Colleaguing 101
Purpose:
A gentle reminder, especially for those who are now seeing more of their colleagues in person, of their rights, responsibilities and overall ettiquette.
Format: Workshop, Conference or Course
Category: Soft Skills
Themes: Revelatory, unifying, reset
Capability Gaps addressed:
a) Interpersonal communication.
b) Understanding and appreciation of colleagues.
c) Genuine first-time experience for some/many.
d) Increased Empowerment and Involvement.
The Business case:
a) Acknowledge the elephant in the room.
b) Empathy towards colleagues aids unity.
c) Understanding roles solidifies purpose.
d) All of the above helps productivity.
The (slow) elevator pitch:
It’s fair to say that not everyone is enjoying the return to office-life after dialling-in in your ‘business pyjamas’ two or more days a week for the last few years. But we’re not here to debate the pros and cons, rights and wrongs of returning to the cubicle farm. We all could use a light-hearted refresher on cohabitating office space with colleagues that aren’t your cat or dog.
In this workshop, we acknowledge the elephant in the room, break the ice, release some tension and set some ground rules for what’s ok and what’s not ok going forward.
Remember, some of your colleagues might be old enough to remember faxing, while for others it’s very much their first rodeo.
Potentially Asked Questions:
Colleaguing? Did you make that word up?
Yes. But its meaning is pretty obvious, isn’t it? It’s the act of being a colleague. If you’re an accountant, you practice accounting. If you’re a banker, you practice banking. Colleaguing is exactly the same apart from the fact that it’s everyone’s job to be a colleague no matter what else they do at work.
How can one workshop speak to every individual?
There’s no finger-pointing or blame. We simply define the issue and invite every individual in attendance to see it and hopefully connect with it in their own way. It isn’t rocket science, brain surgery, peer-reviewed or clinically-trialled.
Is this ‘woke’, DEI, hoo-ha?
What? No. Why would you even ask that? This is about social contracts and societal norms. These things are deep in our DNA, not a political football. This stream takes a lighthearted look at what it means to be a workmate. But as you may imagine, the term work-mating took some people to places we didn’t intend them to go.
What outcomes will we, as a team, get from this?
As a bare minimum you’ll gain an understanding of the underlying issues and what effect they have. Hopefully, this will pave the way for some revelations and personal epiphanies on they way to a reset towards a more unified workforce. Holding hands and singing Kumbaya while gently swaying is entirely optional.
Who is this topic aimed at?
Any modern workplace containing people. If that sounds disconcertingly vague or unhelpfully broad, it’s an unfortunate reality of the current state of things. There’s a general collective fugue about the place at the moment, and We Have Ways to help shake it off. So, yes, this topic is aimed at everyone.
But we’re not a ‘team’ we’re a ‘family’.
Ok, no you’re not. But even if you think or say you are, families are among the most aggressively diverse and fractious organisations imaginable. Have you ever been or lived with a teenager? Families are still teams for all intents and purposes for this exercise, so let’s just stick with that.
Want to know more?
Ping us your details and we’ll be in touch ASAP.