Cheerful swearing for a change

Photo by Anni Roenkae.

Last month we started work with several groups of managers. The first ones to go through our new, fully-remote management program, Blueprint. We were excited, and terrified.

Not about the program itself. We worked hard on that. Every night for May and June we would get the kids to bed, and then unpack all the recording gear. We'd record one 20-30 minute block after another. Compensation strategy. Giving hard feedback. Running a meeting your colleagues won't hate. Block after block. Night after night. That's stuff we know, though. We weren't worried about that.

The thing we worried about was whether anyone would come along. Like, there's a pandemic going on, right? And we think management topics are as vital as ever. But would they? We worried that no one would do the work. That they'd show up for the live calls and sort of coast through the rest of it. Not because they are lazy -- most of the bosses we work with are trying their damnedest -- but because they're tired. We're all tired. Every week that goes by, we find new depths of tired.

We worried they'd be too tired to come along. And we were completely wrong.

These groups have some of the most engaged and lit up bosses we've ever worked with. When we tell you they are in it, they are in it. In our Q&A sessions, and in our inboxes between sessions. They are grappling with real shit. They are doing the work. They are devouring the work.

What the hell?

It took us a few weeks to figure out what was going on. Because everything else we expected is true. They are tired. They're drawing inward, focused more on their own team and less on the company as a whole. They're playing it safe and not raising some hard topics they know they should. That's all true.

But there is an appetite there. For clarity. For something that feels like answers. For a sense of forward motion and progress when they feel like they've been treading water. There's something about this moment we're in that makes growth and change and possibility deeply energizing for people. And once we realized that, we started to see it everywhere.

Transformation is in the air

Maybe you’re tired of hearing about all the change. It’s possible that you are full up on articles about the death of the office or zoom wedding ceremonies. We don’t blame you. There have been so many hot takes over the past few months. Hell, your open tabs probably contain contradictory hot takes. One announcing how we’re all face-muting now. Followed by 15 virtual scavenger hunts you can run to onboard new employees. It’s exhausting. You don’t need another hot take. And we’re in no mood to write one.

What we will offer - what someone, anyone, should bring to the conversation - is a coolly optimistic take:

There has never been a time when people were more ripe for change. You have an entire world, tilted sideways. And the optimistic part is that you can only get transformation when people are receptive to change.

Humans are tricky. We hold onto a narrative about ourselves way longer than it’s useful, when it’s comfortable. And in service of our own comfort, we cling to outdated narratives about other people. That comfort comes at a price. Whether we're doing it to ourselves or others. It is where we talk ourselves into staying in the wrong job, the wrong apartment, the wrong relationships. It is how we pressure friends and family to stay in the box we've put them in. All from a place of dodging disruption and staying comfortable.

But discomfort? Disruption? Well, we get those fuckers for free in 2020. You can't dodge it, and neither can the people holding onto an old version of you.

We are at an all-time low on stability and comfort. That's not a good thing or a silver lining. That's a tragedy so big it's hard to hold it in your head. And still, there is an opportunity there. The voices demanding that you stay the same, your own and others, don't get to have that right now. None of us get to have that right now. But what we do have, each of us, is a once in a lifetime opportunity to throw away the old story and tell a new one.

That doesn't have to look like management training for you. It doesn't even have to be a story about work, though we know that for many of you it is. But we told you at the start. Transformation is in the air. There are loads of other places to find opportunities for change. It can be small adjustments to how you show up for your friends, family, and community. Checking in on people. Tipping well. Finding patience while waiting in line to get groceries.

Maybe you’ve got some baggage you can get rid of, now that none of us are travelling anyway. Or maybe you’ve just been meaning to try a thing. We hope you will. And we hope you’ll let us know how it goes. Because what we’re hearing is that after all the waiting, some forward progress feels really fucking good.

- Melissa and Johnathan