Today Was Spectacular

Today was spectacular. I mean truly spectacular. I am so proud of the team with me. Susan and Terri are doing a wonderful job sharing their many gifts of self with Hospice Wits staff.  It's going to be hard to put into words to describe how I feel about today. I know there will be more to share once I've had a chance to be still and think.  For now I'll tell you about our day. It's almost 5:30 pm in Jo-burg.

This morning we spent 4 hours with the management team. All 6 of their leaders committed to giving up half a day (on a Friday) to be with us.  We started with an activity led by Terri. We all completed an autobiographical poem about ourselves and then shared them with each other. I then led a discussion about leadership which culminated with each of the managers and CEO completed two different leadership questionnaires. Given the amount of trust in the room, the Hospice Wits staff began sharing some feelings regarding their own leadership strengths and leadership behaviors they'd like their colleagues to help them with.  Terri then ended our time together by facilitating a very heartwarming activity.  She will blog about this herself so I won't say more.  Just one hint... It involves each manager being 'pinned' by us. The pins are jigsaw puzzle pieces. We repeated this activity in the afternoon with all the staff on the Jo-burg campus and we'll repeat this activity in Soweto.  By the time we leave every paid employee will have a pin. I'm sending a few pictures for you to see.

After all the staff left Susan, Terri, and I stayed in the room to process the day and the week. We cried, laughed, and expressed gratitude to each other, our families, and you. This trip would not be possible without everyone's support.

So my heart is full. In fact it is brimming and overflowing with love right now. Tonight we're having dinner with the management team to celebrate our first work week here (please slow down time...). We understand we're being taken to an authentic South African restaurant. I heard someone mention worms...

Tomorrow is the weekend. We'll work on more posts so you'll have plenty to read Monday.

Until then,

Stacy