Introduction

Hello everyone! This is Mori from the Global Development Division and the Tech Blog Operations Team.
KINTO Technologies currently has bases in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka, as well as two offices in Tokyo: at Muromachi (Nihonbashi) and Jinbocho. The Global Development Division, which I belong to, sits at the Jinbocho Office.
In this article, I'll cover the information sharing meetings held twice at the Jinbocho Office, also known as Jinbocho ISM (Information Sharing Meeting).
*On a side note, some members thought it was read as "Jinbochoism," which I thought was a nice way to capture our unique Jinbocho style.

Background

It has been a year since the Jinbocho Office opened in June 2022, and the number of groups and new employees has increased to a whopping 100. However, we still often hear comments like, "I have no idea what other teams or groups are working on," or "I don't really know who's working here." With that in mind, we thought, "Why not host an information-sharing meeting at the Jinbocho office, like the ones held at the Osaka Tech Lab?" Driven by this idea, the Tech Blog Operations Team led by team members from the Jinbocho Office, dove right in and planned the event with full enthusiasm!

The 1st Jinbocho ISM

Held on June 23, 2023! For the first meeting, we decided to start small! So, we kept it to 30 minutes and designed a simple agenda as shown below.

• Opening (5 min)
• Ask me anything* (20 min)
• Closing: Survey (5 min)

What is an Ask Me Anything?

An Ask Me Anything, commonly abbreviated as AMA, is a format where a host or guest invites people to ask them any questions, often starting with 'I'm ○○, feel free to ask me anything.' It is a format that allows people to ask anything to particular hosts or guests, mainly on social media. Popular on social media, AMA sessions allow participants to ask anything—from professional background and current work to personal topics. You can find plenty of examples of AMA sessions online, so feel free to explore 😄

Reference: What is AMA? Understanding the Basics of Ask Me Anything

Since an AMA was included in the plan, we started by selecting people to answer the questions. For the first meeting, we invited the Group Manager of the Global Development Division. However, with only one available day, we had to prepare, communicate, and hold the meeting within about two weeks. Despite the short preparation time, around 30 people participated, and we received positive feedback from them. Here are some of their comments:

• I really appreciated having a space to hear from people I don’t usually get to talk to, learning about their backgrounds, hobbies, and other topics beyond work.
• It was very interesting to hear about the early days of KINTO, especially since there are few remaining documents about that time. I'd like to hear more stories from different team members.

[1st post-event survey] would you like to participate again next time?

On the other hand, since AMAs mainly involve asking questions and listening to one person, they can lack a sense of full participation for everyone. We held a retrospective to discuss how we could create a more lively and engaging atmosphere as the next challenge for the operations team.
As for how we approached the retrospective and planned the next meeting, we employed various methods, but I'll save those details for another time.

The 1st meeting photo

The 2nd Jinbocho ISM

The 2nd Jinbocho ISM, planned as such, was held on August 25, 2023, with an extended duration of one hour. The agenda was as follows:

• Opening (5 min)
• Talk with Neighbors (25 min) 🆕❗
• Ask Me Anything (25 min)
• Closing (5 min)
  The AMA was so well-received that we decided to keep the format and invite Kamei-san from the Woven Payment Solution Development Group as the guest speaker.
  To encourage more lively participation from everyone, the operations team introduced a section called Talk with Neighbors. We gave the title in English to make it sound cool, but it's simply a segment where participants are divided into teams of 4-5 people for a casual conversation.
  Since free talk with people meeting for the first time can benefit from some ice-breaker topics, we adopted a dice (a.k.a. Korosuke) to provide prompts.
  Dice? Free talk? Yes, I was referencing a popular Japanese program, likely familiar to those who grew up during the Heisei era lol
  During the planning process, I was concerned about whether the teams would be able to start conversing easily after being divided in teams. However, I was impressed by how naturally the teams began to talk, making my worries unnecessary. When people ran out of topics to discuss, they rolled the dice and talked about a new theme✨
  *Divided into teams, full of lively chatter. Do you see that? *
  The AMA was held in the second half hour. More people asked questions than in the previous meeting, partly because the Woven Payment Solution Development Group usually works away from KINTO. Some people said, "I wanted to hear more!"but as time is limited during the information-sharing meeting, we hope this gave more people the opportunity to interact with other teams outside of this session✨

[2nd post-event survey] would you like to participate again next time?

Around 30 members participated in this next session, roughly the same number as the previous one and we received positive feedback such as: "It was good to be able to talk to people across divisions," "It was a great opportunity to get to know people who work in the same office," "I was able to interact with colleagues I don't usually interact with, and I look forward to the next one!"The number of people saying, "I'd like to participate again next time" exceeded that of the previous meeting.✨

Conclusion

The Jinbocho ISM has been held twice so far, and overall, it has become clear that everyone values opportunities for cross-team interaction. While at first glance, these gatherings might seem unrelated to work, it can spark ideas like, "I know this person knows a lot about this, maybe I can ask for advice," which can ultimately benefit your work.
Although we've only had two sessions so far and there is still room for improvement, we plan to continue holding them regularly to deepen interactions among members and energize the entire Jinbocho Office.