State of the Union 2011: Inspiring Collaboration

Millions of Americans tuned in last night as President Obama delivered the 2011 State of the Union. The speech was received with mixed reviews. Today, New York Times journalist, Stanley Fish called the speech, “Eloquently prosaic”. However, both naysayers and constituents seemed to embrace the most powerful theme of the evening; unity.

President Obama used the State of the Union as a vehicle to transform our large nation of diversity into a close-knit community working towards common goals. How so? He did away with segregated seating, introducing Americans to bipartisan seating arrangements. Each attendee was paired with a counterpart of the opposite political spectrum.

The State of the Union forced me to think; How could this effect corporate meetings? Shaking up seating would force collaboration. Moving attendees away from the people they feel comfortable around could create the same excitement.

Placing attendees from other departments next to each other could result in beautiful collaboration, it could also result in nothing at all. But we’ll never know until we try!