exhausted

33. Solution: The Four P’s
Planning People
Priorities Present

34. Planning: Structure and Rituals
Assessment
1. I feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment at the end of each day
2. I have a clear sense of what’s ahead each month
3. I stick to deadlines and commitments and rarely let things fall through the cracks
4. I feel good about how I allocate time and energy at work
5. I plan my work tasks according to my level of energy
6. I am caught up on my email
7. My team or organization has a clear policy about sending after hours emails
8. My team uses cloud software for collaboration and has a well mapped out workflow
and training for all users
0-24
What’s your score? 0=No, 1=Sometimes 2=Yes
Add it up your answers

35. Tips to Improve Planning
● Schedule Team Power Hours
● Use Look-Ahead Rituals

36. Tips to Improve Planning
● Clearly Define Workflow for Online Collaboration
Platforms and Training
● Adopt Formal Practices Around Team Emails

37. People: How You Relate To Others
Assessment
1. I know who my go-to people are for various tasks, support, and decision making.
2. I am comfortable saying no, negotiating requests, and making requests of others.
3. I calmly and directly approach conflict, difficult conversations, and tough people
decisions face-to-face
4. I stay away from gossip, office politics, and drama
5. Our team never wastes time due to misunderstandings from email communications
6. Our team communicates precisely via email and online collaboration tools
7. Our team has a remote working charter
8. Our team has an effective approach to integrating remote and on-site staff for
meetings and collaboration
What’s your score? 0=No, 1=Sometimes 2=Yes
Add it up your answers
0-24

38. Tips to Improve
● Set a Statute of Limitations on People Frustrations
● Say NO, But Enforce Boundaries With Grace

39. Tips to Improve People
● Write emails that are precise
● Create a remote working charter for your team
Subjects w/Keywords
[ACTION] [SIGN]
[DECISION] [CORD]
[INFO]
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF)
Fewer Words
Link to Attachments

40. Priorities: How You Spend Your Time
1. We spend time working on key priorities and goals that move the needle for our
organization, our team, or my own performance and growth.
2. I complete tasks even when I don’t want to do them.
3. My organization encourages us to engage in self-care without guilt.
4. My organization or team has clear rationales for how we use our time
5. I understand and accept the trade-offs that I make when choosing how to spend my
time.
What’s your score? 0=No, 1=Sometimes 2=Yes
Add it up your answers
0-15

41. Tips to Improve
● Take A Trend-Line View
● Rethink Status Updates Meetings

42. Tips to Improve
● Don’t schedule hour meetings by default

43. Being Present: How You Focus and Pay
Attention
1. I am able to focus on the task at hand.
2. I am focused and engaged in meetings and I listen to my colleagues.
3. I stay focused during the workday.
4. I have time to complete the things that require focus and strategic thinking.
5. When I have free time, I know how to use it productively or restoratively.
What’s your score? 0=No, 1=Sometimes 2=Yes
Add it up your answers
0-15

44. Tips to Improve
● Team wide analysis of most productive times
● Have explicit team or organization policy about white space or
maker time

45. Tips to Improve
● Device free zones in your workplace
● Meeting policy about use of devices to avoid “technoference”

47. Peer Coaching Triads
Step 1 (3 minutes)
#1 Shares Tech Wellness Challenge
Step 2 (4 minutes)
#2 & #3 Ask Clarifying Questions
Step 3 (3 minutes)
#1 Duck Tape
#2/#3 offer advice
Step 4 (2 minutes)
#1 Summarizes action
steps

48. One Minute of Silent Reflection: I Commit To …

49. Trios Exchange Mobile Numbers
Send Text Reminder Next Week

50. Book Raffle

51. Thank you!
www.bethkanter.org
The Happy Healthy Nonprofit
http://bit.ly/happyhealthynpbook