Collaboration Junction – What’s your Function?

I wish I could take credit for this title, but either Jonlee or Ray came up with it. This was, indeed, the actual title of our Wednesday afternoon session.

I guess one should never accuse Jonlee or Ray of lacking personality.

We spent Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning going through the blocking and tackling of leadership: giving and receiving good feedback.

Let’s face it; this is an extremely important topic. It is hard to give constructive feedback and it certainly isn’t easy to receive criticism.

We had two role play exercises in which one person gave feedback, another received it, and a third person observed.

The first exercise involved a Brand Manager speaking with an Assistant Brand Manager about improving their performance.

The second exercise, building off our Whirlpool talk, involved an Assistant Brand Manager telling a Creative Director that it would not be possible to add a suggested product feature.

Consciously or not, we all exposed an area of opportunity regarding our current managing technique (see how I didn’t say “weakness” :)).

And that’s a great point on which to end. We basically spent the week developing our leadership, marketing, and inter/intrapersonal skills so that we can come back to Bloomington in the fall with an offer in hand……….

Ok, it’s Spring Break. Enjoy!

Mike Hardman