You're sitting in a meeting. It's been... what, an hour? Maybe more.
Someone's still talking, the coffee's not doing what it promised to do and your brain quietly slips out the side door for a minute.
And then, completely randomly, your brain pulls up that BuzzFeed quiz you did ages ago:
“What kind of animal are you?”
No idea why that comes up now, but it does. And now you’re sitting there thinking... okay, what would everyone here be?
You glance at Sarah first. Oh, she is absolutely a meerkat!
Always the first to notice the danger...
“I just want to flag something quickly.”
And suddenly the whole room shifts a little, because she’s picked up on something no one else has even considered yet.
She’s not wrong, she’s just early. Which, depending on the room, doesn’t always land well.
Then there’s Jason.
Golden retriever, no hesitation.
You don’t even finish asking and he’s already in.
“Can you just…”
“Yeah, of course.”
Done.
Helpful, easy, keeps things moving, everyone likes working with him. But also... You know he’s taken on way more than he should have and probably said yes to 5 other things already.
Across the table, Priya.
She’s quiet. But not disengaged, she’s just not jumping in for the sake of it. She’s listening properly and taking everything in.
And you can tell, if she speaks, it’s going to actually move the conversation forward. But if no one gives her the space, she won’t push for it. She’ll just leave it.
Very owl.
Then Mark.
He’s here, but you can tell he feels this meeting could’ve been an email.
Cat energy.
He doesn’t need all the back-and-forth, the repeated points, the long explanations. Give him something clear and he’s good.
This kind of discussion though... you can see him slowly checking out.
And then Thandi.
Taking her time, thinking before she answers.
She’s a tortoise.
Someone asks for a quick decision and she pauses. Which makes sense because she wants to get it right. But in a room that wants speed, it starts to look like she’s holding things up, even when she’s not.
You happen to glance at Michael, the lion.
Not loud for the sake of it, but when he speaks people listen. He doesn’t circle around a point, he goes straight for it. Confident, decisive, already halfway to a conclusion while everyone else is still unpacking the problem.
It moves things forward, quickly. But it also shifts the room...
Some people lean in while some people pull back a bit. And if you’re not careful, the quieter voices like the owl don’t come in at all, not because they don’t have anything to say, but because the direction already feels... set.
What about a meerkat and a lion in the same room? They seem to work completely differently; you can see the tension in the timing. One is noticing something that needs a second, the other is already moving on.
And now you find yourself sitting there thinking...
this is actually a whole mix of different types trying to work together. Do we take note of how differently we function, or do we get frustrated because we expect or assume that everyone has (or should have) the same process we do?
Here's the thing:
Jason being helpful isn’t a problem.
Sarah noticing things early isn’t a problem.
Priya being quiet isn’t a problem.
Mark wanting less noise isn’t a problem.
Thandi taking her time isn’t a problem.
And Michael pushing things forward... that’s not the problem either.
But put them together, without really understanding how each of them works, and things start to rub and cause friction...
Enough for Jason to carry more than he should.
Enough for Sarah to get shut down.
Enough for Priya to stay quiet next time.
Enough for Mark to disengage.
Enough for Thandi to get pushed into a decision she wasn’t ready to make.
Enough for Michael to drive things forward without realising what got left behind.
Suddenly, someone says your name and you snap back to reality. You nod, say something that sounds about right.
But now you can’t unsee it... Same people, same meeting.
But with just a bit more awareness of what’s actually happening between them.
And you can’t help but wonder
why no one ever taught this part, how to actually work with different people, different ways of communicating, before expecting it all to just work...
Staff Training is a South African soft skills training provider with over 80 workshops, all designed to make life in the office (or the zoo) run a little smoother.
Email us at
info@StaffTraining.co.za for more info or give us a call at 0861 996 660
