Team Connection At Three6: Kokedama Workshop

Recent research from the Microsoft trends Index demonstrates that 22% of our Australian workforce are feeling isolated or disconnected from co-workers, and 21% are experiencing unmanageable workloads or work hours.  This directly impacts our employee experiences and our potential to be resilient and adaptable.

Team connection is of the utmost importance during these challenging times – and can directly impact our peoples’ wellbeing, our team engagement and our organisation’s performance.

At Three6, we recognise the vital importance of structured team connection, and proactively working hard to sustain strong teamwork, diversity of thought and psychological safety.  

During our recent migration to working virtually, one of the ways that we sustain strong team connection is by planning ‘quarterly team sessions’. We select learning activities that are diverse, relevant to our purpose and include all of our people, and our families sometimes too!

Last week, our Three6 Team got together (virtually) to create a Kokedama … which is a Japanese bonsai technique that involves growing a plant, covered in a ball of moss. It was such a hilarious and insightful session, in so many ways:

• A great way to get to know the team in a fun, creative way; we have seen each other twice face to face in 7 months, and we have new team members who we have never met face to face.  
• Learning about colleagues’ viewpoints, perspectives and experiences really helps us to connect as people, and support each other as team members.
• Building a strong understanding of others’ thinking and work preferences – creates a strong and robust team who collaborate to focus on team outcomes.

In fact, the Japanese meaning of Kokedama is relevant to our current situation – it’s about staying connected to a natural environment with tranquillity and simplicity.  

And that is the gift that Kokedama presented to our team – something magical happened during our session; we started to share stories and experiences that showed our vulnerability. We found a deeper level of openness and authenticity that helped us understand each others’ lives. There is something mystical about building a new thing together – which no one knows how to do.  This event built trust and led to improving our psychological safety across the whole team.

At times such as these, as leaders and as an organisation we can’t always eliminate the uncertainly for our people – what we can do is provide a healthy working environment where your people have strong team connection, and feel valued, supported and empowered to face the challenges of future.  

Our advice is to create structured employee experiences in order to unlock your team’s talent, adaptability, resilience and innovative nature!