True Collaboration Wells Emotions

     Last night in my organizational behavior class in between chapter discussions on values, motivation, job satisfaction and attitude watched a Tony Robbins speech from TED (below).  I for one never expect to have the Supreme Court on my side of anything (watch the video). To be honest I've never been a Robbins subscriber, bought his products or attended a seminar.  I know plenty of folks who have, almost all of whom are highly successful financially, and most before they started watching or listening to Tony. I also have to admit that if the organization I was teaching for allowed access to YouTube we'd have never gotten to this video in class.  They don't, even though they've promised over four weeks of classes every week that it will be available.  Thus the somewhat tired statement depending on one's beliefs that God has a Plan.  No YouTube with planned multiple video presentations to finding something to break up PowerPoints and professor Wallace talks for too long without multimedia always leads to TED.  This is actually the third time I've watched it, but the first time it struck me in ways that suggest I need to call Tony because of shared history and ideology.

    Step forward into a day filled with corporate meetings, hierarchy I neither know or understand, in an organization whose goals I've far exceeded (understanding that means they're raising the bar for next month) finishing at The Round Barn.  Held at the end of the day meeting in between Berrien Springs and Stevensville sponsored by one of the silo'd departments.  We gathered in a circle - 30 Type A personalities from six different departments and for the first time in a collaborative meeting that the organizational arbitrary spread sheets weren't discussed.  No goals, not referral numbers, no quarterly bonuses. Instead, the sponsoring department leader (not his boss, who was sitting in the circle) lead us through a creative exercise.

      Being almost all A type personalities there was only slight collaboration involved.  But then he asked everyone in the room to share personal stories about what they were most proud of in their careers, and how their work in the banking industry had personally made an impact on the lives of our mutual clients, a complete different picture than most have of the banking industry emerged..  Near the end of the circle by that point I could barely contain my tears from both the stories told, and the memories of individual lives touched over 30+_ years in business.

   By the end of the gathering a few hours later I felt part of a family. With that of course comes all the promises and idiosyncrasies that families hold.  Is the organization perfect?  Well they've made the Gallup top lists for employee engagement three years running, and a number of Harris and other polls for customer satisfaction and customer service. Most of which means nothing to people who are trying to feed their children, pay their bills on time, and keep their jobs. And as someone who's studied and written about these things for years and still sees the mountains that need to be climbed in how I believe  customer service and quarterly profits intersect, surveys are relative.  What it did mean is I'd found a group of core individuals who understand the corporate culture and figured out how to achieve individual, organizational and community goals along the way.  That's a rarity worth serving. And Tony's right below.  What motivates us emotionally to achieve more than we are today, that's what matter.  This team earned my heart this afternoon.  That's worth protecting.

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