Returning to “Why”: Lessons Learned in the Shed
Like all organizations interested in maximizing potential and remaining open to opportunities, we recently had a powerful “woodshedding” weekend here at The Holding Group. For all jazz enthusiasts out there, you’re aware of this term – adopted from the idea of taking an axe to the woodshed to sharpen, it means taking your instrument to an isolated spot in order to dedicate uninterrupted time to your craft. With deep gratitude to our families and partners, to our business-life guru Rolando Salinas and to one another, we dedicated time and space to our craft to reconnect with WHY we’ve come together to create this agency. We needed to put new words to our passion, to hone our intentions and put some structure to the culture that underlies The Holding Group.
What we ended up with, in addition to myriad powerful “eureka!” moments, is the fundamental root of our existence:
We believe that people know what’s best for them and that they deserve to be informed, empowered and supported.
Our passion comes down to this simple, yet utterly complex, notion. We find that it can be hard for our clients in the midst of a serious illness to recall a time before the illness began (or took over), and yet this means that they no longer feel like experts about their needs. A significant part of our mission is to support a return to feelings of confidence, control and mastery. Again we turn to our Heroes for inspiration, as we realize that there have been many before us who honor this same concept and hold it as a core value. What a joy to realize that we’re a piece of a larger whole with a unique perspective and contribution.
Our woodshed time yielded significant personal lessons as well, which is expected given the intimacy of our work and aspirations. We all have the ongoing chance to break away from our “storied selves” in order to realize the many dimensions we all encompass. It’s like a magic trick or ironic riddle: we can break out of the corner we paint ourselves into as soon as we realize that we’ve painted ourselves into a corner. The narrative of our lives is a work in progress, and one that we daily write ourselves. There is unlimited power in humor, relationships, honesty, and the unsaid – how vital it is to challenge our assumptions about ourselves and one another in order to reveal boundless potential. Above all, we are renewed in our gratitude for the opportunity to serve.