Lessons learned from my fellowship (part 3)
A fellow adds diversity to the receiving team. The fellow also opens his network and adds his web of connections to the receiving team. Thus, multiplying the potential to open doors e.g. for co-innovation with customers. This contributes to “across-team diversity” as described in this insightful article “Maximising innovation with diversity” by INSEAD. Hence, lessons learned #6: Fellowships are a vehicle for innovation.
I had attended to virtual presentations, had led virtual teams, or had facilitated virtual meetings for more than half of my work time before I started my fellowship. I didn’t expect to experience the change of physical set-up so drastically: my receiving team was nearly completely based in one location and had revamped its office rooms into one physical flexible “design thinking” space. Lessons learned #7: The intensity of interactions, the quality of discussions, and the time-to-outcomes is way better if you work together in one physical flexible space. There is a lot of evidence for this lessons learned as e.g. Jacob Morgan describes in the article “How The Physical Workspace Impacts The Employee Experience“.
