 The text came in around 8:00pm on Wednesday night.
It's the same text that I get every other week. A question that my husband NEVER gets. Can you guess who it's from? Our cleaning person. Despite the fact that my husband was the one who found her in the first place, now that she has my number, she has stopped communication with him, and now texts me with questions or to confirm she is coming.
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 On Sunday night, we arrived home from a weekend away to discover that our hot water heater wasn't working properly, and since we have radiant heat, that means, not just no hot water, but no heat either.
I saw it as an adventure to be embraced. It would be like during my childhood, when we used to go to a cabin on a lake, with no heat. We all slept in the one room with the fireplace, and would cut a hole in the ice-covered lake to get water to flush the toilet.  If you could design a workshop to support your colleagues to learn from what you read in "Think Again", what would you want to focus on, and how would you organize it? It was our last session with Think Again by Adam Grant, and I wanted the participants to spend time thinking about what the book taught them, and how it directly applied to the culture, processes, and general ways of working within the organization. What would they want to ripple out into the broader organization?  There are 10 people in a room together.
1 American 1 German 1 Israeli 1 Chinese 1 Indian 1 Italian 1 Spanish 3 Romanian Will all of their smiles communicate the same message?  Just before lunch time today, I had the following conversation with my 6 year old son:
ELLIS: Mom, why didn't you pick me up in the car? ME: Because I like to walk. ELLIS: And walking gives us energy. ME: Yes, it can, and it also uses energy. Running uses energy too. ELLIS: Where do we get energy from? ME: We get it from food and from sleep. And so the conversation continued, all the while talking about how our pace and our energy level's worked together or against one another.  This afternoon, I am starting a new book circle using the book The Culture Map by Erin Meyer where we'll dive deep into the ideas, have generative conversations, and hopefully transform how the participants relate to one another across cultures.
"The Culture Map" is based on 8 main facets of culture.
 Look around your desk and grab a pen, pencil, or any other object that could drop without breaking. A balled up piece of paper will do.
Now, hold it in your outstretched hand, palm facing up. Give it a nice squeeze and keep squeezing for a full ten seconds. When you get to zero, let it go. Let it drop. How did that feel? Yesterday, I was listening to a podcast between Brené Brown, Adam Grant, and Simon Sinek where they were exchanging about what is happening in the workplace these days.
At one point, Simon Sinek used the term HUMAN SKILLS instead of the often used term "soft skills" to refer to the relationship, communication, and emotion skills that need to be tended to again and again, especially as leaders. Once you learn the skill, you don't just magically arrive.  Here's the challenge that I offered:
>> Create a 3-D "O" using only what you have nearby, and in just 10 minutes. It turns out that 10 minutes was too generous, because before my timer had even run out, everyone was done. Why in the world would I introduce such an activity? To encourage the team members to STRETCH :)  My business is all about holding space for people's learning, and recently I have been asking myself, "Who is holding space for MY learning?"
Yesterday, was one of those moments. Using 1 quote, and 1 poem, we came together to connect, share, and be inspired by one another. I definitely was inspired! The quote was, "If we surrendered to earth's intelligence, we could rise up rooted, like trees," by Rainer Maria Rilke |
Hi there!I am Theresa Destrebecq (I dare you to try to pronounce it...) |
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