Sometimes there is a different type of language barrier – maybe you’re existing on different Plains?
One of my favourite challenges while temping, was for a company offering spiritual services and courses. It had more to do with understanding the way my new boss spoke… she didn’t have traditional ways of thinking and I was frequently needing to decipher what is was she was really after. That’s not saying that she was difficult to understand or work for, she just has an artistic interpretation of the world.
We were about to launch a new curriculum and introduce subjects and course material to clientele and the general public. It sounds simple, but throw in a Director who, being true to the stereotype, tended to talk and operate in concepts – and the task became more and more intimidating.
I had to learn a whole new way of communicating and mused how our conversations would look with subtitles:
It may sound like I had a frustrating task with no leadership when attempting to organise a series of spiritual seminars, but in truth it was fantastic. You could get as creative as you wanted, make things bright and colourful, think outside the box… way outside!
If you want to know what I did for the seminar:
Instead of throwing together a PowerPoint Presentation on a set list of topics, I created ‘Stations’ around the room which had flatscreens looping material on multimedia packets for each area of speciality. Substituting the typical folder with pages of information for products with our branding, complete with information on use, company background, courses, contact info etc. – essentially a show bag of goodies.
Each station was a sensory adventure with music or live instruments, flowers, burning oils, and shimmery stones. A smorgasbord of stimulation. The Director was then able to head to whichever station she wanted to and give her excitable spiel, with complete freedom to follow a train of thought, or follow where the largest group of participants gathered.
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Casey Carlisle 