Yesterday I was part of a Dialogue session with a group of colleagues from around the world, and as
part of the hosting team, I had the honour of welcoming everybody to the event.
Just before the session, I’d been thinking about the word welcome and decided that it’s one of my
favourite words. What I like about this word is the feelings it arouses in me—like warmth and
togetherness; the emotions like pleasure and excitement; and the memories, like meeting the host
or hostess of a party, or just arriving at the home of family or friends.
This word has a glow of community.
When I mentioned that welcome was one of my favourite words, the response was a series of warm
smiles—I think of recognition. A feeling of being welcome seems to be quite resonant and
contagious.
In my field of work, being welcomed and feeling welcome is essential. I work with corporate leaders
and teams as an executive coach, team coach, leadership development facilitator, and dialogue
practitioner. We use phrases like contact before contract, creating psychological safety, and building
a container—all of which are difficult or impossible if someone involved doesn’t feel welcome.
And in my field of work, when people feel truly welcome… there’s a much greater chance they’ll truly
work together—and then… all sorts of magic can happen.
In fact, let’s be honest—in any field of work, when people feel truly welcome… there’s a greater
chance they’ll genuinely work together—and then… all sorts of magic can happen.
So Welcome to this blog. WELCOME! It’s such a great word that it makes me smile just typing it—and I hope you feel welcome here.
This blog will be all about SKILLFUL COLLABORATION. I love these two words too…
- Skillful: The ability to do something well.
- Collaboration: Working together.
In the blog posts, I’m planning to share stories from my professional and personal experiences, some
team and leadership case studies, some of the latest and greatest theory and research in this field , and some reflections on my own development (some ‘successes’ / some ‘failures’).
As the blog is all about ‘collaboration’, I may also ‘Welcome’ a guest
blogger or two to get involved… ‘guest bloggers’ is that still a thing? I guess it is—so to the potential guest bloggers out there: Welcome!
So yes—hello, do come on in…
Please stay a while. Look around. Do some reading and thinking. Check out what you find interesting.
Feel free to leave some reflections. I look forward to reading them and connecting from time to time
with the good folks who visit here.
After all, if I’m interested in collaboration, then I’d better love interacting with your thoughts and
ideas. Who knows—maybe we’ll create some new thinking together. That would be amazing!
So, welcome. You are most definitely WELCOME.
