{"id":3888,"date":"2021-12-22T05:23:17","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T10:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog-alexis.monville.com\/en\/?p=3888"},"modified":"2021-12-22T05:23:20","modified_gmt":"2021-12-22T10:23:20","slug":"a-tale-of-a-leadership-team-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog-alexis.monville.com\/en\/2021\/12\/22\/a-tale-of-a-leadership-team-workshop\/","title":{"rendered":"A tale of a leadership team workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Day One: Coming Together<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some leaders from different organizations that will merge into one in the upcoming weeks, the face-to-face meeting is the first opportunity to meet in person with each other and their new manager. Even if the three facilitators made sure to greet everyone as they entered the room, the tension was palpable over the friendly chit-chat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organizational structure has been announced over the last week, but not all leaders have been appointed yet. The departure of some leaders has already been communicated, and the others intuitively feel we are not done yet with those kinds of announcements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The oversized room feels comfortable. The tables are in a U-shape facing two giant screens on which we can already see the faces of the four people who were not able or willing to travel. Participants are used to the social distancing rules and leave one empty seat between them, spreading across the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are together for two and a half days to establish, define, and align the mission and the organization\u2019s strategic objectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the facilitators kicks off the meeting with some housekeeping words and gives the freshly appointed senior vice president the floor for opening remarks. She speaks about the opportunity for the organization and the chance to start together. She thanks the participants for their hard work and acknowledges their deep experience and vast expertise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is able to show some vulnerability mentioning she feels tired and nervous. Easy to understand that she could feel that way, as she was appointed six weeks before to tackle the critical challenge for the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She asks people to be honest, speak up, be ready to let go of the past, and consider everything as fixable. She brilliantly closes by mentioning how if we are successful, employees, partners, and customers will look at us differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now we can really start, and the facilitator is back at the center of the room to establish the ground rules and make the participants express what they need. A good time for the facilitators to share their roles. One stays in the background, takes notes, monitors the chat, and shares the documents. The two others alternate being in and outside the circle. The one outside warns that she will take the liberty to reformulate straightforwardly what she heard expressed indirectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alternating at the center of the circle, she asked: \u201cThink of a person you have not good thoughts about.\u201d It was quite amusing looking at people looking around in the room, while an image popped into my mind instantly. Are those views really personal, or are they organizational views? Do you think what you think because people are part of another org? Then, she asked to put those past thoughts in the past files and give people a chance in the present moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now is the time for something big hairy, scary, stinky\u2026 Do you guess what is coming? Elephants, of course! Being open is being known, expressing what is only known by you so that others can know it. Participants are asked to express what they need and make it about themselves. The round table allows each participant to say something, building on what the others already shared. It is a nice combination of hopes and fears. Only one participant declined to say anything, revealing frustration from one facilitator who dropped: \u201cYou have three days, man.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her closing comments, the organization leader mentions how she feels pressured to solve all the problems mentioned. She highlights the opportunity for the leadership team to select what problems to solve first and solve them together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you feel it is time for that team to get to work, you are going way too fast, a leadership team needs maturity, and one cannot rush maturity. The facilitator is back in the center speaking of \u201cpre-resilience\u201d: the resilience you built in the past, and that is now in your \u201cbank\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organization leader is now in the center to share a story of resilience that will make the whole audience shiver, close to shedding a tear. Asking people to share their stories of resilience in a large group would be too much for many of them. The participants split into groups of four and spend the next 45 minutes sharing their stories. Interesting exercise of sharing vulnerabilities, that group of Senior Directors and Vice Presidents are all human, in the end, facing their own life challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that we have gone through the first phase of team formation let\u2019s get to a shared understanding of what the employees in the organization and the rest of the company, the customers, and the partners think, feel, and do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once again the group is split into small subgroups to reflect and propose their understanding. The readout is shared after the session with the whole group. The discussion is positive and fluid. The group of remote people demonstrated excellent engagement and collaboration, providing the rest of the group with a great readout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last session of that first day is dedicated to defining who we want to be as a leadership team. What would we be ready to commit to? Similar things are brought in all formation discussions of teams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two things I found worth sharing here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n