Our Story
How Neelix.IO began
WHAT IS OUR JOURNEY?
Neelix.IO story since 2016
The Environment
Overview of context and the environment within which the challenge was identified.
The Untapped Potential
The intrinsic and universal value proposition that appeared to be untapped.
The Trigger and Real Experience
The catalyst event that started Neelix.IO platform. The back to basics experience and approach.
The Environment
The world has been getting exponentially more complex.
Organizations that find complexity challenging choose what short-term constraints allow rather than what is needed for the maximized value. Companies are showered in surveys, external consultancy offerings and proprietary solutions.
The toolkit for slicing challenges became something of a chainsaw - mechanical and highly repeatable process design. It can be a sharp tool but is limited in what it can cut, causes collateral damage, creates noise, and demands considerable effort.
Everyone’s lives have became more complex as a result of inefficiencies caused by "chainsaw" workplace methods. Associated decision-making started turning difficult problems into
wicked
ones.
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More about complexity
Impact on peopleOrganizations that struggle with complexity often turn to external knowledge sources for help or simply try to copy someone else's method.
The complexity of the environment has been multiplied through another factor - good principles-based approaches being turned into linear rules that may do more harm than the good intended by underlying principles.
Examples:
- Scientific method being ritualised and lost through the fog of business agile methodologies - this is not the critique of the manifesto or the agile principles
- Critical thinking being replaced by "Best Practice" and copyrighted advice
- Psychological safety foundations may face same fate as other principles if the only way to can it popularised is through externallised consultancy industry
The Untapped Potential
Humans need to reimagine "what" we do. The "how" is quickly running away with accelerating technological advancements. Traditional industrialised approaches cannot give us what we desire, and can make us irrelevant.
The untapped potential is awaiting us deep within the proposition of going back to basics. We need to rediscover fundamental approaches:
- similar to how water can be used to cut harder materials than a chainsaw ever could
- similar to how something new is a well-forgotten something from the past
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The power of simpler approaches
Businesses employ too many methods that are ritualised, costly and boring. There is a huge potential for improving the environment and performance via:
- simpler approach to reality checking and keeping ourselves honest
- simpler approach to triggering conversations
- simpler approach to alignment
Simpler does not necessarily mean less sophisticated. Some may think they lack knowledge and education, but in reality the missing element may be discipline. Higher performance is achived by doing less and better.
A single well-polished and disciplined technique is more powerful than a dozen of impulsive habits.
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What people want from workplace
What people universally desire from a workplace:
- being free from "busy work"
- having enough time to do truly interesting things
- being heard and valued
- work not cannibalising other aspects of life
People want lives to be simpler and more fulfilling. This can be achieved by going back to basics and embracing simpler approaches.
The Trigger
Specific experience in founder's past leadership experience triggered him into systemising a "back to basics" approach used for boosting team performance.
A system of self-awareness was coached and orchestrated by the founder to help the team realign, mature and smash its targets. That approach became the underlying model of Neelix.IO platform.
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Experience details
Whilst taking up a new position, the founder discovered that the established team's performance and behaviour were affected by deeply held tribal opinions and trauma caused by the environment of policitcs - every single person complained behind each other back within a week to the "new manager"
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Motivations behind the approach
- The founder did not want to be a traditional manager who is busy issuing instructions, solving problems for others, and mediating preventable issues
- The founder felt that each person in the team was a good person, but lacked a network or support and an ecosystem within which critical thinking could thrive
- The founder wanted an authentic way of reaching out directly to the root of feelings and motivations
- While peer-to-peer is the nirvana of constructive feedback, the system should not depend purely on how good a manager may be at being a servant leader - additional systemic integrity was needed: everyone (especially managers) must develop listening skills
via a system of reflective dialogue; Same reflections, if contextual, can help improve decisions and performance
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More about the solution
The solution was to create a data lake of contextual and measurable experiences - this was used for realignment and re-awakenig of collective intelligence.
Solution:
- The founder invested efforts into taking the team through a journey of joint conversations that focused on unadulterated reflections, appreciation of perspective and the growth mindset
- The objective was to awaken the realisation that highlighted problems were not caused by an evil someone; Instead everyone in the team (and other teams as well) were impacted by systemic issues
- The approach was psychologically safe; The focus was on contextual sharing of experiences with the view to obtain appreciation and actionable data points
Outcomes:
- Team moved away from a culture of escalation within six months
- Team meant its aggressive performance goals for the year by working better internally, and working better with others
Our Achievements
Neelix.IO team have been hard at work at testing various mechanisms for facilitating organizational self-awareness.
Our achievements:
- Architected from ground up for security and scalability
- Perfected data-driven approach to capturing experiences via three philosophical iterations
- We learned how to maximise the value of data-points relayed by employee in their own words via real-time analytics and the Ai assistant
- Built integrations with Slack, Microsoft Teams, Github Actions, and are continuing integration work
- Published REST API for extensibility
- Built tools to complement the core capability - assessments, gamification, snap health checks, retrospective conversations
We are committed to innovating, improving our product and having fun in the process. We use Neelix.IO for internal self-awareness and continuous improvement.
Why Neelix Name
Star Trek franchise can be viewed as something bigger than simply a sci fi series:
- It offers plenty if insights into what it means to be an evolved species that can co-exit in a diverse universe
- There are a lot of reflections on the dynamics of strong and high-performance teams
Neelix is a character who serves as a cook, morale officer, and eventual ambassador for the crew. In the fan community, Neelix is sometimes underestimated and even disliked by few due to his quirkiness and simpleton traits. However, this is exactly what enabled him to do the job of Chief Morale Officer better than anyone else could. He is a natural Court Jester who leverages dialogue and reflective thinking for triggering conversations.
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Why Neelix could make a difference
The ultimate importance of Neelix as a character:
- his imperfections, soft power and storytelling inclination are authentic - he has flaws, but shows how it is possible to evolve
- his flaws are a form of honesty - they are a mirror / reminder to others around him that a perfectionist sitting on a high horse can be more removed from reality than those who are honest about their flaws
- he helps others grow through democratised awareness that everyone (even the captain) can be fallible
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Neelix.IO Platform traits
Neelix.IO platform gives an avenue to the voice of employees and elevates it to the roles of:
- Chief Morale Officer
- Chief Court Jester
- Chief Reality Reflection Officer
Our approach is about going back to basics by reducing reliance on traditional discrete surveys.
Each organization's culture pot is unique. Management of culture is akin to cooking - you need to stir it and taste it without bias. Neelix.IO Live Pulse Model is a much simpler and a much more impactful method than any other approaches.
Our Social Value Vision
Neelix.IO approach is about empowering safe and systemic honesty without the restraining factors of perfectionism.
Reflective thinking assisted by these traits can make the world a better place. We can reduce noise by going back to basics and reawakening critical thinking.
To remain relevant in the context of the technological revolution, humanity needs to learn to build bridges between perspectives. The challenge is presented by light pollution that hides the stars. Without visible stars, we unlearned to dream and question ourselves. We offer a fundamental approach to eliminate smog.
Interested in our services? We’re here to help!
We want to learn about your experience and perspective. Let's discuss how Neelix.IO can help.