3
Easy to Say; Hard to Do . . . Very Hard
When Sam Jamison got home that night from the celebration dinner he was too pumped up to go to sleep. Luckily his wife, Jessica, was waiting for him, as she was interested in hearing how things had gone. She too worked for a large company as a market research specialist, and enjoyed observing how Sam managed the project. Because this was on Sam's mind day and night, she lived through the experience with him, and was very aware of what happened every step of the way.
When they started talking about the evening, Sam was more interested in reviewing what had happened that got them to this place than he was about discussing the dinner. He mentioned it briefly, as he shared how “The dinner was great. Everyone had a good time. They were a bit rambunctious, so I was glad we had the private room. Frank gave me a hard time, but that was fine. It was a terrific night.”
But what he really wanted to talk about was the entire experience. Jessica was a willing listener and Sam spoke at length. He knew that he had done many things in his leadership role that optimized the group's contributions. He was aware of what he did well and where he messed up. Some of it he did instinctively as he was extremely sensitive to how people interacted in his meetings. But much of what he did was the result of what he had learned about group dynamics in a course that he took years ago at the local community college. Some of the concepts proved very helpful.
With that ...
