CHET TRAINING: Self Discovery?

(This may seem like I’m writing about shop talk, for work; trust me on this, it’s not just work…) Well, I survived my “CHET Training” in Lexington, Kentucky last week. It was a draining week that started Sunday evening and ended Friday afternoon. Most nights, I slept 3-6 hours, never longer. It was incredibly emotional and personal. It sounds “cheesy,” but it really was a time of self discovery! Some people that have gone through the training have referred to it as a “life changing” event. I’m not sure that I’d take it that far, but it was something that affected me deeply. It’s changed my outlook for work relationships and has inspired me to make some changes to my life outside of work, as well. WHAT IS CHET? "Creating Highly Effective Teams." Basically, it’s a course that, through experimentation, group exercises, etc. allows participants to learn about themselves. The framework for the discussion is the “open system model” Basically, you’ve got an environment and within this environment, you have individuals interacting, a social system and a process that bring about an output. OK. It sounds kinda “touchy feely” and not all that applicable to anything. I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical, at first. But if you look at these components closely, you find that there are a lot of things that describe people’s behavior. Let me explain. Basically, at work, in corporate America, especially, you are rewarded for doing tasks. There is not much emphasis on people and people relationships. WHAT I LEARNED Through these activities, my group of 9 people (including myself) learned several things. Firstly, we learned that each person has special talents and that each person is different based on his/her background. This “diversity” in thought makes the team work more effectively! Next, we learned that having a close relationship to these people instills a sense of trust and respect. Social interaction not only makes teams work better, it makes the work more interesting and can even motivate team members to work at their best. WHAT DO I DO WITH THIS? There are a lot of next steps from this training. Most obvious, I’m going to be changing somewhat, the relationship with my coworkers, in Cincinnati. Some people have been very concerned about the changes that I’ve been going through in the past months. I have shut them out and this has distanced me from them. OTHER THOUGHTS My father once told me that when you go into a situation, don’t reveal everything all at once. I still agree with this advice. I’m not going to go back and spill my guts. I’m going to feed my life to these people in small bites. I’m going to explain what happened in April, give them time to digest this, and if they still want to learn more about me, then I’ll open up even more. Although I did meet some great people, the training was a little overwhelming. I’m still so tired. I just wish that I could sleep and sleep and sleep. I’ve really not done that much productive this weekend. I spent a lot of time in Friday getting my website up. I think I’ll go ahead and finish it tonight, so that I can take it off of my list. FYI. A letter to my boss describing the stuff I learned and my next steps.