21 May 2021
Colleague Context
The final day of the week throws up a problematic workshop, and it makes you appreciate the benefits of having a great work colleague.
Thank goodness it’s Friday! Here in Australia, if you work in business in a head office or non-retail, Friday marks the last day of the working week. If the week has been a long week, then like The Cure would say, “Friday, I’m in love!”. So, it’s just one more day to get through before I can relax. This afternoon we, (my work colleague and me) facilitated a workshop.
The thought was it was a Friday afternoon, and like many workshops run at this time of day, the participants are trying to cut out at 4:00 PM, meaning we can pack up by 4:30 PM, and we can go home on time. As you’ve no doubt gathered, “no plan survives first contact with the enemy”.
At the break, the session got rearranged to suit the outputs from earlier. Actionable tasks were the aim. However, the initial “what” questions elicited anything from actions to philosophical statements. Our mission then was to “taskify” the groupings instead, which fell flat. Instead, we got a lot more information from a brainstorming situation.
In the end, it was creative and valuable but not where we thought we ended up, plus participants opted to stay longer! On a Friday afternoon? Really?
It was a big day; if it weren’t for my colleague being fantastic, things would not have gone as well. It’s situations like this when flexibility and patience pay off. My colleague recognising that I was in trouble with my ankle during the session, carried a part of the burden. At one stage, my back had even given me a hard time.
What a great day and a great colleague!
Today's Cards
The Cards - Analysis
Carry Over Cards
One card carried over from yesterday; Awareness moved from Others’ Views to the Outcome position.
Cross
picture or how the day would play out, the whole time wishing for the lazy option. The lazy option in today’s scenario would have been to follow the carefully laid out plan. Changing from that meant trying hard to channel it to the outcome initially identified.
Fortunately, Going with the Flow was the Goal, translating for flexibility in the schedule and remaining adaptable to the circumstances. The intensity card in the Distant Past was all about abandoning traditional approaches and “thinking outside of the box”.
In the Recent Past was Suppression. The ability to suppress, although not healthy in the long term and is not what Osho recommends, is a crucial skill. Particularly if you’re frustrated by people or circumstances, and you don’t want to make a career-limiting move. Alternatively, helpful if you don’t have career aspirations and just want to keep your job.
In the Future Energy position is Integration. Integration is about moving through Consciousness and past the desire to take the easy way out and finding a way to make it work out.
Base
My Feeling was that of Patience going into the day and proved to be helpful. Patience echoes Laziness in that Laziness is the avoidance or lack of awareness of a situation where Patience is aware and observing for the right moment to act. The observing element echoes Going with the Flow.
Others’ Views is that I am Experiencing every moment as it arrives; this is on par with Going with the Flow.
Guilt is in the Hopes & Fears position, which means I fear I feel guilty over not assisting my colleague as much as I would have liked in the clean-up. My hope in this situation is that my Guilt is unfounded.
Awareness is in the Outcome position, indicating almost a full circle of where I started with Consciousness. It’s like Marcel Proust said, ” The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” (brainyquotes).
References
- Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7
