25g and packs a punch

I love getting a treat with my coffee.

In Melbourne’s little Italy this week, it was a tiny, but tough, biscotti.

Just what I expect from a café where waiters in waistcoats welcome you with a loud ‘buongiorno!’

At the other end of town, the perky treat on the saucer caught my coffee mate by surprise.

She took a nibble.

‘Ooh!’

‘Bad?’

‘No. Just not what I expected.’

I approached my treat with caution. It looked like a little chocolate.

I expected to bite into something hard and crunchy.

I got soft and doughy.

Instead of a rich, smooth centre, I got a fluffy, cakey taste.

Cinnamon and sugar, not chocolate.

It was delicious.

Photo by: Jacinta Cubis

Our little chocolate truffle turned out to be more of a doughnut.

Except it was dark brown, there was no hole in the middle and it wasn’t sprinkled with sugar.

Not what a doughnut looks like.

This little fella packed a punch way beyond its (roughly) 25g.

In about ten seconds, that little ball of delight had taken us from surprise and confusion, through to acceptance and appreciation.

You could even say we embraced that surprising treat in the end.

We wanted another one.

— — — — — — —

My clients and groups can experience the same thing.

Let’s say a workshop is in a board room (unavoidable sometimes 🙄). They expect a board meeting, not an interactive workshop where they:

🤔 Reflect on their own

🗺 Explore in pairs

🤿 Deep dive in small groups

📷 Compare photos

🚶‍♀️ Move around

And you can bet not everyone will find it ‘delicious’ when they don’t get what they expect.

It’s only fair to give them a heads up.

That’s why when I’m designing a session with my clients I often ask them to paint a picture of the workshop for me.

👁‍ What does the room look like?  

👁‍ Where are people sitting? 

👁‍ What are they doing? 

And we take it from there.

For the people coming along, I check their expectations in a quick video before the workshop with something like:

‘We’re meeting in a board room, but it won’t be like a board meeting. You’ll move around, work on your own, in pairs and small groups.’

Because not everyone who expects chocolate will accept and appreciate a doughnut.

My hope is that people leave the workshop with an acceptance that a board room does not always signify ‘board meeting’.

Most end up appreciating the structure that kept them engaged and resulted in meaningful conversations.

Like I left that café with a new-found respect for those little saucer treats.

— — — — — — —

What workshop are you planning right now? Give me a call if you’d like some help. +61 438 013 115 or reply to this email with ‘help’ in the subject line.

Thanks for reading this far.

Stay (fl)awesome!