Happy day

Serge Kampf, who founded Capgemini in 1967, used to say that business is like love: what matters is to love. To love your colleagues, to love your clients.

The phrase could pass for a pleasant turn of words. We take it seriously, because it describes rather well what happens when a group is truly working well together.

Joy is not an extra

The convivial side of a seminar is often associated with everything that surrounds the work: the pleasant venue, the good meal, the evening event. These are real pleasures and they matter. But on their own, they do not produce very much.

The joy we are talking about lies elsewhere. It is the joy of a group that is making progress, that surprises itself, that comes up with an idea no one had thought of, and knows it. That kind of joy is not a break between two workshops: it is the sign that the work is working.

It can be prepared

A joyful group is not a group that has been entertained. It is a group that has been given the means to succeed: a question worth the effort, a framework in which people can say what they think, a rhythm that leaves room to breathe, instructions clear enough that no one loses their footing, and enough latitude for everyone to bring something of themselves.

The welcome matters enormously. The first few minutes determine the rest. The way you are received, greeted and directed, and the way the team welcoming you behaves among themselves: all of this registers very quickly and shapes the frame of mind in which you enter the day.

What we keep an eye on

We watch faces a great deal during a session. The noise level in a room says a lot, so does laughter, and silences say even more. When the energy drops, it is almost never because people are tired. It is because something in the set-up is no longer serving the group.

So we adjust. That is also why we prepare so much.