Hope you had a fabulous holiday. For some of us, this is our first day back in the “new normal” of work, so I wanted to commemorate this day with the last entry in our series about returning to work.  This week is about cold water and sticking it out through change.

My family went for a day trip to the Dunes at the end of May.  The beach was beautiful.  The water was COLD.  I tested out the water myself, and it was way too chilly for me to stay out there.  I lasted 3 seconds before I ran back to my chair on the beach.  However, my girls were tougher than me.  The moment my girls stepped into the water they shrieked, but instead of running away they stayed.  As they stayed, their body got more and more used to the water and the temperature.  Over time, they fully acclimated and then they were able to enjoy the water.  They ended up having an amazing time swimming and splashing around.

What does this have to do with anything?  Cold water is a lot like change.  When you step into change, it’s not exactly welcoming.  Change might feel too cold or too hot or too different.  The first instinct is to step out of change as quickly as possible, to get away from that uncomfortable sensation.  Do you ever find yourself leaning away from change instead of leaning into change?  I know I do. 

Through experience I’ve learned that if you can stay in the lake of change and allow yourself to get acclimated, then you can begin to find a way to enjoy what life is evolving into.  This isn’t easy.  It requires you to leave your place of comfort on the safe shoreline.  It requires you to be willing to be uncomfortable and to remain uncomfortable for some time.  Right now we are all trying to adjust to something different as we begin to figure out what works looks like for us moving forward, and we have to be willing to be patient and work through this change if we wish to come out better on the other side.

The challenge: Will you be brave enough to stay in the waters of change?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Last week was about embracing inclusion in hybrid work environments.  This week is about middle school and embracing awkwardness.

I don’t know about you, but some of the most awkward moments of my life were middle school dances.  Let me set the scene.  There I am as an 8^th grader with my retainer and bowl cut.  I’m standing in a cafeteria turned into a dance floor with a bunch of other people I go to school with.  There is music blasting.  No one there really knows who they are.  No one there really knows what to do.  So we all awkwardly stand around in circles in our friend groups too scared to violate any invisible social norm that somehow might make us less cool.  At least that was MY middle school dance experience.  What was yours like?  Anyway, I wish that we would have all been brave enough to admit how awkward and silly this entire thing was.  If we could have put the issue out on the table it would have broken the ice, and we all would have had a better time.

So what does this have to do with going back to work?  I don’t know about you, I’m a little anxious about navigating all of the social situations when we get back to the office.  I’m a strange cat on a good day.  Then, you throw in rejoining society after a pandemic and being around a large group of people when I haven’t seen them in 1.5 years, and it’s going to be all kinds of awkward.  I’M SO EXCITED to see people.  At the same time, I know things will be weird.  When we see each other do we shake hands?  Do we hug?  Do we elbow bump?  Do I lead with the fist bump and hope people don’t reject or ignore it?  Is it weird to open a conversation with, “What have you done with the past 1.5 years of your life?”  Will people be annoyed if I come up to their desk to say hi after having 1.5 years of not being interrupted in that way, or will they be happy to be around other humans?  So many questions, so much potential for awkwardness.

Similar to the awkwardness of middle school dances, I hope that we can just all be honest that things are going to be a little weird for a while.  If we can all admit this, then that will likely be the ice breaking we need to make everyone a little more comfortable.  The challenge: Will you be brave enough to claim and embrace the awkwardness?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Last week was about reimaging our “new normal” at work.  This week is about cruises and being empathetic about how people might experience this “new normal” differently. 

Recently a friend told my wife she was going on vacation.  The friend mentioned she was being “forced” into a cruise.  My wife chuckled, because she loves cruises.  She then turned to the friend and said, “Forced, huh?  Sounds horrible!” in a joking manner.  The friend responded and said she actually doesn’t like cruises.  Cruises make them feel like they are trapped, because they don’t have control over the boat.  My wife would have never imagined this, since she enjoys cruises.

What does this have to do with anything?  In the above story my wife and her friend were talking about the same event, going on a cruise.  However, they have radically different experiences going through the same thing.  In a similar manner, as we transition to our “new normal” at work, we will all be going through the same event, but that doesn’t mean we will all be having the same experience.  Some people are really excited to go back and see folks in person again.  Some people now have to navigate running a family while returning to the office.  Their lives are about to become more hectic, so they are anxious.  Some people found that working from home gave them more energy, because days of face to face meetings are draining.  They might feel intimidated to go back.  Some people moved away from the corporate headquarters and back to their hometowns to be closer to family.  They now have to make the difficult choice of whether they move back to headquarters or work more remotely, and contemplate what that means for their career.

There are a wide variety of ways people might feel about returning to work.  We will all go back to our “new normal,” but we won’t all have the same experience.  We need to extend grace and empathy to better understand each other and what we might be going through.  Then, once we have that understanding, we need to figure out how to support each other based on that person’s needs. 

The challenge: How will you show grace and empathy during this time?  How will you support others?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry