2016 Plexus Team Building: Day One observations

The Plexus Groupe's 2016 Team Building Event got started Wednesday, and plenty of ground was covered in a jam-packed, quick-moving all-day session. Here were some of the highlights:
-- The overarching message from leadership expert Joe Mazzenga to Plexus staff: "You can lead from any chair." Mazzenga, the managing partner at NuBrick Partners, led a long, interactive discussion on the importance of organizational health on corporate success in the morning session.

-- Mazzenga delivered the line of the day when he spoke of the sometimes-flailing attempts organizations can make when it comes to fostering teamwork, with after-work sports teams one idea he doesn't buy as a true measure of an organization's willingness to work together. "Left to their own devices, organizations will birth bowling teams," Mazzenga said.

-- In the afternoon, the Plexus staff broke into small, multi-discipline groups for case studies on a variety of business issues. We won't get into what we discussed -- some things are off-the-record at Plexus team building. But we will say this: getting a couple of hours to address real world, everyday business challenges and opening the floor to talk strategy is time well-spent for any organization. And in such situations, you find that some of the most important takeaways can come in the asides and footnotes to the main points being made. Ever hear something that rings so true that you underline it and star it in your notes as if trying to tattoo it into the page, lest it not accidentally be lost? You would have loved the case studies.

-- Day One ended with a reception for our sponsors, whom we cannot thank enough for their contributions to an event we hold near and dear -- an opportunity for us to gather and get better. Our gratitude and appreciation to all who attended.

-- Thursday's agenda features our keynote address from author and explorer Alison Levine. We'll be sharing notes, quotes and pictures from throughout the day via our social media sites, and we'll have a recap here on Thursday night or Friday. So if you haven't already liked or followed us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, now's the time.