When things go wrong, it's human nature to place blame on anyone and anything other than ourselves. "So-and-so didn't do what they said they would." "I wasn't given the necessary resources." Etcetera.
That's why working with teams is both challenging and rewarding - it's hard to get folks to look at how their own actions impact teams, but when they do incredible changes can take place. I'm reminded of this often these days as we work with the Development and Alumni Relations (DAR) folks at VCU on Team Effectiveness.
“Meet people where they are, not where you want them to be.”
Like most of us, DAR staff work in a fast-paced environment and can find it difficult to slow down and reflect on how they are directly impacting their team members. And when they do reflect, no one wants to readily admit that they are hindering, rather than helping, their coworkers. Yet that is exactly what we are asking them to do.
One of our favorite quotes at Floricane is "Meet people where they are, not where you want them to be." It seems that the DAR staff at VCU is taking it to heart; and while their teams are not going to transform overnight, we anticipate great things to come.