Come Together…Intentionally

Sometimes it feels like the universe is trying to tell me something - in three separate conversations today I thought about Team Coaching as a tool to help people integrate back into the office.  Be it hybrid or fully on-site, the one thing we know is that nobody is the same as they were in February of 2020 and we’ll be better off if we can talk about finding a new way to be together.   How do you navigate uncertainty and transition as a team? It’s been a long time since we were in a room with somebody who wasn’t a family member, and we are probably unsure about expectations or accountabilities but one thing we are sure of is that no one is the same as they were in February 2020. 

The first time this came up was this morning, I was speaking with a colleague planning a team coaching opportunity for a new client that we are both excited about.   The conversation got us thinking and talking, as we normally do, about how cool it was that we found each other through coaching and how we had both taken the same Team Coaching program.  We both love how much value it brings to any organization, and we have both seen the powerful results first-hand.   It was then that I asked a simple question, “Are these folks returning to the office or have they always been on-site?”  The response was a little bit of both, some had gone into the office throughout the pandemic and some had not set foot in the building since March 13th 2020 (I think we all remember that date).  The conversation then turned to how team coaching could be an incredibly effective tool to reconnect, reset and grow together as we head back into the office - an navigate new ways of working together.  In a lot of situations, we’re going to be meeting people for the first time that we’ve worked with for 18 months or we’ll be reconnecting with people we haven’t seen in person in years – how do we relearn how to be within a team? 

What a great opportunity to restart working relationships and discover and create team goals and norms. 

The next time the thought came up as I was listening to Brené Brown, who I’m absolutely convinced would be one of my best friends…if ever we got to meet.  She was speaking with Scott Sonenshein on the “Dare to Lead” podcast about “Why We’ll Never Be the Same Again (and Why It’s Time to Talk About It)”.  That conversation led me to think again of team coaching and how incredibly effective it would be - imagine creating, with intention, how your team wants to be with each other and how you handle accountability, conflict and showing up for each other every single day.  To me, that would give a tiny bit of certainty in an unbelievably uncertain world.  Everybody has different thoughts about returning to the office, some folks are ready to go five days a week some folks don’t want to go at all, hybrid is probably a work in progress for most organizations but what we do know is that nobody is the same as they were in February 2020.

The third time it came up was via an HBR article that another colleague sent to me – “We Need Time to Rehabilitate From the Trauma of the Pandemic” by David Rock. 

So now I’m thinking that the universe is REALLY trying to tell me something and I’d better start listening.  I believe in Team Coaching – I’ve seen its power with organizations that are going through a struggle, and I’ve seen the power of team coaching in organizations that are really happy and highly productive.  They had different measures of success because they started from different places but ultimately everyone on the team felt seen heard and understood and everybody understood how to be with each other.  They all found their place to be and how to be in it and guess what…they became even more productive!

As we continue to navigate the continued and prolonged uncertainty of the last three years, my mind keeps going back to something Brené (we are on a first-name basis…in my head) referenced from her conversation with Priya Parker in May of last year;

“Wow, I hope people understand we have a possibly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change how we come together and be together.”

How will you use this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?