So we adventured on this journey of faith. Faith on the nascent broadband services. Both the hotels in Mumbai and Bangalore, the venues for the event, boasted superfast broadband connections. So we got our provider to test the service, hook on cameras and sound equipment and check if the bandwidth supported a live stream of the event. In fact, the testing was so meticulous that we kept the connections on for a full 24 hours with intermittent transmissions being done to test the robustness.

On D-day, the employees assembled at both locations. We were excited about the prospect of this live streaming across both locations where employees could view presentations, listen to speeches and see live performances in a simultaneous mode. But fate willed it otherwise. Midway through the program, the live telecast started breaking up, the screen view got pixelated and we had to finally abandon the video transmission and cut to a live telephone call which cut the impact and the purpose of the event. That night I revised my CV!

But the next day when we did a post mortem of the event with the CEO, I was surprised that the team actually was congratulated for daring to try out something new. We were lauded for pushing ourselves beyond the Comfort Zone and doing something that was unconventional. I for one was pleasantly surprised.

Today, as head of a Content Marketing business, it is indeed rare to find employees who are willing to push the envelope. Getting out of the comfort zone is rare even though the opportunities are aplenty. That said however, are we as management willing to give our employees a long rope to experiment and then handhold them through the success or failure? I think we will get a lot more enthusiasm at the workplace if we do. What do you think?