Agility in the Midst of a Pandemic
Recently we have found ourselves exercising all kinds of agility muscles! With some creativity and innovative solutions we never realized were hidden below the surface we have managed to move forward in our work, our home schooling, our fitness regimens, our spiritual worship. . .even our social relationships.
2020’s pandemic has certainly brought us sadness, grief, anxiety, and real pain. During this same period, though, countless global citizens have shown a new resolve to create positive impact and, in so doing, have discovered a new personal and team agility.
We all remember that struggle can produce real growth and we have seen that on vibrant display as parents embrace new technology to assist their children in their home schooling program, pastors lead virtual communion, and patients receive treatment via telemedicine.
One of many examples of this “agility on display” is something that I’ve seen recently in my community. I am involved in restorative justice and passionate about creating successful conflict resolution for our youth. Before this pandemic hit, we would ALWAYS rely on face to face discussions to bring together our various stakeholders. We never dreamed we could create meaningful conversations without the full benefit of face-to-face interaction. When that possibility was swiftly removed in February, we quickly adapted!
For our successful adaptation I witnessed three critical elements gaining supreme importance in the process: (1) planning, (2) a commitment to learning and feedback, and (3) solid communication techniques.
Planning has been key in this new phase of doing our community work; “in the old days” we would be able show up at our events without too much advanced thinking on “who, how, what, when” and the meeting could usually be facilitated fairly successfully. Today when that happens you can expect embarrassment, deadlock, unproductive silence, or unresolved anger in the engagements. Ineffective comments, body language, sequence of speaking, etc are all much harder to overcome when you are not in person! Planning can eliminate some of that downside risk!
We had to learn from our early mistakes in these new virtual community learning and be committed to deliver feedback to each other on “what went well/not so well”. An acceptance to learn involves some humility and - just like the planning step - ALSO takes more time! Very early in the process we realized it was worth it — we saw progress in our interactions!
Finally, focusing on solid communication techniques as an underpinning to our work assisted us in this new virtual world. For us, that meant reinforcing excellent coping skills in our conversations and emphasizing “I” messaging through each encounter. The impact of hearing “this is how I felt” instead of blaming and shaming language (“this is what you did”) is always paramount to resolving conflict. . .in a virtual environment it is a must!
Yes, we are all ready for this phase in our life to be over, but I am so proud to be a part of the positive impact we have created with our virtual community learning ! And I hope to continue to exercise my agility and creativity muscles once we come back together face to face!
