TeamWork

… about the power of ad-hoc

My latest post about Resilience got me thinking, where could I invest with a quick return. End of the year panic is closing up on us, our batteries are drained, COVID is still ruling our lives and I needed a quick boost of motivation. I quickly went through my PCM® (Process Communication Model) action plan and found a “to do” point that always proves useful: volunteer.

Within the blink of an eye I sent out my request and in two blinks of an eye the answer came: “Oh, how great! You can be part of the organising team for our yearly coach academy.” Cool. When? What!? That’s like three weeks away!!! No need for panic, you have no idea what you’re doing, you don’t know anybody… Time for a head-dive.

I have been informed, that it’s a fun and agile team. While I have to admit I started developing a heavy migraine hearing the term agile, I put my preconceptions aside. We met, or not, we emailed, zoomed, phoned, made proposals, got feedback, worked out materials, got sponsors, etc… All you need for a conference with 100+ participants.

The big day came. All present, pretty, motivated and committed to not having a meltdown, no matter what difficulty arises during the day. Having went digital, we all knew anything can happen and the fate of the conference is laid out somewhere in the stars. Result? Except a few hiccups everybody had a great time and the conference was a success with lots of great feedback. Where we stumbled we moved on without looking back, keeping the focus on the big picture and the end result. At the end of the day we all got together, tired but with a big smile on our faces. It was the most inspiring team I have worked with in a long time.

At this point I started analysing how was this even possible? When working in organisational development or working with teams, we all know gazillions of methods and tools that we just have to implement and wait for the magic to happen. Still, here we have these guys, spending their free time and life energy in long nights of preparation, without any strategy or clear guidance. You see a ball bouncing off, just pick it up and run with it! And that we all did. But why?

The key seems to be in the big picture. Doing something that you believe in. Being part of a team, where all members believe in the usefulness of what they are doing. And all are pulling in the same direction, this direction being given by the fact, that we all belong to this group of people, who are committed to teach, learn and grow together.