▶️ ✨ VIDEO AVAILABLE!
We met in person for the very first time! Simon and Paola recorded this special episode with video. Check it out on YouTube: https://youtu.be/5VPyiATnwjs
The Talaera team is fully remote. Many of us had never met in person... until this September. We got together in Park City, Utah, to get to know each other better, bond, and discuss strategy.
In this episode, you will learn the 6 idioms that best described this team retreat. We hope you enjoy it! 💙
Business English training for career success.
.📩 hello@talaera.com
▶️ ✨ VIDEO AVAILABLE!
We met in person for the very first time! Simon and Paola recorded this special episode with video. Check it out on YouTube: https://youtu.be/5VPyiATnwjs
The Talaera team is fully remote. Many of us had never met in person... until this September. We got together in Park City, Utah, to get to know each other better, bond, and discuss strategy.
In this episode, you will learn the 6 idioms that best described this team retreat. We hope you enjoy it! 💙
Business English training for career success.
.📩 hello@talaera.com
Paola Pascual 0:03
Welcome to Talaera Talks, the business English communication podcast for non native professionals. My name is Paola and I am co hosting the show with Simon.
Simon Kennell 0:13
In this podcast, we're going to be covering communication advice and tips to help express yourself with confidence in English in professional settings. So we hope you enjoy the show.
Simon Kennell 0:27
All right, welcome to Talaera Talks. Wherever you are, we hope you're having a great day as always. And what's what's different about this episode today?
Paola Pascual 0:38
There's no screen in between, like, we can touch!
Simon Kennell 0:41
It's the weirdest thing ever. Okay, so we're in person here in Utah. And I mean, what a week, it's been so far!
Paola Pascual 0:49
It's been such a fun week. So for those of you who don't know, we are a fully remote team. And we have part of the team in the United States, Simon lives in Denmark, I live in Spain, and we have never met in person before.
Simon Kennell 1:01
Never.
Paola Pascual 1:02
So first time we're meeting in person, we're doing a team retreat, where we're talking about strategy and next steps, and of course, bonding, getting to know each other. And we thought, what a cool opportunity to record an episode right here without a screening between with just one mic and one camera. So yeah, that's basically what we're doing.
Simon Kennell 1:22
Yeah! And it's like, I mean, we thought a lot about what would this look like? What would it be like for us to actually do this in person? And I don't know, I think for so many of our listeners, it's always we've always talked about that we're a remote team, and that it would be cool to one day do this in person. And so now here we are, we just made it happen. Which is, you know, it's just amazing. And, yeah, we'll we're going to talk about obviously, some idioms today. And I think it's a cool thing, because we've talked a lot about what this week has meant for us. And kind of a lot about the feelings and how we've expressed that, you know, first time all of us coming together. And the best way and I love the idea from you, Paola was like, let's talk about some of these idioms that kind of expressed this week. So we have, what do we have, we have six idioms that we're going to go through that I think really kind of will give you a sense of what this week has been like for us. So yeah, you're ready. Let's dive into it.
Paola Pascual 2:22
Let's dive into it. Yes. So again, as Simon said, we have six idioms for you that will represent or give you a bit of an idea of what this team retreat has meant for us. The first one is in the same boat. Yeah. Why does that represent this meeting or this retreat?
Simon Kennell 2:39
So I think before we all met up, everybody was so excited, everybody was talking about it. And we were doing all of this preparation work, because we wanted everything to count all of our time together, we wanted it to really like matter. So we were all kind of in the same boat, in how we were approaching this. Everybody was really excited. And everybody was a little bit nervous. And we all talked about that. And there was this feeling that we were all in the same boat. I mean, would you agree with that?
Paola Pascual 3:07
100%. Yes. So that being in the same boat is feeling that you are in the same situation, right? You share the same circumstances, you may feel very similarly. How would you use it in the sentence?
Simon Kennell 3:20
Yeah, so I can say, I mean, I think we've been in the same boat, this whole retreat and leading up to the retreat, because we both talked about that we felt a little bit nervous, a little bit apprehensive before coming and meeting up. And now here we are, and we're still in the same boat, because we're all so excited about how this week is gone. And, you know, the relationship building. So that's kind of that we've all been in the same situation and how we're really feeling about this. This week. So it's been Yeah, we've all been in the same boat this week.
Paola Pascual 3:53
Love it. Awesome. So the second one, is we set the bar high. Yeah. Why?
Simon Kennell 4:02
Well, so like I said, before, this week, we were just like, we wanted to accomplish a million things, right? And we set the bar so high, like, we want to do this, we want to fit you know, we want to brainstorm about this idea. We want to talk about the next five years of Talaera, what's that going to look like? You know, from myself from the HR side, I wanted to talk about like, our culture building and team building and relationship building and what that looks like, and, you know, our operating principles and how we do all these things. So all of us, I think, came with so much preparation, where we set the bar so high on all of the things that we wanted to achieve. I mean, did you set the bar high for yourself just in in terms of what you wanted to achieve?
