Alright then - let's do this!
Hands up if you are living through stuff you never thought you’d see? Wherever you are in the world, you’ve felt, in some way, the impact of an invisible force that seems to be either grinding everything to a halt or creating frantic chaos. If you’re in New Zealand, you’re getting ready to hunker down for at least four weeks, read that book you’ve been meaning to, make your garden look amaaaaazing, or – judging by the lack of flour on the supermarket shelves – make a lot of bread.
It’s a time of upheaval too, and there’s been plenty written about it over the last month or so as the reality of what we are living through dawns on us. If there’s upheaval, it’s not just you feeling it. The people you love, the people you lead, the people stockpiling dried pasta – they are all finding their way in this complete unknown. That includes you.
I think I’ve got some ideas to help if you or the people around you are looking for ways to explain different responses to our world right now. Over the next few weeks, I’ll offer some ideas that I hope will assist those who want to deepen the connection with their people while they are working remotely. I’ll share what I know works when it comes to demonstrating genuine care for what people are going through (and how do you do that remotely?!). And I’ll put some thoughts up – for exploring, building on, and poking holes in – about the importance of clarity when we’re separated by distance.
This is based on what I’ve learnt from working with leaders, going deep into thinking about change, and running my own programmes. And I’d love this to become a number of conversations we can have as a community of people who really care deeply about maintaining connection over distance during this time. The month or more ahead of us will be tough, and we’ll learn a lot. We’ll probably even graze our knees. So please contribute. Now, especially now, we need communities of leaders who learn vulnerably, talk about the lessons along the way, and share success for others to springboard off.
So to start, a frame for thinking about this. You, the people you lead, your friends, your family, are all likely to move though different phases of adapting to this new way of living and working around us. I suggest starting with thinking about where you are at, because that’s what will make you more effective. There are two main questions to consider:
What’s your state of readiness for this new way? Are you figuring out what it even means? Waiting to see how others around you are getting themselves ready? Or maybe you’ve been waiting for remote working to become a thing for years and now you’re a coiled spring, ready to go. Wherever you are on that spectrum, it’s all valid and you’ll shift in both directions as we go on.
How visible are you in bringing this new way of working to life? Are you out front, obviously trying new options (you never knew how versatile Zoom was, but “wow everybody, look at this!!”)? Or are you more contemplative, exploring what’s happening, taking time to consider it, and being deliberate about how you bring this to life? Again, wherever you are on that spectrum is the right place for you right now, and you’ll shift in either direction along that line as we find our way.
That gives us four kinds of states – all valid, all of which you’ll see play out in yourself and your people. And over the next four weeks, we’ll dig into each, toss around how to make the most of each, and learn from each other about what we’re discovering along the way. Who’s in?