Friends: Isn’t this the best time to find a way to engage with each other? I’ve thought about this for some time and for whatever reason, I’ve never taken the plunge. Well, here goes…..
I’m lucky and blessed in many ways; family, friends, colleagues, profession, etc… This blog will be something of a reflective tool and an opportunity to simply share ideas that are largely focused on the work. I’m fascinated by the ways we can leverage technology, relationships and the incredible thinking of a lot of great humans to be better in our work and on behalf of those we serve. To that end, I look forward to sharing stories, gathering stories and developing networks of support. Thanks for jumping in with me.
This last week has been one of the most challenging and fulfilling of my professional career. Challenging in the enormity of it and the unknown. Fulfilling in the sense that we have had so many opportunities to help others. Two weeks ago yesterday I attended a briefing with local emergency management leaders, elected officials and our county health commissioner. We discussed the emerging COVID-19 crisis and what we should immediately be doing in our communities to prepare and to keep people safe. Prior to attending the meeting and in the midst of growing concern in our community, we asked our staff and families what their concerns where, what answers they were looking for and what help they may need. We did so by engaging in a conversation using Thought Exchange, a powerful platform designed to bring everyone into a conversation by offering participants the opportunity to share their thoughts, see each other’s thoughts and discover how everyone in the conversation feels about thoughts being shared.
We were excited to flip the script, so to speak. Here’s at least one take away…we often communicate as leaders by providing information that we think people need to know or should know. How often do we find ways to do that, while ALSO simply asking people what’s on their mind and then communicating based on their needs? Wouldn’t people find more comfort in having their questions and concerns answered instead of reviewing communication only to walk away with more questions than answers? Does leaving with more questions have the potential to bring about more anxiety, thus defeating at least part of the purpose of communicating in the first place? It seems more respectful, engaging and thoughtful to try and find ways to directly address what people are looking for instead of only communicating what we think they should know. Just a thought… More to come on what we did with the conversation and how it made a difference. Stay tuned…