Fika Time!
I recently read a book about hygge and one of its chapters talks about the importance of fika. How both hygge and fika are about making the most of moments of downtime during the day.
While working in NY, my office had a custom to go for a cookie walk at around 3pm every day. It started as a coffee walk but very few in the office wanted to consume caffeine so late in the day. The cafe around the corner had very good chocolate chip cookies and so this ritual was renamed. But sometimes, people didn’t care about a hot drink or the cookies. They just cherished the opportunity to go for a walk around the block, stretch their legs, give their eyes and minds a fresh break from work, and reconnect with their teammates.
Our team in Sweden had a similar ritual called fika. Fika is a Swedish tradition that is more than just a coffee break. It is an integral part of everyday life. It is a designated time during the day to sit down and do fika. In its essence, it is about connecting with colleagues, friends, or loved ones over a coffee (or tea) and a slice of something sweet. Two Swedish authors wrote: “Fika is the time when everything else is put on hold”.
In the workplace, fika is a great way to exchange knowledge and opinions. It can be a time to discuss what's going on in the company. But mainly, it is a time to bond with your colleagues. Practicing fika results in better productivity for the company and better team morale. In Ted Lasso, Ted starts a daily routine he calls biscuits with the boss. We already wrote about why belonging is crucial in team culture and organisational performance. Fika is one thing that can help you consciously grow a better culture. Will you try it?
~ Elle
What's been happening?
RubyConf AU
It is back! RubyConf AU 2023 will be on Feb 16th–17th and not only we are going to be there, Blackmill is also sponsoring Ruby Australia. We are looking forward to reconnecting with the Ruby community in person and learning new things. Hope to see you there!
Community of Practice
Do care about your team and want to help them excel? Do you want to deepen your leadership skills to increase team engagement and performance? Then join our Community of Practice this March. Connect with people who you might not usually collaborate with to explore new possibilities, ideas, and problem solving. Engage in thoughtful dialogues amongst a supportive group of peers that you can learn from and turn to for future challenges and opportunities. Book your spot for March 7th, weekly sessions over five weeks. Let's focus on real everyday problems. Details and tickets are available here https://blackmill.co/do/community-of-practice
Workshops
We are less than four weeks away from our first Leading Engineering Teams workshop for the year! Grow your leadership style and team culture, improve giving feedback, and practice difficult conversations. Become better mentors to help your team perform. Deliver effective one-on-ones to maximise engagement. Find the right balance for speed, quality and technical debt, and learn how to increase productivity, prioritise, and track progress. Starts March 6th! Secure your ticket here https://blackmill.co/workshops/leading-engineering-teams
What are we reading?
- We invested 10% to pay back tech debt; Here's what happened — stopping BAU to work on technical debt doesn't work. This is a story of a team that took a different approach to pay back technical debt.
- The Diminishing Returns of Calendar Culture — Western cultures imagine time as subservient to commerce and productivity. This article talks about monochronic time (time as a commodity, capitalist, productivity-minded schema) vs polychronic time (dynamic, flexible, complicated, multi-tasking). The author challenges the concept that to be productive you need to focus on just one thing. Monochronic thinking devalues the complicated multitasking required by family life. Free time is sometimes considered available to be colonised rather than having tolerance and space for creativity, imagination, and spontaneity. Having space to be bored or feel our emotions. "Through the commitment to busyness and its organization, we inscribe and reinscribe a certain understanding of time onto our children, onto each other, onto ourselves."
- The Universal Rules of Civilized Discourse — this title is a play on words but considering they reviewed so many online community forums, there are a few things we can
steallearn from them. If you're looking for community guidelines, this is a good place to start. - The Power of Career Growth Frameworks — What is a career growth framework , why should you use one? and how to get started
- Why everyone feels like they're faking it — impostor syndrome origin story as well as debunking the idea. Clance and Imes argued that impostor feelings come from a conviction that “I have to mask who I am". The pair theorised about family dynamics and a gap in messages that contribute to self doubting mainly in white women. Landry flips the perspective to consider that something is wrong with the system and gender bias and systemic racism, rather than the individual themselves. And that capitalism needs us to continually improve ourselves for the sake of progress (Harkins-Cross). Elle recently wrote about impostor syndrome in the past, and wishes she had read this article before she wrote hers.
