October 26, 2021

Most of us have turned up to a meeting and been confronted with a good old ‘icebreaker’. Yep, those ones where everyone rolls their eyes wondering what is going to be expected of them.

On Thursday morning, I was that person, full of excitement with an annoying smug smile as I stood up in the team meeting.

I quickly gave everyone a piece of A4 paper and threw every type of pen and pencil I could find in our stationary obsessed office. I told the team they had two minutes (timed on my battered iPhone) and asked them all to draw an aeroplane.

That was it. Easy, right? One simple instruction.

During those two minutes I heard whispers from the team trying to remember what an aeroplane looked like, mutters that theirs were rubbish, and a lot of mildly humorous panic.

As the timer counted down, I was eager to see their results.

As you can see from the gallery, there’s no Tony Hart here at MM Towers but what I will say is that no matter the task, our crazy team will give it their very best. I asked the team to collectively decide who’s was the best and worst from the gallery – sorry Jude, you’ve been outed! Jude lost the competition because she ‘used pencils and didn’t press hard enough’. The team were pretty savage about her defence.

Georgia however, after declaring her love for Simon Cowell in a previous team quiz, slightly – and I mean slightly – redeemed herself with her artistic talents and won the task. We had a giggle and came up with a list of reasons why they had come to their conclusion and agreed what Georgia had considered when coming up with her masterpiece; attention to detail, creativity, precision, the use of colour and motion from memory of a real life experience on an aeroplane (yes, it feels like a lifetime ago, so clearly Georgia was dreaming/reminiscing, did you see her camping trip blog?)

So what was the point in this ten minute icebreaker? Well, the team were all given the same tools, the same amount of time and the same instructions yet the results speak for themselves. Pretty different. right?

The exercise was to demonstrate just how important it is to make sure we ask the correct questions to our clients. By doing this we ensure that we meet and exceed their expectations, vital when delivering targeted traffic to their platforms or representing their business.

What would your picture look like?

Always remember – cheeky grin to camera – You’re the pilot of your own plane and a good pilot has as many take offs as landings.