Companion Day—Gambro BCT

Finding the Next Right Answer

By Laurie Munk

Life is not about finding THE right answer, or even finding A right answer. It’s all about finding the NEXT right answer. World-class photojournalist Dewitt Jones and executive coach Tania Carriere offered their perspectives on this shared philosophy at the Companion Day program sponsored by Gambro BCT.

Extraordinary Visions
Jones, who enjoyed a 20-year career with National Geographic, shared his vision of “celebrating what’s right with the world.” Using vision in a literal as well as figurative sense, Jones demonstrated how lessons learned in his professional life could also be applied to his personal life. For example, he showed an image he had taken of an alpine meadow full of bright yellow dandelions. Not satisfied or inspired, he left.

When he returned weeks later the dandelions had gone to seed. Instead of seeing what was wrong with the scene, he looked for what was right with the view. Jones changed his perspective mentally and physically, zooming in for a close up of a “puffball” backlit by the sun.

Photograph after incredible photograph, Jones illustrated a philosophy of looking at the ordinary and, with passion, seeing something extraordinary. He urged the audience to hone their skills, put themselves in the place of most potential, be open to all possibilities and celebrate what’s right.

Stretching the Boundaries
Facilitator Tania Carriere of Advivum (a firm specializing in organizational behavior, cultural transformation, adult learning and team building) used the concepts from Jones’ presentation to encourage the audience to apply extraordinary vision to their profession.

She posed three questions to prompt conversations in small groups of four to six participants.

• What would dramatically stretch your vision of the blood banking community into the extraordinary, 20 years from now?
• How would you define “success” and “significance” in the profession? Do they differ?
• What future leadership would enable blood banking to achieve its extraordinary vision? What skills or technological innovations will be needed to support this new leadership?

After a lively discussion of each question, the small groups recorded their key thoughts. In between questions, participants shuffled themselves to form new groups. As the process of collective thinking and musical chairs unfolded, patterns and contradictions developed in the answers recorded at each table.

Carriere asked everyone to return to their starting group to consider some final questions: 

• What is your deepest learning from the small group discussions?
• What message would you like to share with others?
• What questions remain unanswered?
• Who would you pose those questions to?

Gambro staff collected the final responses and posted them in an adjacent room, where Gambro hosted a reception for participants. Several next right answers were likely evident in those responses.


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