“As long as the people show up…”

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Shared by Kristina Smedley

“As long as the people show up…”

Nervously. I approached our office building on Tuesday morning.

Noticing that the parking lot was pretty empty.
I avoided patches of ice in my high heel shoes. Bad outfit choice!

Seattle snow usually means working from home. Avoiding the slippery roads, hills, and terrible commutes.

But not today. It was a big day in the office!

I dropped my many bags at my desk and hurried down the long hall towards the Collaboration area.
Not knowing what I would find at the other end.

Queue nerves #1…

There’d either be a room full of people and smiles on my new teammates’ faces.
Or, just our team, all set up and ready to rock, with no participants in sight.

I turn the corner to find a perfect setup room and a “snack shack” resembling a Costco aisle.

And, thankfully, lots of people!
Nervously milling around, small talking, anticipating their next three days.

And off to the side, I see my teammates, smiling and excited. Looking forward to hosting the big event they’d been planning for weeks.

I was relieved.

Queue nerves #2…

This is officially happening. The people are here.
And I’m signed up as a participant!

Again, I wonder if I’m in way over my head.
Really, I’m a Hackathon participant?

To me, Hackathon = data scientists, systems engineers, developers and other really smart people coming together to build something amazing in just a few days.

Then there’s me – jack of lots of trades, master of none. And especially NOT these trades!

As the morning kicked off, we self-organized into teams.
And my nerves rose even more.

We’re talking about data lakes. Blobs. Threads.
Well, let me correct that… they’re talking about.
I’m just trying to figure out if they really just said Blob!

Apparently, it’s a thing. Probably lives somewhere near the Cloud.

And this is pretty much how the first couple hours went.

But slowly, I started to find my place on our team.
Just like my new teammates promised when they convinced me to signup.

The best teams have diverse perspectives and psychological safety.
Two things I can certainly bring and help build.

I was able to rein us in when we jumped into the data before knowing each other’s names.
I later put their brainstorming and ideas into a visual.
Brought organization and some structure.

And created some fun and silliness as we went.

By the end of three days, I had six new friends.
Seattle. Vancouver, Canada. Chicago.
Data Scientists. A Product Manager. A Business Developer. And Pilots.

And our relationships paid off!

We were voted Crowd Favorite.
We had a solution that all the other teams needed.
And I believe our closeness and collaboration were noticeable.
The energy was contagious.

At the very beginning, one of our leaders had said, “As long as the people show up, I always know these events will be a success. We just need the people.”

Those are wise words. And proven this week to be absolutely true.

As leaders, when we have the choice to dictate the process/actions, or set up an enabling structure and then trust the people… I’ll always bet on the people.

“Together, we do incredible things!”

 

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#InspirationallyImpactful

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