Uncertainty, overriding our needs, and engaging in positive culture building moments
July is wrapping up – time sure flies by! Over the past 18+ months, time has moved at its own pace. While summer has been a welcome shift, I find myself feeling uncertain about what fall will be like.
Schools are preparing to start a new year in person, and companies are deciding how to manage their re-opening if this hasn’t happened yet. You may be leading your team to return in-person or a hybrid option or rethinking this all together. You may be launching a project or navigating a new job, a health bill, etc. Are you noticing extra tension, stress, overwhelm, anxiety, frustration, or fatigue, in yourself and others? Whatever change you are navigating and whatever level of preparedness and involvement you had in the process – it’s okay if you have been feeling hesitancy about entering further into this next phase.
How we handle change varies by each person, as does the way we move through life in general, or approach teamwork– and our fears may show up, learned communication patterns, and flight-flight-freeze responses activated. Remember, many people have been taught in life to override needs (emotional, physical, social, etc.) and a transition can surface an unmet need, desire, or longing we feel we might not be able to express. In addition, for those of us able to work remotely this past year, we’ve grown used to a different container to work in – another way to be, form relationships, and set emotional and relational boundaries with others.
When we are working to build a positive team culture, an important aspect is an attentiveness towards not only the current moment’s pressures and urgencies, but long-term sustainability of a workforce. This means taking time to help people interrupt the pattern to override our needs and pause to notice what is coming up in important moments.
One way to do this is to get curious.
Start with yourself and noticing what it feels like as you are facing uncertainty. Try to locate your overall emotions, mood, and energy towards the change. Do a quick check if there’s a need that’s been ignored or unaddressed. As you notice what else might be coming up for you, is there one action to take this week to care for an unmet need within you? What might you want to bring up to someone, or acknowledge to yourself?
Widen with your team by applying the same practice and creating more space for people to check-in on the change. This is continual work that takes ongoing care: What questions and concerns do people have? What can be shifted now? What wants to be named? What other options are there? A collective check-in might include questions: What are we committed do during this transition? What tensions or differences are we collectively holding? What opportunities, risks or losses do we carry together? How might we create connection and belonging for one another?
Remember, our experiences vary person by person based on our lived experiences and social identities (across race, gender, nationality, ability, age, etc.) so practice being patient with the process and curious about different feelings about the transitions taking place individually and collectively.
Keep up the work you’re doing to support the well-being of yourself and others.
I found this article to be full of creative ideas to explore. Worried your staff will join the Great Resignation? Focus on being a good company to be from, By Sandra Sucher and Shalene Gupta