When I started to think about a teambuilding investment, I wanted something a little bit different from the norm. Belbin tests and Myers-Briggs are all very well, but because we work in a creative industry I felt I should be a little more creative myself. I wanted us each to appreciate each other a little more, learn to observe, understand that we each are a bit different and how to interpret reactions better.  I had my 'aha' moment unexpectedly when I heard a great talk by astrologer Christine Chalklin at a business networking breakfast.  Despite my inner sceptic being quite vocal, I thought 'what the hell' and booked us in for a team session. The session was quite fascinating, highly amusing, surprisingly informative and extremely valuable. My inner sceptic even went completely quiet for a bit. We had supplied Christine with the information she needed to generate individual birth charts which were utterly incomprhensible, but when talked through examined many aspects of each personality. I may still be unsure of the reality of astrological science, but I can tell you that this was a great business buy - without a shadow of a doubt. Just as with any good team-building exercise it made us think about our differences and our similarities. We discussed shared perspectives and differences between them too, some influenced by our wide range of ages and varied origins. Ripples of interest came from observations such as our predominance of Fire and Water signs  - and near total absence of Earth and Air signs. It made us consider missing links in the team dynamic - and while this won't directly influence my recruitment policy, I realise I need to look for some complementary aspects that are missing. The team were bouncing for the whole week, and still haven't stopped making observations about each other - in a constructive way, naturally. I surprised myself by realising that I would do this kind of session again like a shot. The value of a third party perspective is undeniable, and I have built my business on that - I am so glad I told my cynical self to go hide for a while, and took a chance on astrology. PS - It will surprise nobody who has met me to know that I am about archetypically firy as a Fire sign can be, with a combination of ascendant and other influences which make me operate rather like an over-opinionated steamroller. The team had a good laugh about that :) Potion's MD was looking for teambuilding ideas and wanted to be creative - so she swung in astrologer Christine Chalkin to help the team recognise differences, similarites and team dynamics in a different way from standard management approaches. Despite scepticism, the team gained huge motivational benefits and real learnings - Potion would certainly do this again, so do check out the full article to find out why.