4 Things to Do When Murphy Turns up at Work

“Do you want to change up the group on Day 2?” Ulla, a treasured member of my team, asked.

“Yes. I think that would be good” I replied. “Always great to shift the energy and have people working in new groups. After all, that’s what they do all the time back at work.”

And so, Ulla and I set about designing an opening exercise for Day 2 of our Leadership workshop that would end up sorting the 42 participants into different groups than on Day 1.

I arrived at the workshop room early. It was empty – not even the convention hall staff were there. My Happiness Songs playlist floated from my Macbook as I laid out the exercise, slowly, deliberately, one table at a time. The room was beautiful, colourful and ready when the participants arrived. And I was calm and happy.

The opening exercise was fun, energising and extremely inspiring and touching. The participants loved it. As they naturally fell into their new seats, I glanced to my left and saw 7 people seated at a table.

“How come you have 7 people at your table?” I asked, slight annoyance edging my voice, about to accuse them of not following my instructions.

They pointed out that they were sitting as per the exercise instructions. Puzzled, I glanced to my right and noticed that one table was empty, and that the other 5 tables had 7 people each, rather than the planned 6. My mind raced, about to panic. Then I realised that I had very carefully and deliberately laid out 6 tables of 7 rather than 7 tables of 6! What am I to do, I wondered in the split second of utter horror, thinking of the work plan for the entire day that had been designed for 7 groups!

I surveyed at the group of smiling faces, exhaled and silently affirmed: All is well. I started the workshop by sharing what had happened as a learning moment. The day before, we had spoken about stress. I posited that stress is not something done to us, it’s our emotional response to a situation.

“Do I look stressed?” I asked.
“Not at all” they chorused.

Little did they know the moment of utter panic and terror I had just put myself through, I thought. And with that, the workshop continued in perfect order, actually working better with 6 groups than 7!

Of course, there are lessons, not just for workshop facilitators, but also for leaders:

1. Murphy will always turn up. Guaranteed. So, don’t be surprised, nor discombobulated when things go wrong – they will.
2. The better you plan, the more ready you are to deal with situations that go awry. Ulla and I had spent weeks preparing for this workshop, and so I was ready, in the moment, to adjust.
3. Look for learning moments – I decided to share my error with the group to demonstrate a point I had made the day before. This involved my being vulnerable, which was scary, but I did it anyway. It’s OK to share our vulnerabilities.
4. Keep calm and carry on – had I not told the participants about my error, they probably would not have known something was amiss.

As I watched the group happily engage in the workshop activities throughout the day, I relaxed.

“I can’t wait to tell Ulla,” I chuckled to myself.

And when I did, we both had a good laugh!