Recently my inspired family unit had a spirited discussion around expectations and commitments during the festive season.
The essence of the discussion was around expectations of meeting up together as a complete family unit prior to Christmas where everybody is pulled in every direction to appease extended families and families of partners etc. Incidentally, this personal insight is also indicative of what might happen within any business or sporting team as well.
What made this discussion interesting was that the process began with text messages and then quickly became messy as messages became misconstrued and misunderstood resulting in some personal anguish.
One of the team suggested that we organise a Zoom call to thrash out any misunderstandings around expectations and anything else that people wanted to discuss.
So we did.
The zoom meeting was convened and everybody (all 8 attendees) tabled their concerns, hurt, annoyance, hopes and desires. It was the essence of a "storm" with changes in direction, focus and objectives all taking place in the relatively impersonal environment of an online forum. Initially it felt like being tossed about in rough seas in a small boat.
So...why is this so important and what is important about it?
Well it is important because any strong authentic team will allow the team members to speak their truth about an experience so that the team learns and grows.
These "storming" discussions allows the real soul of the team to be revealed and who is playing for the team as opposed to their own agenda.
The other valuable part of the process was to be able to give everybody the opportunity to speak without being interrupted which was a request made at the beginning of the meeting by the designated leader of the discussion. The forum also gave people an opportunity to experience disagreement and friction all of which are usually a part of the storming process as the name so aptly suggests.
What are the benefits of letting a team disagree and become agitated for a period of time?
They all begin to understand how unique each of them is.
They become accustomed to speaking up and speaking their truth...this was especially wonderful to watch with some of the more reserved members of our family.