Paola Pascual 4:44
I think so. Yeah, the expectations were very high and we wanted to achieve and accomplish a lot of things. I think it's going pretty well. Yeah, even though we set the bar very high. I think we're, we're getting there. I think it's being super productive. Yeah. It's been awesome. Yeah.
Simon Kennell 5:01
And I always kind of I really felt like let's get to the end of this week and see how, how we done and see if we met the bar. See if we got to that point, we set the bar really high. Now we want to meet the bar. And so that's kind of my hope is that, yeah, through this week we've Yeah, we've met that. But being also there, you know, how we felt kind of leading up to this. We talked about we've been in the same boat, we're feeling like we're all in the same boat, in terms of how we're feeling. But how have we been feeling like, you know, this week, just meeting each other?
Paola Pascual 5:36
To be honest, at the beginning, I felt like a fish out of water.
Simon Kennell 5:41
Okay, so what does that mean like?
Paola Pascual 5:43
to feel like a fish out of water is when you don't feel like you're in your element, you don't feel super comfortable. It's a little, perhaps it was a little bit awkward. It wasn't really awkward. I don't know why you don't feel you are not interacting in the same context as the same word used to and in the same way. So you feel that you're not in control of the situation. That's when you feel like a fish out of water. Have you felt like that at all?
Simon Kennell 6:09
I mean, I remember, it's just a lot of people said this before was like, whoa, okay, so we're now going to be in person. And that means like, I can't like hide behind the screen or anything like that. Now, we're going to be really there together. And I remember when we first saw each other, we were like, Well, okay, and then, and now it's like working together in this totally different way. And yeah, there have been times where I really felt like a fish out of water the first day, I was just like, looking at Paola like, Well, are you real? Like this is this is I definitely felt in that way, like a fish out of water. Yeah.
Paola Pascual 6:42
But I think it was just the first the first few hours and then it just passed and super natural and great. But yeah, like a fish out of water when you're a little bit like not feeling, you know, confident enough in that situation. Yeah. Awesome. What else? What else?
Simon Kennell 6:59
So like we said, we had so many things planned for this week, we had all of these things we wanted to talk about and discuss, this podcast was one of them. And, you know, with all of these things, it's hard to kind of schedule everything out to the specific point. And so a lot of times we've had to play it by ear, like, throughout this week, for myself. I mean, I did some of the planning for this. And I remember before I was like, Oh, my God, what if this goes wrong? What if that goes wrong? What if we don't get this right? What if you know, this person doesn't come prepared? And eventually, I had to just say, Okay, we'll play that by ear, we'll play that by ear. And I think this podcast was was one of them. Like, we didn't really have a clear idea of what we wanted to discuss before we got here. But then when we sat down, we started talking about it. I feel like, yeah, I feel like we've played it by ear. What do you think?
Paola Pascual 7:50
Yes. And also, exactly, so to play by ear is when you improvise a little bit is when you don't have everything super planned. But you do see how things go and adapt to the situation. We have a final meeting today, where all the heads of department have to give a presentation. I don't really have time to prepare, and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to play it by ear. I hope that's okay.
Simon Kennell 8:13
Yeah. So this is a little bit my fault. And one of the things we're talking about is internal communication. How are we communicating? And when you're a remote team, you know, it's really dangerous to assume that people understand or know about certain things. And I totally did that. And I was like, alright, team, everybody. Be ready for your presentations today. And I think only one person was like, Yeah, everybody else was like, Okay, I'm gonna have to play this by ear and as Okay, that's why I said, don't worry about creating slideshows or anything like that. You have to play by ear. No problem.
Simon Kennell 8:48
I was just giving you a bit of a...
Simon Kennell 8:49
Yeah, no. I know. People are messing with me now this whole time.
Paola Pascual 8:54
All good. Quick question. Yeah. Do you think we bit off more than we could chew?
Simon Kennell 9:01
Yeah. So. Okay, so we set the bar high, right, we set the bar really high and what we wanted to do, but that's a good question. Did we bite off more than we can chew? I don't know. Because like, so far, we've, we've done everything and had all the meetings that we wanted to have? I don't know. That's a really tough question for me. I don't think that we've been off more than we could chew. But I think we've bitten off just enough that now we're like, okay, that's that's a good amount. What do you think?
Paola Pascual 9:35
Yes, I agree. It's been a lot of work. It hasn't been too much. So that's a good sign that it's not like we bit off more than we could to. Yeah. But yeah, it's important to be mindful of how much work you can do and how many tasks you can take off. On. So that's one idiom that we wanted to share. Right? So for projects is when you bite off more than you can two is when you assume more responsibilities that what you're able to actually achieve. Yeah. Or when you plan too many things for a certain see to a specific situation and perhaps is not achievable.
