A True Story from my Summer!

“I found a stray gosling and we need a box,” declared my husband. He was returning from an early evening bike ride and wanted my daughter and I to help aid in the rescue.

But we were busy. We had already made plans. My daughter is heading to UPEI this Fall and we were just about to go dorm shopping. We had a list. We were focused. We just wanted to get it done.

Now before you think this sounds kind of cold of us, this isn’t the first time we’ve dropped everything to help a stray or injured animal. In the past year we’ve helped free a deer tangled up in our hammock, a racoon in our attic, a robin injured from falling out of the nest… 

It was very sweet of my husband to save the bird, but we just wanted to finish what we had planned without another interruption. 

Know how that feels at work?

He made a call. Good news. He talked to Hope for Wildlife and they suggested he try to find the family to reunite  them. Or, find another geese family because they would likely take it in. If we couldn’t find a family, then we could take it out to their wildlife sanctuary. 

So we made a Compromise. We dropped him off with the box, let him go traipsing around through long grass looking for the family. We did just a bit of shopping to check a couple more items off our list and then we came back to help. 

We spent an hour carrying the box with the bird (covered so the baby bird wouldn't panic but with enough air to breath). But no luck. It was getting dark so we made the decision to drive the forty minutes to Hope for Wildlife. 

The sun was just going down as we pulled in. We rang the bell and a volunteer drove up to the gate on her RTV. “What do we have here?’ she said, with all the patience in the world. 

My husband explained the story. He was biking and he saw the gosling kind of tucked into a grate on the side of the road. He noticed the mother goose and the rest of the goslings crossing the road. But for some reason this one didn’t follow…

She opened the box. “Yah, that’s a pigeon.” 

“A pigeon?”

“Probably why it didn’t follow the geese.”

I am still smiling at my husband’s reaction to this news. 

“All good,” she assured us. The baby pigeon would fit in just fine at this lovely sanctuary.

TEAM FOCUS

Over the summer I’ve had the pleasure to work with a manager and his team to help figure out where they can better focus for increased engagement and results. And  because their schedules didn’t allow them to get  the full team together in one room until the Fall, we divided the larger group into four smaller teams. I met with each small team to help come up with some of the very themes that show up in this Wild Goose Chase story such as:

• Clarifying perceived issues 
• Defining the real problem 
• Looking for other options

And then because we’re using the Core Strengths assessment, we're also weaving in what strengths they are using that are contributing to what's going well and at the same time, what strengths they might  be 'overdoing', resulting in potential miscommunications and conflict.

These are short, but focused sessions that have contributed to meaningful and robust discussions. Through this process, each member of the larger group has been engaged in reflecting on how to reframe what’s not working into positive outcomes they can all contribute to. Now we can come together and share all of that individual insight. 

Here are some thoughts for you to apply to your own team challenge.

Questions for Reflection 

1. Do you really know what the issue is? Ask each member of the team to articulate  the real issue or challenge. Listen and then align the different perspectives to come up with the wording that most resonates with the problem you’re truly trying to solve.
2. How many really need to be involved in the different stages of resolving the issue? If they are involved, what’s their role?
3. How much time are you going to dedicate to resolving this issue before you either change direction, give up or get expert help?

To Your Career Success,