Reflecting on the Year

I haven’t done an end of the year blog post in a number of years now, but there is something about this year that feels like it merits marking its ending. It was a challenging year, but full of learning.

First and foremost we learned about patience: “You may be done with the virus, but it’s not done with us” is a saying that became popular. We learned that there were some things we could do to protect ourselves and others from the consequences of the pandemic but there were also things that were out of our control. It taught us humility, patience, adaptability (as meetings we hoped to do in person once again remained online) and a variety of other lessons for each of us.
The strength of collaboration. If we didn’t already know it, these years of the covid pandemic have underscored how important it is to work together, reaching out across boundaries (geographic, sector, perspectives and many others) we may have traditionally stayed within. For me one of the ways this played out was co-creating a Master Class on facilitating multi-year change. We learned a lot from it and I look forward to trying other ways to collaborate in the years ahead.
Finding people who are inspirational to us. My most popular blog ever was one I wrote over a decade ago about people I found inspirational. The criteria is the same for what inspires me, but in the past few years I have found younger generation members who continue to inspire. A shout-out to Loyce Pace, Blair Glencorse and Joshua Alade who have found success but still keep their humility, moral compass and joie de vivre!
Time to re-energize. The strains that the past two years have put on us individually and collectively cannot be overemphasized. As those who ‘do for others’ we often neglect ourselves. Although we intellectually may have understood this for awhile, this pandemic period has demonstrated to us how critical it is to take time to re-energize in order to keep on serving a greater good.