My Squared Adventure Begins

From the beginning...



Squared branded space in the Google offices, Victoria

So... I've decided that since I'm going to be away for some time, I think it's really important that I keep you updated on what I'm doing on the Squared programme! This is a huge post because it's a weeks worth of work but going forward I will update this blog regularly with all things Squared....

Last week was Foundation Week (Module 1). No one really knew what to expect during this week as we were given hardly any information about what was coming our way (to be honest, they are being very secretive about the whole programme, only revealing snippets of information when necessary).

Over 80 graduates have been enrolled on the Squared programme from a variety of agencies from different disciplines (some are from digital teams, some comms planners/buyers). At the introduction on the Friday afternoon before the Foundation Week, we were split into groups with approx 20 people in each group whom we were to work with during the Foundation Week. Our team is teamabba!! I'm on the far right :)

Foundation Week was very interesting (and very surreal). It involved intense team building activities in order to really get to know each and every team member. We were taught how effective teams functioned/how to create effective teams/the integrative model of group development, understanding others' morals (static) and attitudes (elastic), how to give and receive feedback (and were given time to practise this), we were introduced to models of learning processes (e.g. the learning spiral) and a model called the Johari Window (Luft and Ingham) which can be used to clarify different aspects of human relations and communication. This last model looks at an individuals' 'social arena' (how much of themselves they reveal to others and how much remains hidden).
The overriding theme of the week was about reflection. We spent a huge amount of time looking back and reflecting on team activities; what happened, our role in the team (active/passive?), group dynamics etc. Whilst some found this really hard, I found this relatively easy to do since my dissertation in final year was a reflective practitioner project. If I'm honest, I couldn't believe we were still reflecting and team building on Day 5 but I now see that the idea was to fully prepare us for the group tasks ahead.
During the week we also had some speakers come in to present to us. Mark Comerford (@markmedia who spoke predominantly about change), Ade Oshineye (a Google+ specialist) and Miche Ahlstorm (who has started numerous digital businesses).
Mark was extremely opinionated and spoke very dramatically about change 'Change is disruptive. Disruption is friction. Friction is painful. Change will hurt.' He proposed the notion that 'now is the slowest change pace you will ever experience' and that the mobile phones we have in our hands today are the 'worst piece of technology that we will ever own'. Some quite thought provoking words......
Ade Oshineye talked about the history of the internet, when and how search engines were created and talked a bit about Google+. Finally Miche Ahlstorm talked about the future of the internet; by 2020 the internet will have doubled itself in size 44 times! He reassured us that filters and personalisation will prevent us from drowning in the internet e.g. content that you do not want to see online, you will not see.
Miche talked about how many new start ups are just taken from other ideas, even a convergence of platforms and he got us thinking about digital opportunities. What stuck in my mind was his question about what business should have started flickr (obviously Kodak, but clearly they missed the boat!). We then had to come up with ideas of how we could merge various platforms together to make a business idea (a 'mash up' task). An interesting idea was:

Match.com + ASOS + blogs + Top Table = dateaid.com

Jumping back to the Introduction on the Friday before the Foundation Week, we had talks from Mark Howe (Manager of Agency Operations for Google North & Central Europe) and Matt Brittin (Vice President of Google North & Central Europe). They talked about the ever changing world of media, 'old media' and told us about a meeting they had been to back in the day when only 40 websites existed worldwide! It was really interesting to hear from these guys and their enthusiasm for the Squared programme was really inspiring, although it was probably a bit ambitious when Matt Brittin announced that his aim for us was to 'save the UK economy'!

 

The Squared programme objective (on the wall in the Squared branded lecture room)

 

I'm sorry for such a long post... to lighten the mood, here are a few pictures of the food I've had so far (yummmmmy!!)...

 

 

Tapas

 

Sushi

 



Tapas Again



 

Please let me know if this is helpful - there is so much more I could include but obviously you guys are busy so I'll try to keep to the essentials. Any suggestions for improvements/anything else you want to know please let me know.

 

Until next time....

Thanks x