Today’s guest author is Nick Hartshorn, Business Development Manager at AVI-SPL Middle East. Nick has a passion for connecting people and experiential technology to create dynamic, impactful, and productive work and life experiences.
The following article comes from Nick’s personal LinkedIn page. He has agreed to let us share his perspectives.
For a long time, I’ve been a fan of Simon Sinek and his ever famous ‘Start with why’ TED talk. If you haven’t watched it, this is your cue. Stop reading this and watch it now. Another podcast I enjoy is High Performance Podcast by Jake Humphrey and Damian Hughes. The show delves into the lives of the world’s highest performers, shedding light on the tools they’ve sharpened to live a high performing life. So, when I discovered that Simon had been interviewed by Jake and Damian on The High-Performance Podcast, I was all ears. While listening to Simon talk through the ideas behind starting with why, I couldn’t help but draw parallels with experiential technology.
Jake always begins the podcast by asking his guests, “What does high performance mean to you?”
In Simon’s first few words to Jake, he state’s high performance to him is more of a feeling than a calculation. A feeling of fun. And that this feeling exists when the thing that you’re enjoying, and productivity collide. Enjoyment and productivity colliding, I love it! The phrase really resonated with me. If we could replicate that environment throughout all of our activities, imagine the efficiency and zest for life that would come about as a result.
The essence of “Start with why” is about people engaging with what you believe in. Leading with feeling rather than rationale.
As Simon puts it, “Everyone knows what we do, some of us know how we do it. But very few of us can articulate why we do what we do.” Simon explains the rewards of being able to lead a life orientated around why we do what we do are far greater than letting “what” or “how” lead our actions.
It got me thinking about how many technologies out there jump straight to the notion of leading with why. Take going on holiday, for example. The why is easy: to enjoy ourselves and step away from work, to connect with our stress-free selves and hear the ding of happy hour instead of the ding of Slack or Teams messages.
DeCurtis Corporation is a great technology that has embraced the “why” philosophy. Admin and logistics are tasks associated with work – not holidays. So, the technology gets straight to the why and eliminates the tedious admin-related tasks that have previously been seen as a pre-cursor to holidaying. The technology enables a smooth hassle-free experience, creating an environment that is less work, more holiday.
The platform allows for contactless check-in before you’ve even left home. And goes even further allowing you to have your favourite food and drink brought to you without having to browse a menu or worry about allergies because the technology already knows your preferences. It helps you way-find, book activities.. as well as loads of other savvy experience enhancing features.
It seems recently, there are technologies everywhere enabling this collision of enjoyment and productivity. Appspace is another one that comes to mind. The workplace experience platform is a Microsoft Teams native app that takes care of time-consuming daily tasks like, reserving and then finding meeting rooms, or locating fellow employees, activities that sap enjoyment from your day. Appspace streamlines it all.
Experiential technology’s success lies in creating an environment where fun and efficiency coexist. Whether that’s sipping a margarita made with just the right amount of lime every time, without you having to say a word. Or, walking into your pre-booked meeting room at the office with everything you need at your fingertips—fun and productivity should seamlessly blend. Of course, the underpinning of all this is the rational stuff—the lines of code, reliable technology, and solid integration. All of which need to be there for the solution to work. But when technology is presented in a user-friendly manner, putting the ‘why’ first, that’s when it becomes something special.
What’s genuinely exciting about all of this is that we are right at the beginning of this era of technology. And the possibilities of what’s to come and the frequency we will be able to find ourselves in this high-performance zone of both fun and efficiency co-existing are multiplying daily.
If you are planning to bring fun and excitement to your project or workplace experience with new experiential technologies, I would love to talk with you about your “why”. Together, we can discover how AVI-SPL Middle East could help you reach your high-performance zone.
If you would like to chat, connect with me on LinkedIn. Or reach out to me at nick.hartshorn@avispl.com.
