Two weeks ago I was in Hong Kong for our annual learning and development conference. This is where we pull together all of our L&D talent from across the company. Despite having 28,000 employees in 36 countries, our formal L&D talent is only thirteen people. Outside of that we rely on local leaders and subject matter experts to conduct training.

During the week, I reflected on how fortunate I am to work with such a talented and passionate team of people. While most of us do not work together on a daily or even weekly basis, we form a network who help achieve our mission of building the company’s talent.

What I especially like is how our team has quickly established norms that allow for a high level of psychological safety (see the Google re:work page on this) – there is lots of sharing and also lots of nurturance. People genuinely care about each other and there is a lot of caring.

Coming out of that week of meetings, I felt a stronger sense of being supported. More people who can give feedback and help me think about leadership development, which is my area of responsibility. It’s so refreshing to work in this type of environment and feel that way.