Over the last six months, the need to congregate in any form has grown tremendously.   Leaders, like Kip Hollister have raised conversation to a new level – creating group forums for sharing, in many cases, intimate stories of how to handle isolation, people management, mental health, and above all, leadership through crisis.  After several months of observing from afar, I dug into her virtual event last Thursday (Dec 9th) to understand how things have evolved during the Pandemic for a diverse group of leaders, entrepreneurs, and practitioners in and around the HR field. 

Most significant was that the event, by design, was “agendaless.”   That alone allowed everyone to take a deep breath and exhale.  Kip’s role was as a thoughtful moderator and re-enforcer of each person’s pain points and revelations.  Honesty prevailed.  No one held back.  Initial reactions to what people hoped to achieve was a “shared sense of resilience.”

The facts around Coronavirus and mental health are well documented,

In a KFF Tracking Poll conducted in mid-July, 53% of adults in the United States reported that their mental health has been negatively impacted due to worry and stress over the coronavirus. 

Therefore, REAL conversations are about how each individual is genuinely engaged in “emotional management”  and what we can learn from each other. Clearly, there is no one answer.   Some make a conscious choice to have a good attitude and focus on silver linings. Yet for others, the current state of work, e.g. WIH model and distance learning is a disaster.  

Others turn to kindness and compassion in small ways – reflecting the way they have been helped an paying it forward.  One anecdote included “putting a few dollar bills in your pocket” and being prepared to hand them to anyone reaching out. For one organizational development professional, the session meant the opportunity to openly acknowledge the “unbearableness” that up until now was a theoretical exercise locked away in a cabinet full of self-help books.  While some individuals are able to find peace and share it from the inside out, others have stepped back and realized they were kidding themselves about just how difficult it is to manage through this time with their families and that it’s OK to say it’s “not working well.”  Those challenged with having REAL conversations every day, HR professionals and team leaders, opened up about the need to seek outside counseling when necessary to be more effective in their roles.  In Hollister terms, REAL conversations look like this:

Ultimately, a REAL conversation leads to a new organizational foundation built on honest relationships.  Getting to the next stage of our personal and professional lives requires us to re calibrate benchmarks, throw away old habits and attitudes, and take a closer look at the individual needs of those in our sphere.  It’s incumbent on each of us to be sensitive to this wide spectrum of situations and apply the REAL filter to hold ourselves accountable.   Kip and her team are equipped to help organizations and individuals create and sustain this new way of working together to reach a higher level of collaboration and creativity.  We will have to develop new muscle to  live and prosper  in this space in order to reach a higher level of Organizational Consciousness.