We held our first Insights Discovery® Leadership Effectiveness workshop this week, and – feeling a bit brave – Theran and I asked the 28 participants for their feedback – in the moment.
We asked them to work in small groups to identify something about the day they felt was particularly effective or impactful, and something that was missing or could be improved.
In a more gentle fashion than we anticipated they gave us the feedback – with both barrels.
Debriefing with the Floricane team later in the evening, it struck us that the group was simply giving us the permission so many of our clients offer.
- Make it harder.
- Make it more authentic, real and concrete.
- Share stories.
- Make it harder, more authentic, real and concrete.
No, I’m not repeating myself.
All told, the workshop participants had a great time – they walked away with new perspectives, new skills and new relationships. The energy was strong all day, and individual light bulbs went off all day.
But it wasn’t enough. These folks invested time and money to go deeper, play harder, discover more.
It’s easy to forget sometimes that our clients don’t call us because they’re bored and looking for a little something to do on the organizational change front. They’re serious – either because they are struggling, or they see real opportunity that needs to be seized. It’s our job to work hard, and to challenge them appropriately.
Making it easy defeats the purpose, because change usually isn’t. Easy, I mean.