The joy of unconscious collaboration!
One of the best things to come from setting up our Cooperative of colleagues is that I get to work with others as an ‘associate’ but on a foundation of knowing each other well, respecting and promoting our differences and trusting each other without protectionism or hierarchical barriers.
And last week, this all came together when I worked with Alina Addison and Edward Watson in the stunning surroundings of County Kildare in Ireland.
The work was for a client of Alina’s – a private equity company who wanted a three-hour-workshop for an audience of 120 – on the subject of one of their core values – Collaboration.
Alina was skilful at bringing the three of us together in advance; just enough to scope our offering but most importantly agree how we interacted with each other so that the workshop was seamless.
However the key thing I noticed during the 24 hours we spent together was that we actually – without thinking – created our own work space of psychological safety, emotional intelligence and compassionate leadership!
We walked the talk and were blown away by the number of people who came up to us after the event and thanked us, talked to us about the science we brought to the event (it’s quite tricky for our brains to be collaborative!) and the activities we ran with the whole group to highlight some unconscious habits that might get in the way of Collaboration.
It was a great experience so thank you Alina for the invitation. Of course working in the beautiful environment of The K Club was also a wonderful opportunity.