Thoughts on the Collective Awesome

A couple of months ago Click moved to a gorgeous, newly renovated building at 9 ½ Market St. in Northampton. Like a plant in a tiny pot, we were limited in our old space and just couldn’t grow our membership or in our mission to engage with the community through entrepreneurship education and cultural opportunities.

In our old space we could all see one another and it was almost impossible not to say hi. Now we’re spread out across multiple floors and our membership has nearly doubled. How can we ensure that we scale the positive energy as our membership grows?

Sociologists tell us that community has a rather broad definition. It’s a group of people in a common space (physical or virtual) with shared interests and values. We’ve got that! The real question now is how to maintain and even accelerate the strong sense of community here at Click.

How to Expand the Collective Awesome

• Affirm the sense of shared need - We’ve said all along that Click is a network of talented colleagues and friends. Click members are fantastic as individuals. They’re talented, engaged in their work, and diverse in every way. We’re a great mix of developers, designers, writers, programmers, activists, and more. But as varied as our interests and experiences are, everyone at Click values the workspace and how it affects their productivity. We get things done around here and we’re all here because we want to be.
• Create opportunities for organized and organic intersections – When people from backgrounds, different professions, and experience levels intersect, good things happen. We encourage members to say hi, engage in conversation from time to time, share a bit about themselves and speak up if something’s not working. Whether it’s a casual introduction or a formal presentation, at Click there are regular opportunities to get to know one another both as professionals and as citizens of the world.
• Be part of something bigger – Work is important, but our members appreciate that Click is also supporting engagement with other communities too. We participate in a regional network of entrepreneurship, innovation, creative, and cultural organizations, support local businesses, and the arts in our space.
• Share the collective awesomeness – We like to let the world know that good stuff is happening here. We open our doors to the community and regularly promote member success stories.
• Keep at it, but be patient - People are busy. That’s why they’re here. You can’t force growth, but with the right mix of attention to individuals and opportunities, community will grow and thrive.

Open House Party!

Hey friends, we're having a party!

Click Workspace is super excited to open our doors to the community and let everyone know how great it is around here so we're having an Open House party on Friday May 13th!  Join us from 5-8pm here at 9 1/2 Market Street for tours of the space, live jazz music from the O-Tones, food, wine, and beer from Brewmaster Jack. We'll also have a special delivery of treats from Hot Oven Cookies!

It's also Northampton Arts Night Out so we'll be showing beautiful work from some amazing artists throughout our space.

More info on our Facebook event page. We hope you'll join us! 

Why Coworking & Why Click?

Wikipedia defines coworking as “...a style of work that involves a shared working environment, often an office, and independent activity. Typically it is attractive to work-at-home professionals, independent contractors, or people who travel frequently who end up working in relative isolation. Coworking is also the social gathering of a group of people who are still working independently, but who share values, and who are interested in the synergy that can happen from working with people who value working in the same place alongside each other."

It's that gathering of people that we value the most at Click. Even as we expand into a fantastic, newly renovated building, it's the 35 (and growing) creative members (founders, freelancers, and remote workers) who work here who make the space so special.

Consider Meghan and Brian Fitzgerald, the super smart, dedicated cofounders of Tinkergarten, a company that brings outdoor education and play to young children. Brian brings the tech know-how and Meghan, a former educator, brings the teaching excellence. And, as parents of three young children, they both know a lot about what makes preschoolers tick. Together, as Tinkergarten they develop the fun and engaging curriculum and train and support instructors around the country through an online network. What started as a simple class project in a Brooklyn park has grown into a healthy startup company. In fact, they recently celebrated the addition of their 100th program leader and, notably, $1.6 million in seed funding led by Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm from Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay Inc.

Today they have employees in Brooklyn and six team members working here at Click. Brian said, "We actually extended our commute and brought our company into Click. It's simple—the community is comprised of terrific people we enjoy being with when we come to work."

Another Click member, Sarah Williams agrees. Sarah is the cofounder of Element Athletics. She facilitates the college recruiting process for field hockey players, runs training clinics, and manages a regional field hockey league. She says, "As a local entrepreneur what I like most about Click is the connections you make with others who work there and the energy around entrepreneurship." Sarah tried working from home, but didn't feel productive. At Click, she finds the balance of friendship and the professional environment she needs to get work done.

Josh Levy is the Advocacy Director for Access Now, a organization that advocates for digital rights. Working remotely allows him to live in the community he wants while engaging with work that he loves. Josh says, "I work for a global organization spread out across nearly 10 countries, and most of my relationships are mediated through a computer screen. Working at Click is a live saver - it's a full-blooded community of inspiring entrepreneurs, writers, and activists with whom I can share ideas, blow off steam, and take a walk when the going gets tough. I don't know what I'd do without it."

