Sylvia's Journal

A trip to South Africa took 7 days, nearly half of which was in transit. It’s one of those endless flights (from Atlanta to Johannesburg), where you have to remind yourself that the flight will eventually end. I tried to get myself upgraded on the way out there (failed), but succeeded on the wat home. The return flight was nearly 16 hours, two hours longer than the outbound one. Still, even in B-class the flight seemed endless.

I worked for just over a day with a dis-attuned team. I like the word dis-attuned better than all the other labels (dysfunctional disarrayed, problematic, toxic), because there is the promise of music in the word. Dis-attuned suggests that the team is not in harmony, each playing their own tune. During interviews with each before my trip I explored what music they were trying to make, what was on the sheet music in front of them. Once I knew, I could understand the dis-attunement. They were playing altogether different tunes. No wonder the melody didn’t come through.

The retreat was partially about the team getting its work done and partically about its leadership, collectively and individually. I have simplified my definition of leadership – a leader is simply an aware human being. Being aware applies as much to myself as to the other. It means that we can catch ourselves when our intent and impact don’t match. Being aware means that we recognize when we are sabotaging ourselves, when our egos get in the way. Being aware also means that we see the humanity in the other, behind the labels, judgments, professional persona, representative of this or that class/tribe/organization/culture, etc.  

Working on all this is how we spent the day and a quarter. When I left to fly home, on the interminable long flight to Atlanta, then Boston, the team was at least able to hear the tunes the others were playing, not quite attuned, but a little bit closer.