We did some values brainstorming yesterday at work - thinking about what's important for our company to move forward, and how we're actually doing in the things that we claim are our values now.
I loved it.
First of all, I am all over any kind of strategic, high-level, conceptual discussion like this... something that centers around the "why". I'm not sure how valued our input will be, but I love to give it.
But it was fun to make it work, too. Our regional manager introduced the workshop, which had a series of exercises and discussions designed to elicit the feedback from the group members. Then she said she'd leave it to us to organize ourselves and get it done. I was pretty curious to see what would happen... you get enough consultants in a room and things are bound to get interesting.
Now I'm not a guy who pushes my way into a leadership role, but I'm pretty happy to take it when it seems right. And this was a perfect fit for me... to keep the discussions on track, to clarify the points for people who had some trouble with the language (very few of my colleagues are native English-speakers, but the workshop and exercises were all in English), to manage the time, and to challenge the participants to get the best responses we could. Well, it wasn't long until I found myself taking it on... and I had a great time. It was cool, too, to have my colleagues thanking me after for making it work, for helping them to do something to the best of their abilities. I love that.
It's days like that that make me want to keep going back to work. I mean, there's also the fact that they keep putting money into my bank account on the 25th of the month. But days like this really help.
Cool.
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That kind of work is a ball... I love that too. Must be the ENFJ thing.
Darryl, I wish I got as excited by this stuff as you (sigh).
I'm the one sitting at the back with the resigned 'this is a complete waste of my time but, given the chance, I'd love to be the management consultant getting paid for running this bludge-fest' kind of look, doing the bare minimum level of participation required, and thinking far more about how good the included lunch is going to be than strategy, values, vision, etc.
And now that I work for a small company where these workshop things don't happen I don't miss them at all.
But, actually, the more I think about it, it's not the workshops themselves that have given me this opinion. It's the managers who enthusiastically set it up, encourage 'honest and open' feedback and then get excited about all those new ideas written on sheets of butcher's paper by the end of the day.
And then, after all that, you know what happens? Bugger all. Sweet diddly squat. The day and everything that was discussed during it is forgotten quicker than last season's #1 draft pick.
And then, perhaps a year later, we come together and do it all again.
Hey, thanks, WSP Kientalerhof. I'm not sure that's quite right for me, but I'm pretty certain that most of my friends would be interested! Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to see you here again with more fantastic offers to share! Wow!
A, yeah, I think that's probably worked in there somehow.
And Troy, it's all about the journey, man. Okay, I'm honestly hoping that my voice will be heard (and, in part, by leading the meeting, that I could be sure that would happen, at least past this first gate), but even if it's not... I just love the activity. It's fun for me, oddly enough.
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