A 3 Phase Approach To Coming To Terms with The Pandemic

The individual feelings we have about the pandemic and its impacts on us are just that-they are individual. There's nothing to be gained by pressurising yourself or anyone else by suggesting that  "Hey, you should be doing better by now!"

We've prepared a series of clips where we use the general themes in the Kubler Ross model to explain what might be happening:

And whereas the above goes some way to explaining our responses to change, loss and/or bad news, we need to agree that it is seldom a linear process. We have used a 3 Stage Approach to both describing behaviours associated with each stage, together with some ideas for approaching the challenges and the opportunities that exist as we move through the phases.

We make an important point:

 "It's okay to backslide: it doesn't mean you've failed, it's the most natural of things to happen so please don't assume that you've failed because you've had a bad day!"

And there's another, related one:

"Practice being kind to yourself!"

Here Are Our 3 Clips

Stage 1 - Survival! (5:25 Mins)

Frozen, stuck, angry, unforgiving, lethargic, guilty. All words with powerful associations and ones that feature heavily as we come to terms with the initial shock.
We discuss this and provide what we hope are some helpful observations in this, the first of our 3 clipshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f09YKxowO-w&t=1s

Stage 2 - Acceptance (7:35 Mins)

At this point we're beginning to come to terms with the new reality and are making some healthy adjustments that are good for our well being.

We expand on this theme in our second clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHq-MCKx4ys

Stage 3 - Growth and Thriving (16 Mins)

Here we've built on the strength areas we talked about in our clip "Stage 2 Acceptance" and they are having a positive impact on our lives and provide us with a sense of security, purpose and direction as we move forward.
This is the longest of our clips as it reaches out into the possible whilst ensuring that we remind ourselves that we all of us have a bad day from time to time!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAIOs4AJV98&t=10s

We hope you find these helpful: please feel free to pass it on to others!

Trust. What Do You See, the Doughnut or The Hole?

If we ask the question

 "What must a team have to perform well?"

 I'm going to suggest that "Trust" will appear fairly high up the list.

We need also to incorporate "Optimism"-that the Team's purpose is a good one and that it honours

Our individual values
Team Values
Organisational Values

And we need to know that we're doing the right things for the right reasons.

Unfortunately, trust and optimism are easily manipulated to serve individual needs and ambitions. There are after all ample opportunities for some to pay lip service only to the idea of serving core values. Some organisations have set out to define what it is they mean by trust and integrity and their importance in shaping the expectations and experiences of their partners and stakeholders.

However, the building and maintenance of high quality internal trust is much harder than presenting positive external messages. The impact of hidden untrustworthiness on teams is destructive and will progressively annihilate purposeful alignments made by other team members. The manipulation or abandonment of trust reduces the chances of group success. The focus shifts to looking for what's not working rather than what is and members are vulnerable to becoming risk averse rather than risk aware as there is a reduction in their faith in others to support them when the going gets tough. Teams form within teams, individuals consider "What's in this for me?" rather than "How does this serve our group?" When this is the emergent case, expect the group/team purpose, to lose energy and to toxify: it's a great way of developing an 

"Optimism Free Zone"

(Oh yes, I'd love to work in one of those!)

Maybe you could propose to teams that they might want to consider something along the lines of:

"It is agreed that trust and integrity are essential components of a healthy, well-functioning team. How do we honour our commitment to trust? How will we talk about it and how will we challenge ourselves and each other when we feel trust has been compromised?"

Expect some interesting and thought provoking responses!