Shared Experience Build a Team for Life
A shared experience for a team is an event or situation that most of them experience simultaneously.
We recently had a shared experience with the Eclipse in the United States. Some managers took the opportunity to make this a shared experience. Others lost the opportunity.
What is a shared experience?
A shared experience is when you can give almost all of your team members the opportunity to be invovled in a project, team building exercise or event that will give them the ability of doing something that isn’t in their normal responsibilities.
I remember a day when I had the opportunity to take a group of 10 people from a committee I was leading from New York to Penn State University. We drove in two different cars across the state. During the ride, we communicated to ensure that we could meet for dinner when we arrived at the restaurant.
- My car was talking about how fast one of the guys was driving on the bridges because one of the women would get car sick since she was scared of the bridges.
- The other car was talking about a guy who must have purchased everything he could at Panera Bread. He had a loaf of bread, cookies, salad, sandwiches, and soup. He ate it as the nd when he arrived for dinner, He said I am starving.
At dinner we talked about the drive, what our expectations were for the visit and who would take different roles at the event. The Vice President who was with us decided that she didn’t want to be in charge. She wanted someone else to take the lead. This allowed her to ask question but explore and learn with the rest of us.
To this day, I remember what she said to my colleague who took the lead.
“Someday you will be a leader and you have to learn what it takes to take a group to another university to showcase the best of us. I will be one of team that will follow your lead. I have full confidence in you. You are ready for this.”
She didn’t say much else, but the guy was so nervous. He was not ready in his mind, even though we all knew he was ready to lead.
He didn’t sleep at all that night, but the next morning, he led us like he had been doing this for years. He introduced each of us by first name without titles and responsibilities. The VP was one of the team. Only we knew who she was, really.
We were split up and went in a few different directions, but the leader picked who should go where. He was ready for this kind of role.
When we arrived at dinner that night. He had organized what we saw, had an plan for the following day and helped us to brainstorm ideas that we could implement back at our organization.
What that VP did and I will never forget it! She not only gave up her authority as great leaders do, but she generated a shared experience that we all gained from.
To this day, we have a team that can talk about that trip and when a project arises we are all willing to jump in to help even if its outside of our area of responsibility.
For the Eclipse.
One of my colleagues had created an experience that would be shared by all of the organization's employees.
- They rented binoculars with special lenses for each person to borrow.
- They had an amateur telescope enthusiast come to the place of work and allow people to see the event up close.
- Each person was given multiple paper solar glasses
- They set up with water, chips, healthy snacks, and constant refills.
The team at this place said it was a great expereince. One got to meet the vice president he worked for, which he never met. Another said that he met the CEO and found out that he liked cars.
This was the type of experience that companies that lean into the experience would gain much from spending very little on their employees.
When you can generate a shared experience for your team, you are building a team that will be loyal and trustworthy for the rest of their lives.
Every leader needs to implement shared experiences in their teams.
