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Friday we wrapped up our 4 days of SKO and TKO. There was way less shine on the event by day 4 than the first two days. Partly that was the lower budget and shorter planning cycle for TKO vs. SKO. Partly it was also that people were dropping out.
Some of the dropping out was people physically not being there. One of my colleagues decided there was too much chance their flight Friday evening would be delayed so they rebooked to an 11am flight. That meant leaving the hotel by 9am, missing virtually the entirety of the day's program. They blew off the entire day of participation to "safe" their travel. I don't know if they asked management for permission on that or simply told management. ...And this is one of the colleagues who was not fired last month when a more motivated and hard-working coworker of mine was fired in a performance cut.
Others were there physically but seemed mentally checked out. About a third of my colleagues were just sitting passively in collaboration and brainstorming sessions. They'd contribute only when the facilitator called them by name. And even then they'd give brief and slightly off the mark answers, like they were only half listening to the conversation.
I know I was feeling ragged. I considered doing the passive-mode thing myself but it's just not my character not to participate. I mean, if the topic is at all relevant to me, I will be an active participant. I will be engaged. If the topic is so irrelevant to me that I don't have an interest in engaging then I don't have an interest in even being there. I'd leave.
And I did leave... for a bit. When it got to a point that the person at the front of the room seemed to be droning on, like all I could hear was "Wab-wah wab-wah" like Charlie Brown's teacher speaking via intercom, I excused myself to the hallway. But not simply to leave. Rather it was to do something more relevant than try to figure out what the droning was about. I had a prospective customer who was frustrated I wasn't doing enough for them while I was busy at an offsite all week. Out in the hallway I took about 30 minutes to consider my response to them and seek input from a manager they'd escalated to.
By the time I finished that, the droning had stopped and the crowd had split into groups to work on projects. It took me 5 minutes to figure out which group I should join. Basically I had to walk into each breakout room, listen to what they were talking about and observe who was there, and decide if that matched my needs and abilities. Wouldn't you know it, it was the fourth group (of 4) that was my match. But I quickly caught up on the topic and became an active participant again.
By mid-afternoon more people were starting to feel ragged. Our VP evidently could tell.. and maybe he was feeling ragged, too. He wrapped things up an hour early, letting us end on a relatively high note. ...Okay, it wasn't exactly a high note. A lot of people were disengaged, and even many of the more enthusiastic people were running out of steam. We didn't exactly end with a bang... but at least it wasn't a whimper.
Some of the dropping out was people physically not being there. One of my colleagues decided there was too much chance their flight Friday evening would be delayed so they rebooked to an 11am flight. That meant leaving the hotel by 9am, missing virtually the entirety of the day's program. They blew off the entire day of participation to "safe" their travel. I don't know if they asked management for permission on that or simply told management. ...And this is one of the colleagues who was not fired last month when a more motivated and hard-working coworker of mine was fired in a performance cut.
Others were there physically but seemed mentally checked out. About a third of my colleagues were just sitting passively in collaboration and brainstorming sessions. They'd contribute only when the facilitator called them by name. And even then they'd give brief and slightly off the mark answers, like they were only half listening to the conversation.
I know I was feeling ragged. I considered doing the passive-mode thing myself but it's just not my character not to participate. I mean, if the topic is at all relevant to me, I will be an active participant. I will be engaged. If the topic is so irrelevant to me that I don't have an interest in engaging then I don't have an interest in even being there. I'd leave.
And I did leave... for a bit. When it got to a point that the person at the front of the room seemed to be droning on, like all I could hear was "Wab-wah wab-wah" like Charlie Brown's teacher speaking via intercom, I excused myself to the hallway. But not simply to leave. Rather it was to do something more relevant than try to figure out what the droning was about. I had a prospective customer who was frustrated I wasn't doing enough for them while I was busy at an offsite all week. Out in the hallway I took about 30 minutes to consider my response to them and seek input from a manager they'd escalated to.
By the time I finished that, the droning had stopped and the crowd had split into groups to work on projects. It took me 5 minutes to figure out which group I should join. Basically I had to walk into each breakout room, listen to what they were talking about and observe who was there, and decide if that matched my needs and abilities. Wouldn't you know it, it was the fourth group (of 4) that was my match. But I quickly caught up on the topic and became an active participant again.
By mid-afternoon more people were starting to feel ragged. Our VP evidently could tell.. and maybe he was feeling ragged, too. He wrapped things up an hour early, letting us end on a relatively high note. ...Okay, it wasn't exactly a high note. A lot of people were disengaged, and even many of the more enthusiastic people were running out of steam. We didn't exactly end with a bang... but at least it wasn't a whimper.
