Friday, June 10, 2011

Exhilarating Exhaustion

When is the last time you can say you attended a 2 day meeting and came away with no voice and sore cheeks from laughing so hard, a feeling of euphoria and relief, and a real desire to get out there and KICK SOME SERIOUS ASS???  For me, it was approximately 1 hour and 35 minutes ago.

Wow....what a team.  We've actually managed to keep the cream of the crop (except Amybow....who I'd take back in a heartbeat, but she's a stubborn wench). In fact, we're now actively hiring up to three positions...so if you are a marketing/communications/PR professional in commuting distance to Highlands Ranch CO or White Plains NY and want to come and KICK SOME SERIOUS ASS with us.... I can come to you in the interview with a straight face and say, we have the soon to be realized potential to be one hell of an awesome team.  Yeah we do.

We packed about a week's worth of stuff into 2 days of team building meetings.  And let me just say...the facilitator and the "graphics reporter" totally earned their fees.  They were a stabilizing and creative force within the room, but even more so, they were a collaborative partner before and after the event.  They built an agenda with us, not for us - really listening to our concerns, our needs, our desire for both the warm and fuzzy stuff as well as some concrete business outcomes, and they provided the ever so elusive element of perspective.

And they also brought this cool thing into our world......


...graphic recording.  Read more about that here.  Really go there...watch their video...go ahead...I'll wait.


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For a creative team like ours, it was a fabulous way to watch the words coming from our mouths be instanty recorded as visual cues.  We have several large boards of this as outputs from the meeting...(which they will also provide digitally) which will help us remember our takeaways and commitments.  Love it...really innovative and old school at the same time.

BONUS! I feel like I not only got a great resource out of this, but a budding friendship. Our facilitator was so great that I've invited her to join me in a new women's network I've been asked to attend in Manhattan. It will be fertile ground for her consulting business, and I'll be able to walk into the room with a colleague I respect and enjoy but who is not another employee of my company.


My exhilaration is dropping fast, and the exhaustion is setting in...so I'm quitting for tonight....will likely put in a few hours this weekend before flying here...


A  M  S  T  E  R  D  A  M

... on Sunday for my next work adventure.

Stay tuned for fun stories and pictures from that trip!

1 comment:

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

It sounds like the "focus on the positive" time has arrived in spades!