I have just gone through a week, were all preparations for a Workshop seemed to fall apart. So I thought I share a few lessons learned. We were planning a whole day workshop.
- First the venue was not confirmed until 2 days before and it was different from what we had initially discussed.
- The budget was cut and we did not get the welcome tea. – we did without
- Someone tried to include her own agenda into my workshop – we found a solutions
- We had booked transport for those who wanted it, and suddenly only 1 person needed it – we cancelled and made sure the one person was able to come.
- On the day of the event people were all late. We started with 1.5hrs delay – we found a solution and also discussed with all in a calm manner how this has affected the program.
- My volunteer who was to lead the program, was unable to come due to a family emergency – we found a solution
Here are the things that work for me:
- Breath – it is not the world’s end
- relax – it does not need to be perfect and there is a solution
- start writing down what you need to address and then work on them one after the other
- Find someone you can vent to
- Meditate
- Take a deep breath before phone calls so that you do not come across as stressed or or end up shouting
- Engage your team and get their ideas
If you look at the points I listed in the first paragraph, you see we found solutions for all issues that came at us and had a great event. This is only possible if you stay calm. The minute you start freaking out and overreacting things do haywire and you loose your teams trust. That’s why No. 4 above “find someone you can vent to” is so important. I always find someone I can vent to. Of course you need to keep confidentiality and chose a person who can take it. I also meditate a lot to calm myself down first.
So when all seems to be going wrong in your project, or when organizing meetings, events etc, just calm down, There are solutions to everything! Engage your team and you’ll be fine!