Hey hey peeps!

I have grounded myself in Brisbane, Australia for awhile – Australia’s sub-tropical west coast belt. I landed here in the middle of summer and PHEW, the heat and humidity is something else. Luckily my remote working station, the ph360 Command Centre, has air conditioning and a pool, and the home I am staying at also has a pool; otherwise, I would be melting faster than an Arctic glacier!

I have joined forces with two amazing ph360 peeps – Dr Cam McDonald, and Mr Kyle Riley, and have connected in with such an amazing and supportive ph360 community in this part of the world. One of the most fascinating learnings I have experienced so far, is how to make a team of BioTrends work harmoniously together.

Storming, Norming, and Performing

As “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” rocks the airwaves back at home in North America, I was living my own version – “Keeping Up with the Crusaders”. ha ha. And I learned to not even try to keep up with them. 

Now, don’t get me wrong – the Crusaders (Dr Cam and Kyle) treated me very well and opened their working space to me, of which I am very grateful. It is fascinating for all of us to come together with our knowledge of biotrend strengths and talents, and how we bring those together for an effective and efficient team dynamic.

We had some peaks and valleys of learnings when the BioTrends Crusader and Guardian came together as completely opposite of each other on the BioTrend wheel:

The Crusaders wanted to work on the weekends…

The Guardian wanted to have some social time….

The Crusaders were disciplined in their eating and work out regimes…

The Guardian piggy-backed onto their discipline…

When the Crusaders made dinner, it was simple and functional…

When the Guardian made dinner, it was a multi-course, marinating-all-day type of affair…

The Crusaders wanted to “talk shop” late into the evening…

The Guardian wanted to talk about life, feelings, experiences…

It was SO fascinating! Trying to find common ground and approach projects in ways that elevated our strengths and mitigated the risk of anyone not feeling productive was a really interesting experience to go through. It made the ph360 approach so real and powerful.

Learning Curves

We learned a LOT. Gaining this lens of awareness to recognize our tendencies, motivations, and how to harness the power of them was such a fascinating learning curve. It really drove home the importance of eliminating judgement, embracing self awareness, and engaging compassion when building team dynamics. It truly highlighted that everyone is an expert in something. Like the famous Albert Einstein quote – “If you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.”

The Crusader BioTrend has their areas of genius, just as the Guardian does. It doesn’t do any good for a Crusader to judge a Guardian against Crusader’s standards of genius (although their ego will REALLY want them to! ha ha); just like a Guardian cannot judge a Crusader against a Guardian’s strengths. Those strengths are not the natural talents of the others, that is why everyone has a role in creating a cohesive and successful community. It is when we all come together, we all thrive.

Nurturing the Nerd Alert

Now, my academic and personal interests lie in the areas of interpersonal communication. With an Undergrad in Sociology, and Masters degree in Communication, specializing in Intercultural and International Communication – witnessing these dynamics is absolutely delightful! I am totally nerding out on how cool it was to witness these dynamics at play.

It is also an exercise in learning how my BioTrend, the “nurturer” of the community, can nurturer the least nurturing BioTrend in a way that would truly resonate with them. It is a challenge, but such an interesting experience to get to know someone, who operates in a completely different way than I do, from a place of unconditional love and acceptance.

I love it all!!

Until next time!

#shaelife