What It’s Worth
Given that I’m already feeling sleep-deprived midway through the second day, there have been times when things have not gone particularly smoothly in this process, and that some people have found themselves less than enthusiastic about the idea we’re taking forward, I’ve been spending some time thinking about why a person might spend a weekend doing this. The short answer is that you get out of it what you want.
As I walked in this morning, I thought about all of the conferences I’ve gone to in the past where I have spent hundreds of dollars and hardly slept, all in the name of learning new skills and ideas and meeting new people. There is every opportunity here to learn and to meet new people and do without sleep - for considerably less money - and in the end, maybe even have something more or less tangible to show for it.
All of the chaos that we have experienced thus far, the team storming, the confusion, the thrashing and issues that arise between different strong personalities - these things all happen in real life too. I see this as an opportunity to learn how to work through it.
One of my favorite expressions now, I’ve learned from someone else who was part of conversations I’ve had with people, trying to convince them - give them ‘permission’ if they felt they needed it - to step in where they see something not flowing smoothly and they have some insight needed to get things on track again. Each time, as doubt was expressed regarding whether getting involved was warranted or whether it would even be helpful, the person next to me said, “And worst case is, what… 30 people die?”
Not everyone realized it was a facetious rhetorical question. The answer is, no one dies so go ahead and take the risk - what have you got to lose? Oh wait, that’s another rhetorical question. You get the idea.
However it’s happened, we’re finding our stride. It’s awesome to see. and yes, there are strong personalities. And the quieter personalities are learning where they fit too.
- Kimm