After a beautiful 75-degree day, I noticed that snow was in the forecast for the end of the week, followed by a few days of warm weather and a couple more (hopefully final) days of pretty frigid temperatures.
Then I came across this Mark Twain quote… “In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.”
That same quote sometimes applies to my emotions and feelings about life and business… Especially when it comes to navigating the ever-changing world we live in. Whether it’s my professional or personal life, I’m sure I’ve experienced at least 136 different emotions in a single 24-hour period!
Have you ever felt like that? You’re joyful and excited one minute, and then you feel like you’ve been blasted by the sadness fairy the next.
Do you notice various types of “weather” or emotions among your team members? Sometimes they are ecstatic to be working together, and then there is a volcanic eruption with one of the team members that no one could have predicted?
If you work with a group of people (whether in person or virtually), you’ve probably noticed that everyone has different emotions at different times. Some people are better at hiding their emotions than others. Some people wear their emotions on their sleeves. And we’re all triggered by various events, often without even realizing it.
What can we do?
Let’s Get To Know Each Other
One of the first things to do is to help team members get to know one another – all over again!
We’ve all changed in many ways over the last couple of years. We’ve all experienced extreme highs and lows. Our lives, and those of our friends and families, have been disrupted. We’ve all had to come learn how to live differently and that has changed us.
How do those changes influence the ways we work now? How have the changes influenced our view of what is important? And how do both of those influence how we want to work with each other?
I believe it is important that we take time to get to know each other in this new world. We need to understand that the person we used to sit next to two years ago has changed in ways we may not have noticed. We need to help people understand how WE have changed when they weren’t looking.
Virtual Team Building Is A Thing!
My phone is buzzing, and I’m getting more inquiries for virtual team building retreats and workshops this Spring. Yes, virtual “retreats” for team building are not just possible. They frequently offer benefits that in-person getaways do not!
In a world where everyone has been working from home on their own schedule, suddenly bringing everyone into the office or to a retreat center for a full or multi-day in-person retreat would be a HUGE change. A virtual retreat can be a useful stepping stone… an interim step. You can work from home, a coffee shop, or wherever you feel most at ease.
During a virtual retreat, we have fun while focusing on getting to know one another. We’ll relearn what makes us happy and what makes us sad. We’ll learn about the sources of inspiration we discovered during the pandemic. We’ll find out who learned how to make sourdough bread and what TV shows or books we binged on. We can tie it all back to what we want to work on as a team, how we can support one another, what works well for our teams, and what could be improved.
A primary goal of a virtual retreat is to get to know each other better and strengthen our working relationships.
Our organizations can be stronger if we assist our people in becoming stronger.
I would love to hear how your team is getting to know each other again!
If you think I could help you, let’s schedule a Time To Chat!
