Today I facilitated a workshop that I designed for Young Capital. We called it Young Capital Warrior Training. My assignment was to create a deeper connection between 3 teams that are spread over the country, to make new people feel included and to give the participants some insight in themselves. At the same time the day had a bit of a celebrative aspect. I was supposed to feel fun and free and not so much as work.
I made a deal with a restaurant with a Arabic Mediterranean cuisine. They have a nice lounge Arabic style lounge in their basement and served a beautiful lunch. It was interesting to do business with owner and chef Laurent med Khellout. Very informal and trust based. I think I didn’t give much more of a briefing than telling what my job was and he said ‘no problem’ and ‘I will take care of it’. We shook hands and he delivered a great lunch, including a charming presentation of his food and his vision. I like people who have a vision and live it.
The creation of the workshop went similarly. The director of Young Capital is a trusted business relation and a friend. He came to my house two weeks ago and said “I am meeting with my team in 2 weeks and I want you to organize something cool”. I promised I would deliver.
Initially I offered the job of making a video document to a young journalist. She had all kinds of strange demands, wanted to be paid upfront and was hard to communicate with. And she cancelled yesterday afternoon. With the help of my Facebook network I found a replacement in 4 hours. Amazing how fast you can find somebody. Turns out I found the ideal guy. He understood my work, needed two words and took care of his part of the job. Jay Horton is new in The Netherlands and for him it was a beautiful surprise to have his phone ring out of the blue and to get a job offered.
Just look at it from a distance. In a way it is a group of minds who decide to create something out of nothing. Although completely normal for us humans it is in a way also magical. One guy takes care of the food and the facilities, another guy brings in his team, a third guy captures the event on camera and the fourth guy designs an experience that helps the participants see themselves. Everybody takes responsibility and offers his skills, almost like a dance. Something beautiful and memorable happened and now everybody is back in his home.
My personal highlight of the day was a little experiment with a team and leadership theory that I have been studying lately. I have been reading Tribal Leadership.
According to the writers every company, indeed, every organization, is a tribe, or if it’s large enough, a network of tribes—groups of twenty to 150 people in which everyone knows everyone else, or at least knows of everyone else. In Tribal Leadership, Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright show leaders how to assess their organization’s tribal culture on a scale from one to five and then implement specific tools to elevate the stage to the next.
To make a long story short: most companies (50%) are at level 3, and my guess was that today’s team would be as well (since stage 2 is a very negative stage and stage 4 pretty advanced). Level 3 is a group of people who are after their own personal success together, level 4 is team that operates selflessly. If a team goes from stage 3 to stage 4 they tend to increase their productivity with 30% and experience their work as less effortful. So I figured that if I would be able to give a stage 3 team a stage 4 experience that could be extremely useful. So I tried it. And I it worked! A magical moment it was. I now know it is possible and I believe I can make a meaningful contribution to that process. That is thrilling idea and a pretty powerful proposition.
Warrior training is not complete without a bootcamp workout. Check out the eyes of the participants. Brilliant.
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This is episode 12 in a series of 100 blog posts that will be published daily during the 100 Day Warrior, a unique program around physical strength, inner wisdom and meaning. All posts are written by Atalwin Pilon, founder of Basic Goodness and creator of the 100 Day Warrior. For requests for motivational speaking, in-company workshops, online coaching and mindfulness training click here. If you would like to join our international community of brave and inspiring human beings or just follow this blog and receive updates, please click here of sign up on the right side of the page. Atalwin specializes in coaching smart and creative people, both groups and individuals. If you are interested in a free coaching session click here.
I love my work.
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