There has been a long time since the last time that I shared something on this blog, a bit more than one year.
Since then, we have jumped from one COVID-19 lockdown to another, from crisis management to chaos management, social life to Zoom meetings, and team spirit to empty buildings.
After too many months of pandemic and protective measures, we have lost the sense of togetherness; we learned to avoid hugging or kissing those we love the most and avoid proximity to other human beings.
And still, we have managed to overcome our fears and our anxiety, and we have built resilience. We are now experts in using masks, disinfectants, and videoconferencing, poking harms, not hands. We have replaced many on-site activities with online gatherings; we started new yoga or Pilates lessons. We have been so lucky to follow the Mindfulness Retreat with Jon Kabat-Zinn every day for so many weeks with so many people worldwide (on the first evening, we were more than 20.000!).
We have become more productive, exaggeratedly productive sometimes, at least for those who could keep their jobs.
We have applauded nurses and doctors every Friday evening on our balcony, and we sometimes had a feeling of belonging to something bigger than ourselves.
There have been many examples of solidarity and compassion with our fellow human beings, and there are plenty of stories that prove that one reveals itself in challenging situations.
We also had a lot of fun, even during the lockdown and during each episode of partly recovered freedom.

Life has continued, although not for everybody, but it is not like before. For the young and the elderly, there has been a vital life deficit: the former lost the beginning of their life, and the latter faced an end of life in complete isolation. The pandemic affected both our becoming and our remaining humans.

We need time to imagine and understand what will be our new way of life post-COVID. We need to heal and celebrate life; we need to reconnect with our part of humanity, individually and collectively.

Listen to the testimony of Elin Kjos on a TedX and to her conclusion: « The question is « how do we choose to live our lives while we are still here? Don’t wait anymore, not for a second. The time is now, so go out and live it! ».

Spring is coming.

Winter is already gone. It depends on each of us to let Spring and Summer come in our hearts.

Photo by Mauricio Santanna on Unsplash

More info and registration at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/livestream-jon-kabat-zinn-cultivating-mindfulness-at-this-critical-time-tickets-101254729622

Two months ago, if someone had told us that the entire organisation would be working from home, would be connected all the day long to the servers, and would be having only online teleconference, nobody would have believed it. And we would not have believed neither that the system would be sustainable and would keep running without any crashdown (so far!).

For a small organisation used to work more or less the same way for 25 years, it has represented a big challenge in terms of work organisation, ICT systems and services, and Human Resources management. And every day that passes surprises me how easy it has been to make such a giant leap as there was no alternative, and as all energies have been used to accommodate the change in the best possible way.

If I want to identify what factors have been the most important so far, I would highlight three: good crisis management, accelerated preparedness for ICT systems, and a lot of time and energy dedicated to the human factor.

We may come back to some of those issues later, but I wanted to share with you a very interesting and useful resources developed by Business Insider, called « LEADING FROM HOME: Every guide a manager needs to lead their remote team to success ». It covers 15 topics that are not necessarily relevant for your specific company, but they provide a very good and very inspiring overview. I wish you enjoy and find as inspiring as I did! https://www.businessinsider.com/every-guide-manager-needs-lead-remote-team-to-success

Paula shared with us an interesting resource, a Calendar for Happiness which « has daily actions for April 2020 to help us look after ourselves and each other as we face this global crisis together. »

In her message, Paula comments the quote from Frankl that appears on the top of the calendar:

« I would like to end this email focusing on the quote of this month calendar by Vitor Frankl, an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. He wrote in his book ‘Man’s searching for a meaning’ (1946; 2006):“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” For Frankl, meaning came from three possible sources: purposeful work, love, and courage in the face of difficulty. »

https://www.actionforhappiness.org/active-april