As diverse as these individuals and their workday efforts are, just about everyone at Click is juggling the same set of issues - how to manage technology, time, budgets, communications, team members, and clients. And everyone hopes to find that perfect work-life balance. We provide the great work space, and we offer a series of member and community events to support professional development and networking opportunities, but it's the daily intersections of our talented members that really makes the Click community thrive.

Take a tour of our new space

Have you heard about our move in early 2016 to 9.5 Market Street in Northampton? We're super excited to announce that we are now GIVING TOURS and RESERVING DESKS! 

Drop in for a tour of the future Click Workspace at 9.5 Market Street at 4:00pm on any of these dates (no appointment necessary):

Thursday November 19 & Friday November 20
Thursday December 3 & Friday December 4
Thursday December 17 & Friday December 18

We're thrilled by the community interest and are happy to say that there are lots of open space memberships available and that office spaces are filling up fast! 

Whether you're a freelancer or remote worker; small business or entrepreneur; a developer, designer, or writer... our coworking space has space for you.

Want to learn more about coworking at Click and joining our growing network? Drop in for a tour on one of our upcoming dates!  If these times don't work for you, that's ok, we can find another time. Just contact us via our website to schedule.

Getting the Job Done

At Click we provide a workspace that allows our members to drop in, find a seat, and get to work. On any given day we’ll see the desks full of people tapping away on their laptops, our meeting rooms full of networking colleagues, and offices buzzing with coworkers on conference calls. Working in a shared office boosts productivity because everyone who works here has chosen this as their 9 to 5 home (or 10 to 3, as it may be) and because there’s an expectation that this is a professional space.  Schedule that meeting, put your headphones on (if that's what you like), and Get Things Done.

But Click is also a community and that comes with its own share of opportunities for professional learning and collaboration… or distraction, depending on the situation. At Click we offer a brown bag lunch series for members every other week that we call “The Chew”. You can frequently find coworkers chatting in the open work space, and there’s always the lure of the coffee machine.

According to an infographic by onlinecoursereport.com a typical worker is interrupted every 3 minutes and it can take up to 23 minutes to return to the original task.  So in any given hour, you can expect only about 6 minutes to be spent doing what you came to do.  Sometimes those interruptions are part of the job – a colleague needs a question answered, an important email requires attention. But sometimes being interrupted keeps you from tackling the big ideas that are so vital to the work.

In a recent post, The Crew’s blogger Jory Mackay points to the conflict between being a “maker” and a “manager” as one of the primary struggles of today’s freelance worker and entrepreneur.  It’s the creating that is the reason for being, but if the bills aren’t paid, then things fall apart. Most people have an affinity for either the big picture thinking or tackling the details, but many of us are called to act in both spheres.  There’s a need to find a balance between these important aspects of work. So how to do it?

Strategies for managing your workflow:

• Actively structure your schedule - 

Block time for creating and planning and train yourself to respect it. Turn off your phone, silence your Slack notifications, let your colleagues know what’s up. Even a couple of hours a day set aside for big picture thinking can be productive. Also consider setting aside time to tackle administrative tasks together instead of bit by bit.

• Plan your breaks - 

It turns out that taking a break can boost productivity too. Onlinecoursereport.com says, “Scheduled, disciplined breaks are different – and much more productive – than unscheduled interruptions and distractions.”  Breaks help us to retain information and generate new ideas, among other things. Still don’t believe it? Click here.

• Cancel your meetings - 

“Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.” - Dr. John Kenneth Gilbraith 70% of employees say meetings don’t help them complete work and 45% of senior execs agree their employees would be more productive without meetings. If it’s not vital to getting work done, consider an alternative way to communicate. If it is critical, can you cut the time in half?

• Don’t multi task –

Stick to one activity at a time and you’ll reduce errors and distractions. According to the American Psychological Association, switching between tasks can reduce productivity by up to 40%. “Although switch costs may be relatively small, sometimes just a few tenths of a second per switch, they can add up to large amounts when people switch repeatedly back and forth between tasks. Thus, multitasking may seem efficient on the surface but may actually take more time in the end and involve more error.”

• Choose your workspace –

Do you prefer a standing desk and plants in your space? Productivity increases where there are choices in your work environment, access to natural elements, and personal effects.

• Know thyself –

Knowing your own energy patterns is indispensable. Mackay notes, “Willpower and decision making are limited resources. So if your natural energy flow is to be more alert in the morning, using up that time to answer emails, have basic meetings, and do other less intensive tasks is a waste.”