Hilton Hotel Dallas airport, the air was thick with corporate ego. It was a three day simulation activity using retired partners in one of the big 4 firms as the main actors.
Regional managers from 6 different countries were bought together to dive head first into the scenario’s built into the simulation, with C suite executives role-played by the retired partners. The stakes were high.
I was the facilitator, and I was nervous; it was a pilot program; get this right and it goes global. Choke it – and I’m back to running evening programs at the neighbourhood centre.
It was the morning of day three and the tension was mounting. The team was not getting good results and the team dynamic sucked, basically.
I noticed how polite everyone on the team had become, when, really, there was some noticeable behaviours that were undermining to good of the whole team.
In particular was one participant, a Dallas local – who left the room on a number of occasions to field calls and keep up with her busy schedule outside the training.
When it came time to clear some of the air in the team, this ‘polite’ behaviour was pointed out. The participant – let’s call her Debbie – mentioned how busy she was.
This wouldn’t have been such an affront to the others on the team had it not been clearly apparent that everyone there had busy schedules, but priority had been given to this training event.
After ‘Debbie’ had said her piece the time for talking came to the next participant – let’s call her ‘Whitney’ – in classic mid western straight shooting style she just came on out and, to this day, I will never forget the jaw dropping effect it had on everyone in the room.
“what-the-fuck-ever’ We’re all busy, get over it and get on with the job”.
A great case study can have a marked effect on a training group. It certainly did in this case: reams of information about the fictional company, convincing role- plays by seasoned executives, timely training breakouts by yours truly, and one helluva risky intervention.
Thankfully, it worked and we got back on track.
