PlayTank Just Got Way More Valuable for HR Professionals
Team Ziksana put our superhero capes and thinking caps on to take our beloved PlayTank to a new level this June. We partnered with Protector Brewery to bring a not-so-ordinary…
Top 3 Things We Learned at Playtank
Ziksana’s March PlayTank event, “Developing Creative Teams and Cultures,” was another fantastic success! We were honored to host a diverse group of professionals for an evening of exploration, networking, and…
Appreciative Listening
How well do you listen?
If you’re like most modern-day workers, you’re probably so torn between emails, smart phones, task lists, and deadlines that your human-listening skills aren’t what they should be. Think about the last conversation you had with a coworker. How much of that conversation do you remember? 50%? 20%?
Now put yourself in the speaker’s shoes. If you’re sharing with your boss, and your boss only remembers 20% of what you shared, then why even bother sharing at all?
At Ziksana, we believe that successful leaders move beyond listening to hear and instead build the skill of listening to appreciate. We call this Appreciative Listening. The goal of Appreciative Listening is to make the speaker feel valued, and truly understood without judgment. By combining active listening with positive psychology, our Appreciative Listening framework makes it simple and even fun to listen to those who we agree AND may disagree with.
National Have Fun at Work Day!
What is National Have Fun at Work Day? When is it?
National Have Fun at Work Day is Friday, January 26th, 2018. For Ziksana, this holiday is the perfect opportunity to share how the power of play can fuel productivity and motivation.
Building Trust at Work Through Play
“Trust is not a default. It is work and it is intentional. It is structured and it is disciplined.” Rex Miller , Author & Culture Change Expert
“We need to build trust in your team to get more done.” Perhaps you’ve heard your Leader say this at some point. It’s easy to say, but hard to do. And you’re not alone.
According to PwC’s Annual Global CEO survey, in 2017, across industries, levels of distrust at work have climbed to 55%. And CEOs aren’t the only ones feeling the tension: one in three employees surveyed don’t trust their manager.
Team Ziksana at Wonder Spaces
Exactly two weeks ago, Team Ziksana bonded at Wonder Spaces, a pop-up art exhibit in San Diego.
Our play goal: to inspire our sense of wonder and awe, and to spend time connecting with each other.
Our productivity goal: to find new ways to connect people and think about work and play differently. To do so, we took time to actively reflect on how we can connect our new learnings to the work that we do.
We are constantly exploring AND integrating what we learn to the work that we do – for YOU!
Office Design for the Future of Work
Team Ziksana moved! We are actively using our new office design to improve productivity and workflow. We’ve learned that face-to-face interactions and spontaneous conversations are important to productivity. HBR data suggests that chance encounters and unplanned interactions improve performance. We recognize that office space is a strategic tool for growth because a well-designed workspace serves as a communication tool that can promote exploration, engagement, and energy.
In this short video tour, Team Ziksana’s President, Akshay Sateesh, invites you to take an inside look into our progress and process for office design:
Culture of Innovation at Intuit
“At Intuit, it’s everyone’s job to innovate.” This comment about Intuit from Glassdoor describes the culture of innovation I experienced a few weeks ago at Intuit in San Diego perfectly.…
Your Brain on Creative Arts
To develop leaders, executive teams can implement the creative arts at work to train employees to embody a playful mindset for a more activated company corporate culture. For companies facing an uncertain future or dealing with a tricky, incipient problem, embracing the creative process at work is just what your company needs. The creative arts – defined as theater, dance, art, or music – train employees to embody a playful mindset– to be curious, to ask open-ended questions, and to see the big picture, all which fuel productivity.
April Playtank @ The New Children’s Museum
We are excited that this coming Thursday, April 13th, from 6:30-8:30pm, for the first time ever, Ziksana's Playtank, our free monthly professional networking event, will be hosted at The New Children's Museum. This FREE…
