31st August
As the Wild Swans reached the half way mark on the programme, we turned our thoughts to idea of Resilience this week, still unbelievably lucky with the weather and out in the sunshine, surrounded by the trees that are just about to start turning into their autumn colours. It’s beautiful to come back to that remote space time and time again to reflect on the changing colours, light and seasons, and see how we too as a group have also changed and start, I think, to become much more self-aware.
This was the perfect point to talk about resilience; up until now we’ve discussed tools and techniques of leadership and considered some theory, this was much more about sharing own experiences of life’s challenges; divorce, deaths in the family or depression and how we had all found a way to come out the other side. As a group we couldn’t have had those conversations before this point, but the trust between us now made this quite a moving experience and I learnt an awful lot about the others and their sources of strength; it’s always something quite valuable to be inspired by those immediately around you.
Our guest speaker this week was Jane, who gave us a very frank insight into her own life and how she had faced hugely challenging events that have affected her & her family; she really was the epitome of resilience! Her attitude was the most important thing to take away, I hope she won’t be offended if I said she was stubborn – but has used her determination in an entirely positive way to make changes for the better, persist in her uphill struggles with health issues and make a difference to her own life. What struck me the most about Jane’s account of her life was that she told very few, if any, people during the challenges she was facing; an approach that is completely opposite to my own as I find strength and motivation to bounce back, or be resilient, from the encouragement and support of those around me. It made me realise again that everybody deals with things differently, and as a leader I shouldn’t expect those around me to react in the same way, or try and get others to share thoughts when it is not their preferred way.
As always, we were encouraged to think about the seminar theme through a group task; this time navigating a path across a patch of our field in pairs using only 3 boxes and two wooden planks to walk on. If either a foot or a wooden plank touches the floor as you cross, it’s back to the beginning and start again. I’ll be the first one to put my hands up and admit I’m slightly over competitive about these sorts of things – I take a race across a small piece of grass whilst balancing on a box very seriously. A slight misstep in our strategic approach and several pleas for leniency following a dropped plank or two meant that we came second (…of two teams, but definitely not last!), but the exercise sparked thoughts about what resilience really means; the ability to bounce back with a new plan, determination to make it to the other side and, reminiscent of a saying from my grandparents generation, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again.
There won’t be a blog from me next time as I’m not there for the next seminar but I’m hoping that seeing as I’m joining the team in Salamanca for the international ‘Wild10’ conference the week after, I’ll be allowed a post to share what I’m anticipating to be an incredible and eye opening week!
Seminar 1 June
Our first weekend together was blessed by the start of the heat wave. Three weeks later and with no signs of it stopping we were back in our meadow in the beautiful sunshine and surrounded again by the wilderness, this time thinking about communication and engagement and its importance to leadership.
Since the last seminar I have been asked to become a line manager for the first time, so developing as a leader has very quickly taken on real meaning for me and I’m already realising that I have to communicate in very different way than when I’m with my team. Thinking carefully about engaging with others and how different people respond to different approaches was well timed!
I’m drawn to the ‘Find the Tree’ exercise as my highlight of the day, in which you are blindfolded and then asked to put your trust entirely in your partner as they lead you around a wood until completely disorientated. They then ask you to reach out and feel a tree so you can remember it from touch alone, disorientate you again, then ask you to find your tree without your blindfold. Identify a single tree you’ve never seen before; in a wood. I’m not sure I had much elegance of a Swan during this, it’s well known co-ordination isn’t my strong point and I probably bore closer resemblance stumbling around in the woods to those baby giraffe you see on TV trying to run for the first time – your own legs always seem to get in the way too much…
Still, it is a brilliant way to think about communication – only my partner’s clear verbal instructions and reassurance meant I didn’t fall over (and they did a great job!) and I had to rely on my other senses entirely to complete the challenge. By remembering how the bark of the tree felt, what it felt like underfoot, whether I was standing in sunshine or shadow it was surprising how I quickly I found my tree once I had my sight back! It makes you realise that you can’t rely on what’s in front you, whether it’s the words of an e-mail or a picture or diagram to communicate well, and actually you are using all your senses all of the time to engage with the outside world.
I really took that away with me after the day; I’m trying to be more aware of how people are communicating with me outside of speech and what else I should be picking up on. I’m also now more conscious about engaging with others, in particular finding the best ways to approach my new responsibilities and build good working relationships. I will see how I go over the next month!
