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While getting coffee before a consulting gig, I happened to bump into two leaders from that same organization who were at a table sipping their morning brew. There was a brief pause.
“Hey, are you parachuting in again today?”
“Yes.”
Awkward pause.
“It’s not us right?”
“Nope, you are fine. In fact your departments are doing well.”
“Great. Good luck. We are just glad it is not us.”
Parachuting In: the new term this group jokingly uses when I stop by to help a division or group of folks in the organization understand themselves better, work through conflict, or learn to be a more effective team.
I kind of like it.
Parachuting in means someone is in immediate need of help.
Parachuting in means that you have come to help.
Parachuting in means that your mission or goal may be secret (you are not going to air another department’s issues when questioned).
Parachuting in means that your work is temporary.
Parachuting in means that you are bringing needed assistance, resources, and strategy.
Parachuting in means that it is their department, their operation, and their team.
That simple phrase has stuck with me. Partly because the work has been long-term enough to earn a nick-name.
What will your work’s nick-name be?
Is your art, your craft, your life, your relationships, your consulting, your business creating the right resonance to earn its own phrase or nick-name?
The other part that I remember is how happy they seemed that I was not there to see them.
Carl Weber Consulting 