Better than Expected

There were times yesterday when I was looking for a window to throw myself out of but overall I could not be more pleased with the results.  I spent the entire day at a leadership retreat with union leaders and the union supervisors who’ve been a target for improvement for the last three years.  We won the right from the union to remove incompetent supervisors earlier this year and the results were tangible and obvious yesterday.

My View Out the Window All Day - Beautiful Downtown Worcester

While earlier retreats were spent dealing with the incompetents and the inevitable personality clashes their lack of ability created, yesterday was spent on improving.  We had the same facilitator back and even he noted the marked difference in the professionalism in the ranks.  There was actually some time spent laughing together which would have been unheard of a few years ago. The biggest change is in the attitude of the union and especially the union leadership.   While we still have our “moments” they have become trustworthy partners in making the organization better.  I never thought I would be able to say that.

The Facilitator Facilitating

The facilitator is a smooth operator and I marveled at his ability to identify and draw out the introverts that didn’t want to participate.  This kept the “spring butts” mostly in their seats so we weren’t beat into submission by their need to share.  The facilitator is also a corporate recruiter who offered me a job in Atlanta during one of the breaks.  I’ve seen the traffic in Hotlanta and experienced the summer in Georgia so I told him an emphatic no.  I’ll have to be careful mentioning this to the wife as it gets progressively colder around here.

Since the movie company has taken over the hotel we normally use for the retreat we were forced to use a downtown hotel with a fairly small conference room.  My knees took a beating from the small table but I was again surprised at how well the whole day went.  We finished on time and decided to forego the singing of Kumbaya.

The Maintenance Manager Hugging the Union Business Agent - Scary

My excellent boss took the entire group out for dinner at Joey’s which was more fun than I was prepared for.  The food and service at Joey’s was up to their usual lofty standard.  I’ve said this before but anyone looking for a superb dinner in Worcester should check out Joey’s.  I don’t think we stopped laughing the entire time as we re-lived some of the more poignant faux pas of the day.  We’re still trying to figure out what the word “Fatillitate” means. 

Dinner at Joey's

Even though I sat on my ass for pretty much the entire day I was exhausted by the end.  I felt bad for my wife who was her energetic self when I arrived home.  There’s just something soul sapping about spending an entire day in the touchy feely realm of self-improvement.  I didn’t even want to watch a movie, which is telling.