We had a great collaborative team event yesterday with a new client. This company has about 40 employees, and at my recommendation they invited every one to participate in their first “whale hunting” day.
Here’s what we do. First, we tell the Whale Hunters story and engage the whole company in comparing their company culture to the culture of the Inuit whale hunters. Next we introduce The Whale Hunters Process™ and all the roles associated with it–chief, shaman, harpooner, scout, and Subject Matter Expert. The point is everyone in the company has a role in business development. It’s not just about sales–it’s about pre-sales, sales, and high level delivery.
We divide all the participants into teams, and throughout the day they conduct the Brand Promise Audit, build the Target Filter, define Whale Fears and identify Fear Busters.
What happens, always, is that everyone contributes to building these processes and discussing–even arguing–about how they should be organized and what metrics should be relevant. And what happens most, as it did yesterday, is that the founders and owners and C-suite leaders are absolutely amazed at what their employees can do and what ideas they bring forward about how to grow the company!
Quiet people speak up. Shy people take their turn at leading a team. People discuss the company’s customers from multiple perspectives and everyone is amazed at what they know, collectively, that they don’t know individually.
If you have never conducted a day like this with your employee team, I highly recommend you give it a try (with a facilitator). You will accomplish a great deal of important work; everyone will buy-in to the plans that they helped to produce; and you will be absolutely amazed at what you learn from your employees about your business.
