This week I was privileged to deliver a two-day “impact” workshop for the Geomatics team at Shell Centre in London.
It’s easy enough to design a workshop where everyone has a bit of fun. But this team demonstrated the courage and commitment to go further.
We surfaced the team’s strengths, values and aspirations. We coached each other to have meaningful conversations. We built vision and motivation through playful collaboration, positive feedback, and deep reflection.
The most powerful moments arose when we took the time to surface what was left unsaid. By acknowledging our feelings and leaning into areas of discomfort we achieved a breakthrough that resulted in meaningful action.
In a volatile world with major global challenges, the theme that came out strongly was the need to keep developing our skills.
Indeed, also for me this workshop was a rare opportunity that demanded my full spectrum of skills – from systemic coaching to facilitation, training and consulting (as well as prior experience in the geospatial and energy sectors).
And yet, on reflection, my most helpful contribution was probably one moment on Day 2 when I ditched all of that, ripped up my beautifully designed workshop plan, and tended to unspoken feelings unfolding in the room.
By leaving the path of least resistance we inspired each other to go further, learn from each other, and surface what really mattered.
By the end, people shared that they felt “motivated” and “inspired”. Coaching each other had felt “profound” and “cathartic”. One person even described the whole experience as “team counselling”. I’m not a qualified therapist (nor do I set out to be) but I’ll take it as a compliment 😊
Thanks to Rob Dunfey for a fabulous couple of days with a great team. As always, I have learned as much from them as vice versa.
True Horizon Coaching 