Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

Once a month, I am blessed to get together with a group of a dozen or so leaders in my community to hash through sticky issues and learn from each other. Half the time, we have a professional speaker join us for a few hours to challenge us, stretch us and drop a few pearls of wisdom in the collection plate.

This month, we heard from the President of Chicago’s Second City, Diana Martinez. She has had a full career in show business on the production and direction side but came to speak to us about collaboration and the science behind the comedy. Look up Neva Boyd if you’re interested.

We did a few exercises to demonstrate how difficult it is to communicate effectively without increased awareness and how quick things can change with a little training and a little trust. We did silly stuff like clapping hands, squeezing hands along with more serious stuff like highlighting who you prefer to work with and what traits you appreciate about those people. We tried to tell a congruent story about certain preselected topics, one word at a time, per person, but the string broke every time it came to me. Creative juices just weren’t flowing, I guess.

Interesting topic was Yes, AND…
You may have heard this when someone says you aren’t allowed to say “but” because when you do, anything prior to that is forgotten. So if you say “you’re an awesome employee but you messed this task up” …all anyone really hears is “you messed this task up” so we did a few exercises to emphasize the point with 2 of 5 in a group positive and the other 3 acted as idea killers. Very few ideas were actually generated because the ‘we already did that’, ‘I don’t think that would work’ and ‘I don’t like that’ cropped up and sucked all the energy out of the room.

With Yes, and…even if less than stellar ideas came forward, you could agree with the poor idea but use it as a segue to a better idea, letting the poor idea fade away instead of killings it on the spot. Combined with the idea that you want to make your partner look good, ideas flowed, no one felt stupid and better choices emerged.

Think about how many times you may have killed an idea without even knowing it because you shot down something you didn’t understand or like. Instead, could you encourage someone by getting on their side of the table and moving toward consensus?

Andy Stanley said, “Leaders who refuse to listen, will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing helpful to say.”

We finished up our meeting with a poem that we should all think about more often.

At Day’s End

Original attribution: John Hall

Is anyone happier because you passed his way?
Does anyone remember that you spoke to her today?
The day is almost over, and its toiling time is through,
Is there anyone to utter now a kindly word of you?
Can you say tonight, in parting with the day that’s slipping fast?
That you helped a single person of the many that you passed?
Is a single heart rejoicing over what you did or said?
Does the person whose hopes were fading,
Now with courage look ahead?
Did you use the day, or waste it? Or was it well or sorely spent?
Did you leave a trail of kindness, or a scar of discontent?
As you close your eyes in slumber, do you think that you will say,
You have earned one more tomorrow by the work you did today?

Have a blessed weekend!