What Happens Next?

As I left the hotel venue after my very first job on a design thinking session, I asked the facilitator “what happens next?” The participants were so very excited and had come up with some very insightful and productive tools for the problem they had gone into the session to solve and the changes they wished to make. I knew from my own experience that it would be easy to slip right back into the old groove once back at their desks, back into the plethora of demands of their job.

“Who is going to support them in following through?” was my next question. The very seasoned and empathetic facilitator shrugged his shoulders and said he didn’t really know. The client didn’t have the budget to have follow ups. They were on their own. 

That first job was a decade ago and the question still burns in my mind. This time it is related to our year long design shop of learning to live and thrive in a pandemic. Since the beginning we have been in a rush to get out of it. Our cultural fast food mentality gave us the expectation that we would soon be “back to normal”. 

Over this past year, we realized these adjustments we had made to continue business as close to usual as possible were likely to remain with us for a long time to come. 

What happens next? 

I received my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine last week and I have been slow on the uptake of what that means. In December my tenth grandchild was born. The reality of being able to hold him in my arms soon is dawning. I am about to open my American Airlines app and book a flight to Philadelphia, something that was second nature one year ago and now something I have trepidation to do, knowing that though vaccinated, I still have to be careful for me and for others. 

What have a I learned over this last year that I must do to prepare for stepping back out into the world?

That is the rising burning question for me and one I ask of you. Though some disagree, I have believed for a long time that everything happens for a reason. This gives me the mindset to find the gold buried in the poop emoji. I used to languish in what that gold might be and this last year has taught me that life moves like the TGV speeding along at nearly 190 miles per hour through the French countryside. Right now it feels of utmost importance to find the gold in what we have learned over this past year that we would like to take with us as we reenter the world and create a new normal. 

What have you learned to appreciate over this last year that you would like to take with you as life evolves into a new normal? 

As I pondered the question, sitting in the parking lot of the vet clinic waiting for my little surprisingly emotionally supportive dog’s appointment, I watched the person in the car beside me talking with the vet tech. Speaking through their masked faces, they were looking deeply into each others’ eyes. Daily work and personal zoom and FaceTime calls requires the same focused attention. 

My hope and my intent is that we continue this recognition of each other and we continue to see each other and look into each others’ eyes to communicate our feelings. 

Seeing each other.

I asked this same question of my 16 year old grandson. His response was both surprising and hopeful of what the young people have learned and will carry forth. 

“A big thing that I’ve noticed is active listening. You have to listen to people really well now in order to understand and I think that’ll be a big domino effect for little kids generation.”

Listening to each other.

What have you learned and what will you carry forth?