Bringing Out the Emotion in Your Meeting

Recently, Siemens North America’s Drive Technology Business Unit held their annual management meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to inform and drive business results for 2012.

A teambuilding organization called Afterburner conducted presentations during the meeting’s first day. Afterburner was founded by a former Air Force fighter pilot who realized that the tools he learned in military aviation were applicable to the business world as well.  The presentations were well received by the audience, and the fighter pilot analogies provided a backdrop that made the learning tactical and communication skills easy and fun.

On the second day, part of the focus was on Siemens Social Responsibility philosophy. An hour was set aside for the attendees to build airplanes and assemble plane launchers to give to over a dozen children of military personnel who were invited to dinner later that evening.

After dinner, the children sat in front of the stage to listen to former jet pilot Patrick “Lips” Houlahan. He was most impressive in his jump suit and all-American style. He reviewed much of the same philosophies from the day before called and a short presentation called “Afterburner for Youth.” He reviewed much of the same philosophies from the day before (remove – called and a short presentation) called “Afterburner for Youth.”

After his presentation, Houlahan opened the floor to questions from the kids. What we heard was like an episode from the classic Art Linkletter show “Kids Say the Darndest Things.”

• “Is your plane really parked outside?”
• “If the raft is in your seat, how are you not already in it?”
• Kid: “What do you do if there are sharks in the water?” Lips: “Get out fast!”
• “What if you paddle with your hand in the water and there are sharks?”
• Kid #1: “Can you drink when you’re flying?” Kid #2: “That’s only when you fly first class.”
• Lips: “My jump suit won’t catch on fire. Response: “That’s awesome!”
• “On Christmas eve, do you fly with Santa?”

Being part of doing something nice for families who do so much for our country felt really good. But when the kids came up with these questions, the place erupted with laughter as the “child in all of us” came out. Bringing out the emotion in meeting attendees is critical to making a successful and memorable event.

The evening ended with plane races in the foyer and everyone seemed to bask in the glow of a wonderful few days.