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How Tess Dixon Facilitates Team Engagement and Collaboration at Condé Nast Using Miro 
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Friday, October 1, 2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
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How Tess Dixon Facilitates Team Engagement and Collaboration at Condé Nast Using Miro 
Speakers: Shipra Kayan and Tess Dixon
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Summary

Tess has been building design teams with a relentless focus on team culture. Join us for a fast paced Q&A where she will share stories and actual Miro boards that she has used to facilitate team engagement at Condé Nast. We will dig deeper into her re-framing of "team happiness", and what she has learned from her tactics and experiments to cultivate this. If you attended her talk on Wednesday, this is a chance to ask your follow up questions in an intimate setting. This Q&A will be hosted by Shipra Kayan, a design leader at Miro who has over a decade of experience building distributed design teams.

Key Insights

  • Team happiness should not solely be measured by superficial metrics like laughter.

  • Regular sentiment checks, whether through surveys or informal chats, are practical ways to gauge team morale.

  • Small teams can implement simple, organic feedback methods, while larger teams might use tools like OfficeVibe.

  • Conducting virtual retreats can effectively foster team bonding and connection in a remote work environment.

  • Engaging activities in meetings, such as icebreaker games, encourage creativity and personal expression among team members.

  • Creating platforms for anonymous feedback helps ensure that all team members feel comfortable sharing concerns.

  • It's important for leaders to acknowledge issues raised by team members, even if they cannot be resolved immediately.

  • Regularly integrating personal connection time into meetings is vital for maintaining workplace relationships.

  • Encourage team members to lead connection activities to foster a sense of ownership over team culture.

  • Flexibility in how team members engage in activities is essential to accommodate varying comfort levels.

Notable Quotes

"I think we do it and leaders do do it formally, like saying, oh, that was a bad meeting because nobody was laughing."

"Sometimes when someone is sharing something in a meeting, I can have a look of total concern on my face because I'm engrossed in the work they're sharing."

"If you’re a small team, it’s easy to implement regular checks or small surveys."

"We started taking our weekly design all hands meeting and using that precious time for personal connection."

"The personal connection became more and more important as people started to miss that interaction."

"I say that if someone has another idea for connection activities, they should lead that at our next meeting."

"We don’t just get very myopically into our work; we need to connect as people."

"The gesture that you care whether someone feels good about themselves at work is very important."

"It’s okay to be really honest with people about challenges they face in their work."

"Even if you can't fix something immediately, you need to acknowledge it and keep following up."

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