A cuppa with Sebastian von Conrad
1. What do you do? And what do you like about your work?
I work at Blackmill! If you’re reading this, you probably know about us already, but just in case: we are a small consulting company that helps engineering organisations and leaders level up. There’s a lot of variety in my day-to-day—I get to work with our clients and also behind the scenes, on the business itself—but my favourite part is when I get to work one-on-one with other engineering leaders. I’ve always loved coaching and mentoring, and I’m so stoked that I get to do it as a key part of my job.
2. What aspect of your work do you find most challenging?
I work part time, so I’m constantly trying to find a balance between feeling like I have impact while also not working more than I should. This pressure is all self-inflicted—I have always had high expectations for myself and been my own worst critic. I have to constantly be kind to myself and remember that I am enough, and I do enough.
3. What are you passionate about?
So many things! In a work context, one of my key focuses is decision making. I get peeved when I see leaders make decisions without sufficient context, but at the same time I’m also easily frustrated when they get stuck in analysis paralysis. How do you know you have enough information to make the call? When is the right time? I’m also increasingly attentive of how I—and others—reflect on past decisions, and learn from them. I don’t think I can ever get enough of thinking and talking about making decisions. I believe I can always get better at it, too.
4. What are recent accomplishments you are happy with?
Joining Blackmill! I had been trying to figure out what I wanted to do next for a little while, with a fair amount of indecision and procrastination mixed in. But when the opportunity presented itself to join Blackmill, I jumped on it. I’m really proud of how I committed to it right away. My everyday life is better in so many ways because I took this step.
5. What is one mistake that you will never make again?
I have made a ton of mistakes in my life, and I’m not so arrogant as to think I won’t ever repeat any of them again. But one mistake in particular that I don’t want to make again is succumbing to peer pressure, where I compromise my own integrity or sense of morals to feel liked and validated, or to be part of a clique. While I can’t guarantee it won’t happen again, I’m trying my hardest not to fall into this particular trap.
6. How do you manage stress?
I have gotten a lot better at recognising how I’m feeling in the moment—am I stressed, anxious, annoyed, frustrated, or angry?—as well as what it is that’s triggering the negative feelings and intrusive thoughts. Having this insight is really important to me because it allows me to treat the cause rather than the symptoms and understand what I might need in the specific situation.
After many years in high-pressure roles, I have lots of individual coping mechanisms. One of my go-tos has always been and remains music. If I need to amp myself up, or calm myself down, well, I have a playlist for either. If I need to focus, I put on a soundtrack. If I need a bit of distance or perspective, I go for a walk and blast tunes in my headphones.
7. What is the best advice you can give?
It costs you very little—if anything at all—to be kind. To yourself and to others.
8. What one thing would you change about our society?
The aforementioned advice about kindness stands out—I wish society in general was kinder, gentler, less cynical, more inclined to assume positive intent, and willing to give others the benefit of the doubt.
9. What are your goals or aspirations for this year?
I spent most of 2022 taking an extended break from work, so this year my focus is to regain engagement, habits, and routines. I want to take meaningful steps towards my longer term goals, but without losing the calm and perspective I was afforded by my time off.
What are we cooking?
Stuffed Mushrooms
This is a recipe from a friend, which is great for summer BBQs
Ingredients
- About 900g mushrooms, can use any kind, I typically use the large white mushrooms.
- 2 bunches of scallions (green onions)
- 1 clove garlic
- Large block blue cheese or gorgonzola
- Bread crumbs (~ ¼–½ cup)
- Butter or olive oil
Instructions
- Chop scallions and crush garlic into a skillet.
- Sauté on medium heat with butter or olive oil until scallions are golden. Turn off heat.
- Chop up the cheese and stir into garlic/onion mixture. Add enough bread crumbs to soak up oil and hold mixture together.
- Remove stems from mushrooms without breaking mushroom cap. Stuff caps with cheese/bread crumb mixture. Stems can be marinated in Italian dressing and grilled separately.
- Grill mushrooms until mushroom cap is soft and juicy.
And we’re out
Thank you for showing an interest in our newsletter and we hope that you enjoyed the read. Feel free to contact us if you have any feedback, a burning question, or just a recipe that you would like to share.
Until next time, keep learning!
Everyone at Blackmill