Editor’s Note on Trust and Team Building

Team building and other interesting hints to build success

I met Cristina in a business trip, on a plane: our special friendship was born on that flying machine, where she told me about her. She arrived in London from Naples with the ambition of turn her life upside down and to face new challenges. Slim, lithe, with long hair that drew a wave on her face, bright eyes, fascinating smile, she was a Business Developer for an Asian Pharmaceutical manufacturer.

In the evenings she attended The Cript, a milonga in a former deconsecrated church: she wanted to dance the tango. “I was drawn to the acrobatic sensuality of Argentine dance,” she told me. That atmosphere had the effect of a zip opening behind her back and letting in electric chills. Thirty three years old, she was imperiously beautiful (and she still is): it was impossible to remain indifferent to her. Yet the dancer she liked never invited her.

As haughty as a literary character, with blond hair and crystal blue eyes with glances that created a field of feverish energy, he had the wind in his legs: his way of dancing had a hypnotic enchantment. “I couldn’t be chosen, I was a beginner. So I started studying and training determinedly”.
In her asymmetrical, flowing gowns she would spin until her feet bleed, striving to improve technique while at the same time balancing her momentum for domination. She began to understand that it was good for her to let go, be carried away by the dancer, enjoy the moment trying to abandon herself into the music and finally starting to feel what trust means.

Andrea, expert dancer, also Italian, has noticed it. She was getting good and getting confident. They started to get to know each other without ever hitting the dance floor together: she still had to refine the style. “You are at a good point, I can give you some private lessons”, the knight finally said inviting her to dance. Two different people with nothing in common but a passion for tango dance came together to create a beautiful, harmonious and coordinated symphony, a masterwork of body language. They have never parted since. “I learned how important it is, in love and in life, to let go, to trust the other“, she confessed to me.

I believe that dancing is a good metaphor of teamwork (of marriage, of any kind of human interaction), where timing, trust, and dedication striving together are the keys. “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”, says a well-known African proverb and I couldn’t agree more, but I should add that in my opinion going alone is not truly rewarding, instead going together definitely worth all the efforts. Browsing through our PWA website you will find many inspiring female figures that could make your professional journey in Rome more pleasant! Specially, look out for November’s person of the month: Milena Guarino Padula, and read her impressive life story!

Take inspiration and believe in your vibrations, not just the brain, because the body always speaks the truth. Dancing teaches that it is when you know how to walk well alone that you can move wonderfully even in pairs. Not only that: it teaches confidence, trust, and self-esteem, beyond the roles in dance.
It helps train your communication skills, enhance your inner strengths, and offer refined insights into the art of caring each other. It seems a magical potion! To explore more about how to build your professional/personal success and the magic of you, join this month’s Conference Step In, Step Up, Step Out! Registrations are still open.

“Dancing should be a math-level school education“, Ken Robinson, bestselling author of essays, says in his TED lecture. “The dance brings good humor and stability to restless children and is effective in dissolving the tensions caused by violence and bullying. Nobody invented it: it is rooted in every culture, it is physical expression through the rhythm of relationships and ideas“. Many studies show that by inventing a choreography, millennials improve their skills to collaborate: empathy and direct physical contact help the social approach. Unfortunately (for me), we cannot use such approach for team building inside the PWA Board (do we want to add that we are also in the middle of a worldwide pandemic?), however this month we started a virtual team building journey and I am eager to it.

On our first session, our coach proposed an activity to determine our team’s health state. It was our duty to be open and let us diagnose in order to find the right strategies to achieve results. Now, we have to design our dream team. It will be an interesting journey! But for me, any journey would be better with music, so I will sway my whole PWA experience with it: dancing helps to win in life, increases self-esteem, allows you to overcome challenges lightly. Want to join me? Put wings on your feet, blow up a sound and start moving, your life will improve: “We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once”. Well said Neitzsche!

By Luisa Lopez
Rome, November 2020