As we ease slowly into a brand new working year, 2023 seems like a long time ago already! And like most years since 2020 there’s an all too familiar rhetoric being bandied around – one of ‘it was a challenging year’ – familiar but strangely safe in a way, because here we are again – we got through it – successfully, relatively unscathed, and certainly with a sense of satisfaction and renewed energy to do it all again…. Don’t get me wrong. There was A LOT of hard work, sweat and probably the odd tear that got us there!

We end our working year in a really positive and thankful way - we are very fortunate, as a small team to be able to pack up the flip chart, crafts, brown paper and glue sticks (not forgetting the party frocks!) and spend a day and a night away in a fabulous Gloucestershire location.  It’s a great time to reflect, share our highs and lows, throw some creative things on brown paper, and generally look back on our achievements, successes, as well as hopes for the future and of course the year ahead – there might even be a glass of something cold to celebrate and encourage creativity too. 

There is of course the hard-to-refuse incentive of a night away from the home Christmas preps, a catered meal and a chance to catch up with guests – our wider associate team.  People we don’t often spend much face to face time with these days.

This year we were really fortunate to be able to dip in briefly to one of the team’s Japanese culture. Daniel ran a Shodou (書道) Japanese calligraphy workshop for us. It was a real bonus.

It is an incredibly meditative artform and although initially, we were all a bit nervous to get stuck in with the brushes and ink (and mess up the beautifully rich parchment paper!!) we focused and followed Daniel’s helpful and calm lead. We practised writing some simple Kanji characters, including our names, company name and values in Japanese.

As part of the workshop he also introduced the Japanese tradition of goal setting with a Daruma doll. You fill in one eye when setting the goal and then fill in the other eye to give the Daruma full vision once the goal has been met!

If we didn’t have a party to host, I think we could have languished there a lot longer expressing our creativity and sharing goals.  It was a wonderful end to Interaction’s 2023.  I have a feeling those cute Daruma dolls will be making an appearance at future team days where we might share personal goals and business aspirations for 2024.

Daniel is hoping to integrate this experiential learning activity into some of the programmes we deliver next year! It can be quite revealing! Watch this space (with both eyes)… of course we’d love to hear what you think and if this is something you could use in your organisation?

Happy New Year!