Most probably all of us know that famous advertising Nokia campaign with the slogan “Nokia- connecting people”? I would dare say the same DG Comm-reconnecting its staff …

Last week on the 7-8th June our DG COMM organised a seminar on “New Media challenges” for the whole Directorate staff.  Was it a mere coincidence that exactly a  year ago in 2009 we were having EP elections, or was it organised intentionally the same day this year? This rhetorical question was put forward too at the very opening of the seminar.

We all had a chance to revive our knowledge about each of the six Units activities and tasks which fall under each of them as a separate presentation was given by individual Head of Unit.

I don’t want to sound judgemental, but some of the presentations given by other superiors were too much soaked with data, statistics which caught my glimpse of other colleagues sitting in the room being busy with scribbling something on a piece of paper, their mind daydreaming or focused on a sunny weather outdoors.

Not so Steve’s my boss (WebComm Unit) presentation which happened to be the last, but was at the right moment and in the right place, which made all of us vigilant, alive, our attention glued to the big screens on the wall in the meeting room being totally captured by a short video. Well, some people say that: “Talk doesn’t cook rice.”  If you are curious enough, you may see our former videos about our WebComm team here.

During the seminar we were give an excellent example by external British professional expert of Media on how to handle problematic issues we face in our daily routine as well as  to improvise in a special situation, which though was imaginary, but seemed to be very down to earth and possible to be faced in reality. And indeed – dealing with big issues and problems and being left alone in the battle field with no hierarchy behind our shoulders, revealed most of us to be totally mentally handicapped to take quick decisions and react quickly to the situation. It is probably in human nature to avoid and run away from problems or delegate them to others, thus avoiding direct responsibility … Being an ostrich is not a way to handle tough situations.

It is good to rub and polish

our brain against that of others.

(Montaigne)

It felt good to have an opportunity not just to refresh the mind with a succulent injection of new approach and information we received during those 2 days, but I also felt the need for a team building spirit and brainstorming efforts to be revived too. I am pretty certain that most of us like working by themselves, individually, but sometimes team work or cooperating in group workshops is an excellent opportunity to reconnect with colleagues. And not only this- it awakens you and gives a chance to look at many different problems that normally we face in every day routine- through a different perspective.

Like Plato would put it: “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”

Indeed working in groups gave me a gulp of new professional air for my lungs.