Life changes for Turney
after Sharma
Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - Roderick Benns
Jill Turney was up much earlier than usual yesterday. At 5:15 am, you would have found her reading, quietly enjoying her "holy hour." That’s what happens when you attend a two-day event with Robin Sharma, one of the foremost inspirational speakers in the world. Life changes.

Jill, life enrichment co-ordinator for Kentwood Park in Picton, had her expectations exceeded recently in Kanata as Robin wowed about 60 OMNI managers.

"I sat down last night and made a list of my goals," says Jill. "Robin is very big on writing everything down that’s important, so you’re more committed to doing it," she explains.

Jill says the experience Thursday and Friday was so powerful she and Kentwood Park Nutritional Care Manager Erin Fraser are planning on booking a weekend retreat event with Robin in February, and taking their spouses along.

"We want to share that with (our husbands) because it is too hard to communicate how awesome it really was," says Jill.

There’s a new feeling of very close teamwork at Kentwood since the event, says Jill, between all the departments. "For us, we’re so much closer and so much more energized now.

"I’m just going to become the person I want and need to become," she says.

Robin wasn’t the only person who impressed Jill at the retreat though. OMNI CEO Fraser Wilson stood up, impromptu, to say a few words of appreciation to everyone in the room, one by one.

"He stood up and told every single person there – knowing all 63 by their names -- and told every single person the attributes he appreciated in them. He knew them all and what they stood for. For me, it made me want to dedicate myself all the more to OMNI," says Jill.

"It was a poignant moment."