Intentional Gatherings

Staff linger in the room at the scheduled time for lunch. An administrative assistant has nicely laid out drinks, ice and the boxed lunches. People debate what the scribbled name on each box means. Leader rushes in and grabs their box and drink. Everyone sits and eats together. Conversation is sparse and forced. Leader checks the time during a conversation. The peppy one is enthusiastically going on and on about their bus ride experience and all the lovely people they met along the way. Leader excuses themselves for another appointment. Boxes get flattened out to be recycle. A few people stay to clean up the table. Everyone departs back to their individual offices feeling about the same as when they walked in.

This gathering has no stated or intentional purpose. Very little preparation went into the gathering beforehand. The leader’s behaviors did not reflect the priority pausing tasks and sitting down together. The leader did not help guide the gathering to create a climate of sharing and learning about each other. Thus, the entire group felt like it was wasted time, some may have even felt resentful for being required to have staff lunch when their work tasks were overwhelming.

Creating and leading gatherings that make an impact on your staff and organization take much more preparation and intention. And though bringing the staff together for relational experiences is necessary to a healthy work environment, the experience illustrated above does nothing to enhance a people first culture. In my experience, these gatherings actually did the opposite.

But do not give up, Spark Alignment is here to help!