Sorry we missed you...

We hope you can make the next one!

“Work Friends–Good or Bad?” was an excellent start to our three-part “How to Solve for wh(Y)” event series.

We’re sharing a quick recap here, including the event recording, captures from the event, and links to our next event. Feel free to share this with your work friends (and non-friends) and continue the conversation!

View the recording of the event

Speaker Panel

We heard from our two panelists and discussed the benefits of friendships in the workplace. Some key themes of the conversation included enjoying work - and the people you work with, but also finding balance with workplace relationships to avoid potential pitfalls. The panelists also discussed transformation and the process of creating growth and evolution both as an individual and within an organization.

Connect with the speakers on LinkedIn

Deb Mashek, Ph.D. - Author & Founder, Myco Consulting LLC

Nina Bianchi - Principal, Healthcare + Public Sector, Medallia

Quotes from the speakers:

"The relationship between feeling close and connected, and being able to take those risks... we all say we're supposed to be able to fail fast, and if we're not failing we're not learning, but the truth is in a lot of social settings that's incredibly difficult to do, and perhaps the closeness and that trust that comes with it enables that"

- Deb Mashek

"High quality relationships at work inspire trust, collaboration, motivation, and high quality work outcomes"

- Nina Bianchi

Warm-Up

We began the day with a quick warm-up activity, asking attendees to place icons on sliding scales depending on how they felt about the prompts.

Working Group Captures

Next, we broke into smaller groups to list out the pros and cons of having work friends. Attendees split into breakout rooms to discuss and have conversations, then everyone came together to share and discuss each group's findings.

Click here to see the full MURAL board of our findings.

In the end, each group came to the same conclusion; that it is positive and beneficial to have friends at work.

Quotes from participants:

“It’s unrealistic to say ‘don't have friends in the workplace’... instead the question is ‘how do we manage them?’”

- Hannah Berson

“We thought about things that I’ve never thought about before, we had discussions that I’ve never had before, and I formed opinions that I’ve never considered before. It was amazing.”

- Natalie Born

Looking Ahead

The second part of our virtual event series, "Are Machines the Future of Creativity?", dives into the world of artificial intelligence, and how to balance human and technological creativity to achieve the power of imagination.

Learn more at workforward.co/work-is-human/

As always, join our Slack community to continue the conversation, and follow us on LinkedIn to keep up to date with the latest Work Forward news and updates.