The past two days, I’ve been in a closed-door, turn-off-your-cell phone, all-hands-on-deck team building retreat. I was pretty excited about it, I figured we would have fun, play games, get to eat good food, and laugh. It was much different than I thought. We actually did all of those things, but I wasn’t expecting the emotional draining effort I’d be expected to put forth. The focus of the workshop was relationships. The lessons I learned over the past two days have been monumental. Much of it explained “how we humans work” and, of course how to perform as a part of a championship team. If I would have been tested on my performance in the class I probably would have received a C or maybe even a D. I was unable to figure out some of my personal past history, I resisted and doubted some of the techniques, I refused to do my homework, and as a result, I didn’t get as much out of the class it as some others did. I’m still processing much of the information, and will continue to process it in the days to come.
I found it interesting that many of the lessons learned in this workshop are similar to Biblical lessons, and some are similar to “law of the monkeysphere” lessons, and some are similar to advice heard on the thesurvivalpodcast.com. All of these things have been influential to me recently.
I won’t quote material directly from the workshop, since I had to sign a “confidentiality agreement”, but I’ll share my interpretation of the lessons shared by all these sources:
1- Relationships are extremely important.
2- Effort and Attitude define you; if it is worth doing, it is worth 100% of your effort.
3- People are complicated, and you probably have no clue what personal hell each person is going through at any point in time. Also, every person has qualities you can respect.
4- You should avoid judging people, and must not put labels on people.
5- Be honest, always, in communication and actions. This includes being honest even when it is difficult.
6- Help others. Respect others. Support others.
7- Actions are what matter most. (what you actually do)
8- Be a servant AND be a leader.
9- Your actions and contributions are based on your individual talents and abilities.
10- YOU are personally responsible for EVERYTHING in your life.
