Horses and Water

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make her drink.

Have you heard of a Morale Task Force? It’s a group of people from your department who are charged with introducing fun and interesting ways to bring the team together, make things better, and boost the teams morale. I love this idea and I’ve even seen it work in many companies. But there’s a challenge here that most people don’t consider when they measure the effectiveness of their Morale Task Force.

No one can boost someone else’s morale, they need to do it for themselves. Therefore let’s rewrite the mission of a Morale Task Force: To offer opportunities for the team to boost their own morale.

The same applies to Human Resources training programs. Mission: To offer tools with which individuals can improve and evolve their skills in (whatever area they need).

Business coaches are in the same camp. Mission: To reflect back the gifts of each client and offer tools to help each client succeed.

All of these service providers simply add to the buffet of opportunities for us to grow and evolve. It is entirely up to us to taste, sample, and choose from these offerings. And then to take what resonates for us, and apply it to our lives.

Think about this when your office requires an offsite to “build trust,” or the Morale Task Force has invited the department to an ice cream party. Go. Go with your heart wide open and ready to recognize the good in it. You don’t need to love it all or hate it all. You may like one moment or the whole thing; there are no rules or requirements about what resonates per person.

Consider this. You’re neither horse nor water, you’re an open minded person interested in learning; you can embrace, reject or feel neutral about what is offered. Give yourself the opportunity to find out.