I was in Twickenham in September with the wonderful Diageo Plc, On-Trade Leadership Team.
I'd designed a full day for them so we spent the morning getting them connected through collaborative art-making, sharing stories and learning what makes each other tick as people.
Then we kicked off the afternoon with the perfect cultural case-study to offer different vantage points from which to see their challenges and opportunities.🌹
Plus plenty of team coaching and discussion throughout to get to tangible outcomes and next steps.💪
They described it as a day of “laughter, learning & aha moments” and of course, being Diageo, we dutifully ended the day at the pub to sample the local Guinness! ✨
This is how their leader, Joe Gosney summed up the day;
Why is "powerful" one of the most commonly used words in my client feedback? Here's why....
Getting Unstuck
Most of us feel stuck with projects in our personal and professional lives, some for months, years or decades!
Whether it's saving for a deposit, taking the leap to start a business, hitting a fitness goal or writing a book we might come fast out of the gates, but we hit a lull where motivation declines if the end feels too far away, until the end is within reach, when we sprint to the finish line!
Behaviourist, Clark Hull called this phenomenon the Goal-Gradient effect.
And for us humans, it's compounded by another bias, the Plateau Effect, developed by Psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, a phenomenon that lessens the effectiveness of once effective measures over time.
For example, if you wanted to get fit but only ever did one type of exercise, you might get fitter than when you started by month 3, but then only gain diminishing returns as your fitness plateaus.
Corporate life is often full of long term projects and set ways of doing things so when it comes to finding motivation to keep going or do things differently it helps to mix up the method!
Abstract to Aha!
By getting hands on and mixing things up in Art After Dark sessions, we help teams to see things from completely new perspectives and breathe life back into their projects.
We mix it up with listening exercises and abstract stories that stir emotions and help people to imagine a different way of tackling their challenges.
This is also how we can keep the energy levels up for a full day without people flagging - there's so much movement, laughter, and creativity that they don't plateau in their thinking.
There's a myth that creativity is sweet and fluffy - but I'd say it's energising and delivers significant shifts for teams to achieve real firsts!
As always, have a lovely day and stay curious!
Best wishes,
Louise