Image by Just_Tom via Flickr
In The Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley (one of IDEO’s bigwigs) advocates that one of the way to unleash the “collaborator” persona is to strengthen team bonds through shared experience.
Some teams have prepared gourmet meals together and his example of “radical collaboration” is a team that built mutual trust by competing in a triathlon together.
Well, I was in Milwaukee the other day visiting my awesome client, Pinstripe and Michelle (she of the “I love you are yelling at me” and “appreciate the ass-kicking”-video) was kind enough to invite me to her house for dinner (her kids are really cute).
So, we are hanging out, talking with her husband, his friend, and drinking beer (it is Wisconsin, after all) and a storm starts.
Well, soon thereafter a Tornado Warning flashes across the bottom of the screen of their TV which (as opposed to a mild Tornado Watch) means that you need to go to the basement NOW!
So, we did.
And, I ended up staying in their basement with their exhausted kids for close to an hour, experiencing my first midwestern Tornado warning.
Fortunately, they and their house emerged unscathed, but it’s safe to say, our relationship is at a new level of trust and shared experience.
I’ve said before that whenever I travel on business, I try and make time to do something to experience the place so it’s not just “another business trip.”
Suffice it to say, I’ve got my Wisconsin street cred now.
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