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3 Unexpected Gifts of One Meeting

Being new to the company, I recently attended an IT Strategy meeting and was rather surprised by what I experienced, and also quite grateful.

First, our CIO kicked off the meeting focused on 2018 accomplishments. No big surprise, pretty standard, right? Well kind of. However, rather than him telling each success story like so many leaders do, he handed the microphone to the leader or team member who lived the experience so that they could share the story from their perspective. It was unplanned, maybe a little unnerving, but awesomely authentic.

Next on the exceeded expectations list, we each received an 8.5 x 11 sheet with round, brightly colored stickers on it. On each sticker was a title of an unsung role someone might be filling like – Disruptive Innovator, Agile Maverick, Communicating Collaborator. There were about 36 stickers highlighting roles people fill but are not part of any organizational job family (yet). Our CIO asked that we take a minute to look at the stickers and decide in which roles we might be serving. Being an Innovation Junkie and a Collaboration Maven, I spied two (+) that fit the bill. Lots of us decided to wear our sticker choices to our holiday lunch that day to learn more about the multiple lenses through which our colleagues view the world and their role.


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The third part of our meeting, and most unexpected for me, was focused on gratitude. (Did not see that coming.) As a leader in an IT organization, it takes courage to stand up in front of your team and ask them to pause and think about that for which they are grateful. He challenged us to continue to develop a mindset of gratitude not only as we look back but also as we stay present, and look ahead into 2019.

So as we move to 2019 I hope that you too will pause to look back over your 2018 journey – the ups, the downs, the sideways and even the reverses.

We are where we’re supposed to be. I hope you are able to continue on the path of gratitude throughout 2019. Happy, healthy, grateful New Year!

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