I’m in Austin for a couple of days for work. For me, it’s a lot of travel the week before Christmas but Austin has good people and good food. Last night we were at Bouldin Acres for our Fourth Wing & Iron Flame book club — a discussion and a good time that went on late enough that I had to blog from my phone next to the outdoor heaters.
I’m staying at a cool, very Austin/hipster hotel on South Lamar. However, I have to say, the joy of hotels changes a little bit when I have my own King bed at home. But it was a decent place to work for the day before dinner with my leadership team this evening at Juliet.
We’re welcoming a new executive who is here with us for the planning meeting but officially starts next month so there’s a different, get-to-know-you energy to our conversations as we reform our executive team. After dinner, we headed to the hotel bar/restaurant and ran through the personal histories exercise from the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team workbook. You share 1) where you grew up 2) how many siblings you have 3) a challenge/struggle from childhood 4) and how that impacts you today. It’s an exercise in trust and vulnerability and is a good way to start to learn someone’s story. I’ve run through it with a few iterations of our leadership team now. It’s insightful to hear how people have answered the questions over time, or rather, how their stories land differently with the more context I have for who they are.
Tomorrow is a day of planning and focus. Tomorrow night I’m looking forward to seeing a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse before a stupid early flight on Wednesday morning.
With Love,
Natalie