What I’ve Learned During the Pandemic: A Facilitator’s Perspective

My most surprising discovery during the pandemic is the extraordinary sense of connection I feel with business colleagues around the globe, and it’s stronger than ever.

I’ve participated in numerous Zoom meetings the past five months with two international groups I’m part of: the all-volunteer Global Facilitators Serving Communities and the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Certified Facilitators community. I’m blown away by our sharing parallel experiences each time we meet online.

Regardless of geography or culture, we’re all grappling with similar concerns and emotions:

  • worrying about the health and welfare of our families, friends, neighbors, and communities
  • social distancing in lieu of socializing as we used to know it, especially missing in-person handshakes and hugs
  • the sudden shift to working virtually (even among those of us who have worked from home for many years) with evaporating boundaries between work and home
  • figuring out how and when we’ll be able to sustain our work and livelihoods
  • a roller coaster of emotional highs and lows while acknowledging it’s OK to not feel OK.

Each one of us is dealing with fatigue from being “hyper-engaged digitally, yet highly stressed emotionally,” according to HR industry analyst Josh Bersin. And while we have different ways of coping, I find comfort in knowing I’m not alone in this.

What hit home for me is how much I’ve come to value the strength of our connections. Even greater than being members in a professional community is our human bond in a global community.

[Image credit: photo by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay]

 

4 Comments

  • Ximena Combariza August 26, 2020 Reply

    Dear Sybil, I enjoyed your text about what you have learned from this pandemic. I also feel identified with the emotions and challenges you described, as well as about the positive and encouraging links among different facilitators groups, like the one we have created around GFSC.

    • sybil August 28, 2020 Reply

      Thank you, Ximena; I’m glad you liked this. In its efforts to help others, I’m proud to be part of the GFSC community and find our generous discussions to be a life line of sanity and hope.

  • Sherwood Shankland August 24, 2020 Reply

    Thanks for your reflections on the concerns and emotions…very common with me and many others I’m sure. I would like to hear some insights from the Lego group on the pivot to online…How in the world do 5- 6 people “build” a Lego sculpture online? Replicating the face to face engagement with physical props (Lego blocks) seems like a tough experience to replicate online.
    See you soon. / Sherwood

    • sybil August 24, 2020 Reply

      Indeed, Sherwood. The LSP facilitator community does not advocate doing LEGO SERIOUS PLAY online EXCEPT in rare instances. These exceptions include working with people who are already familiar with the LSP process and limiting such sessions to a small number of participants at a time. We expect some pent-up demand for LSP team and strategy development workshops when more people return to a safe office environment.

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