Today, the Floricane team began its twice-annual Work on the Work Week (WotWW), a four-day process during which we bounce around town, from one neat space to the next, and spend time examining our company and planning for the year ahead. We lay it all out for discussion – financials, business development, strategy, brand, culture, processes, client experience, etc. – and do for ourselves what we typically do for our clients. We’re consulting with/for/by ourselves, but in other people’s offices. Brain bender!
Our various and gracious hosts throughout the week – today we invaded Gather and the Robins Foundation, tomorrow The Valentine – provide space and Wifi for us. In exchange, we provide a meal for their staff members, who then are forced, er, invited to eat with us.
Who’s with me on this? Self-analysis is not that fun. It’s nerve wracking and frustrating, and we tend to skip over the painful stuff and spend time on the things we mostly have figured out. But John kept us on track today, arriving armed with P&L statements and asking tough questions as the rest of us shook off the cobwebs of a week’s vacation.
And it turns out that this was the best way to get started. Rip off the band-aid. Crunch the numbers. Do the work that we ask clients to do, and tackle everything head-on. By lunch, I was awake and excited for the afternoon.
But not before a fantastic lunch and YouTube–ing with Kelly’s delightful team at Robins. We then sidled into a biz dev discussion that, for a bunch of post-lunch greens and blues who consider sales to be the worst form of torture, ultimately went fairly well.
Tomorrow, Debra leads a day focused on Floricane's company culture and team effectiveness, with exercises and concepts that she typically uses with clients. My personal goal for the day is to trick Theran into showing Feelings and Emotions, but don’t tell him that.
Stay tuned for dispatches from tomorrow, Day #2 of Floricane’s WotWW.