Simon Kennell 10:10
Right. And that was one of the things I think I was a little bit afraid of before was like, Oh, my gosh, what this retreat, we're trying to do too much. We bit off more than we could chew. And I think when I came in, like, I was really worried that maybe we did bite off more than we could chew. But everybody, like, everybody showed up and was prepared. And yeah, I think it's been really great.
Paola Pascual 10:31
So this idiom represents the concern that we had the beginning, not truly what it ended up being.
Simon Kennell 10:37
Yeah, exactly. Right. And with that, right, so we had all of these things we wanted to do. How do you feel like our team has responded to? Yeah, to this bar that we set so high of like all the things that we wanted to achieve?
Paola Pascual 10:52
They definitely went the extra mile! Yeah. They certainly did. Everyone has made a huge effort to make sure that everything is working properly. And that means we came in prepared, we're making sure that the goals we had are being achieved. But we're also really in tune with our colleagues, right with other Talaerians like really checking in, how are you doing and really getting to know each other at a deeper level. It's very funny because we knew each other for a very long time with work together. I mean, Talaera has been going on for like five years. And most of us hadn't met in person. So it's important to really have that human aspect. And yeah, people truly truly went the extra mile. Yeah, Abbee went the extra mile last night she cooked for us. Yeah. Amazing. The best, the best meal ever. So it's been truly great.
Simon Kennell 11:43
Yeah. Abby, who is like just an absolute Rockstar on this team. She is responsible for so many things. And one of them is she matches our students together with the teachers. So she knows all of the teachers and she knows all of the students. And she finds that perfect match between the teachers who maybe they're good at working with software engineers, she knows that exact teacher and their personalities, so she can match that teacher together with a student. And so she's really empathetic, she, she's just a real people person. And in... I mean, last night, she just comes up to me, and she says, Simon, I'm going to make dinner for everybody, you know, and we're like, 15-16 here, and she's like, Oh, no, don't worry about it. I'm gonna make dinner for everybody. And then she cooked this insane meal, this huge meal. And we're all just like, and it was delicious.
Paola Pascual 12:36
It was truly delicious.
Simon Kennell 12:37
It was incredible. Yeah. And, and she went the extra mile. Like for her I would say, she gets the like, Most Valuable Player Award, like just Yeah, MVP for Abby, because she just totally went the extra mile. And I think I do think that everybody did to a, to a certain extent, go the extra mile because everybody came prepared. Everybody, you know, really wanted to make the most out of this week.
Paola Pascual 13:02
Yes. Awesome. So we got it. We did in the same boat. When you're in the same situation. We set the bar high. Right? How would you define that one to set the bar high?
Simon Kennell 13:13
Yeah, we had a really, really high goal that we wanted to achieve on all the things we want to achieve. We set the bar really high.
Paola Pascual 13:20
We, at the beginning felt like a fish out of water. Yeah, it was a little bit awkward at the beginning and then we just got over it.
Simon Kennell 13:28
Exactly.
Paola Pascual 13:28
We didn't interact without a screen in between. But yeah, we got over it. Play it by ear when you don't have everything super planned, but you improvise based on the situation and the context. To bite off more than you can too, is when you take on more responsibilities than what you're able to achieve. That was our initial concern, even though it worked out in the end. And the last one to go the extra mile, which is something that we I guess it's part of our personality, we truly want to make, you know, Talaera something that that you deserve. And we want to put out content that you want to listen to. And you you know, we put a lot of effort into our webinars so that there's something that you know, that you look forward to as well. So yeah, to go the extra mile.
Simon Kennell 14:15
Yeah. And I think we do that, and I... we try to do that. And I think we do do that and everything that we do at tilera. And yeah, I hope that all of you out there can feel that and can see that. And yeah, as always, you know, we we love doing this and we love providing content for you guys and the content that you deserve exactly like Paola was saying. I'm like, I don't want to go back to doing this over a screen now. This is you know, this is just a totally it's a totally great experience.
Paola Pascual 14:48
It truly is. It truly is, I'm happy you you put it all together together with the rest of the team, but it was mostly you you've done such a great job.
Simon Kennell 14:56
Thanks, thanks!
Paola Pascual 14:57
Thank you.
Simon Kennell 14:58
All right to all of you You out there as always, keep learning. Thank you.
Paola Pascual 15:06
And that's all we have for you today. We hope you enjoyed it. And remember to subscribe to Talaera Talks. We'll be back soon with more
Simon Kennell 15:15
and visit our website at talaera.com for more valuable content on business English. You can also request a free consultation on the best ways for you and your team to improve your communication skills. So have a great day and keep learning!