Is it Possible You’re Actually Alone?

As we emerge from an era of isolation…
Do we really know how to provide the emotional support our team needs?

Do we really know how to create an environment where everybody feels switched on, alive and passionate about what they do?

Or is that just the picture of the world that revolves somewhere in our glorious imagination?

Look at our own behaviour, for example.

We look up the night sky, don’t we?
And we wonder.

That awed question sits in our imaginings:
“Are We Alone?”

In daylight, we might be hyper-productive at our PC (forced to sit in whatever corner assures we won’t be a nuisance).

Satisfied with ticking the To Do List, perhaps.
But not sure if we can cope with another Zoom conversation for the next week.

So – in exhaustion – we’re tempted to dive for the TV remote.
And sit there with the tray on our lap.
Perhaps soshul meejya keeping us company on the side.

Yet, we still wonder what’s missing.
We wonder why we sometimes feel so alienated.
Comfortable.
Entertained.
But alone.

And if we feel that…
What about those who look to us for direction, for support?

Do they sometimes feel alone in the culture we’ve created?

I found some guidance years ago, watching the film ‘Shadowlands’.
A film that focused on the love and loss of C S Lewis, as his life entwined with American poet Joy Davidman.

One of his students commented to Professor Lewis:
“My Dad taught… We read to know we’re not alone”

We humans love stories.
Not just reading them.
We love creating them!

We love recalling that tender moment when we felt a jolt of electricity in touching that hand.
We recall where we were. Maybe even what we incoherently tried to say.
If we’re that aware, the sounds and perfumes that surrounded us linger in our fondness.

We weave the narrative.
We love telling the story – if only to ourselves.
And the story gets better in every telling.

Stories are what we use to understand the universe.
And our place in it.

So, I wonder.

What about your place?
The place you’ve created for me.
The place where I work with you. in your team.

What’s the story you want me to buy into?
The story you expect me to be ignited by?

Or am I simply a role and responsibility in your universe?

Give me a story I can believe in.
Give me a story, whose telling lifts me again and again.

Give me that story…
And I’ll give you more than what my Role-and-Responsibility requires.

I’ll give you my passion.
I’ll give you my resilience and generosity in times of pressure or crisis.
I’ll give you my wildly innovative thinking, when solutions won’t come to you.

You can do this business thing with the best and most wondrous of me.
Or you can carry the weight of it alone.

Your choice.