I recently went on a seminar, I guess it was a personal development seminar, it was also a coaching seminar and that is one direction that I want to take my business in so thought it would be worthwhile.
It was a two and a half day 'free' seminar. I have to admit that the first evening was pretty confronting and I nearly didn't go back the next day. There were several reasons for this but one of them was if I am going to open up, do I want to do it publicly, in a room full of people and not only that but whole weekend was being filmed.
Another reason was, we were asked to introduce ourselves to others in the group - no problem with that - but not in any 'normal' kind of way. We had to think about the following question and introduce our selves as such with an explanation of why.
"If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be and why?"
What? I just don't get this kind of stuff. Do you? Like, I have no idea. To me it sounds like the type of question my nine (now 12) year old son would ask.
My brain doesn't think like that. I don't have the luxury of time to think about stuff like that. Should I dare to let my mind wander from work or kids homework or laundry, it usually returns quite quickly to, what should we have for dinner tonight?
Does this mean that I can't be personally developed or that I just will not succeed as a coach? Do my clients really need me to ask that question to help them with their health and wellbeing?
I don't have the answers, maybe I need to do a seminar to help me come to terms with this seminar.
3 comments:
I have come across that question before. To me, it's nothing more than a party game designed to get strangers talking to each other.
I reckon I'm a monkey. I'm gregarious, talkative, generally happy and can be fiercely protective of my children.
I'd like to be a cat, all cool and aloof, knows what it wants and gets it, but I think the only trait I have as a cat is the ability to sleep for hours at any time of day.
You're good at this Deb. I like that you're a monkey. :)
Deb's right - that's exactly the reason for the question. Having done a lot of facilitating of meetings and training sessions, I've used similar strategies myself to get people telling a little more about themselves than their name.
I wouldn't choose that particular question though, because it would personally make me feel stupid (as I'd struggle to come up with an answer).
The point shouldn't be to make people feel uncomfortable, but to put them at ease, since pretty much everyone likes talking about themselves.
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