It had been almost a full year since we had a physical team meeting with the TIM Theater team.
Last Friday was the day.
Connecting out of necessity and precaution
With TIM Theater, our mission is to create dialogue and connection in (large) groups through thematic improvisational theater.
For more than a year we have been bringing out the best in ourselves to translate our connecting work into online forms wherever we can. Meetings we also do online, because yes, that goes too, doesn't it?
Our team includes a number of people who do the same thing in their other work through other means. In that role of mediators, team facilitators, communication trainers, ... we are regularly called upon 'physically' in teams or organizations where telework cannot meet the acute need. Where the frictions or issues have become so complex that using a Zoom or Teams is out of the question. Where real meeting is felt to be essential by all and without discussion.
But it is a shame that things have to go "badly" before one feels justified in seeing a physical meeting among team members as essential.
By the way, there are teams that really want to but, despite the need being high, don't dare/can't/aren't allowed to meet physically, and then sigh deeper and deeper how prohibitive the online interventions are.
I have also come to realize that in some "richer" companies there is much less reluctance to hold physical meetings. There, people take it for granted, e.g. because a lot of money or very important matters are at stake, or because information is too delicate to throw into cyberspace, or because they have those gigantic meeting tables at their disposal and even in non-covid times they are already sitting two meters apart :-). And probably also because the non-verbal rituals of e.g. negotiations cannot be played out on a screen.
From when is physically getting together essential? I've talked about it with many a team I've mentored, and it was special to think of and organize it now for our own team.
In any case, I am convinced that some of the problems teams face today are caused in part by working exclusively online.
And today we especially realize that it was nothing too soon for our team as well. By the way, it was still narrowly "hybrid," since Suzanne actually joined us from Naxos 🙂 .
We had not achieved the depth and fruitfulness of this 13-person team meeting even with the best forms of work online.
Some foreseeable question marks and bottlenecks in upcoming assignments are already going to be a little less "hot" thanks to this meeting. This is so important in our profession, to which close mutual contact among colleagues is inherent.
The trust and intimacy we need to get back improvising together on stage soon was dusted off. It was only a very thin layer of dust though 🙂
Space was made for each other's vulnerability.
There was an awful lot of careful attention paid to our differences with each other, which are definitely going to play tricks on us when it comes to covid issues in our work.
And in addition, there was room to celebrate. The uniqueness of our online approach. The fact that we stayed "on board." The arrival of Ray and Moses.
Essential than that it doesn't get.
Let's get physical...
Are you also lying around for a long time trying to get your team together? 1 tip: don't wait any longer!
And would you like to do it with improvisational theater? Contact us for example for a Instant TIM, the connector par excellence. It can be done again, event-wise with 50 outside. Or for small groups of up to 12 people, take a look at the website of Living Impro For a team-building workshop.
As you can see, we ground well among greenery. Even in the past, May and June were prime months when we regularly played in gardens and outdoor spots of many an organization....
Bring it on!