Hello, friends of Collective (née nau)!
Hello!
Welcome to news from Collective (formerly nau). I’m Amy, founder and CEO, and my aim is to make these newsletters rich in food-for-thought. In fact, I have two meaty things to share today:
First is an article I wrote for Harvard Business Review about how to meet (or gather) better at work. It offers three fundamental kinds of workplace gatherings and how to create the right conditions for each, whether you’re in-person or distributed.
And the second thought-starter is a perspective on how to navigate uncertainty as a leader. You’ll find that below this note.
But first:
We rebranded (if you knew us as nau, read why we changed)
We’re launching two new programs this year, designed for leaders navigating change (one is closing soon - sign up now!)
(You’re here because we’ve collaborated, you’ve been supportive to us, or you signed up to hear from us. I think you want to be here, but there’s a link at the bottom of the email to change that should you wish. I do hope you’ll stay, because I value you and believe you’ll value what I have to share.)
New Brand: Welcome to Collective!
Thanks to our work with so many of you, we’ve refined our mission:
The pandemic was an inflection point that changed the way we live and work forever. So we help people within distributed (remote, hybrid) organizations to flourish in this new reality.
We do this by delivering cohort-based programs and custom support to help you lead, live, collaborate, and build strong working relationships and community in a distributed world.
The name Collective comes from the belief that change is easier when we’re surrounded by people who desire the same change. So, we center our offers around cohorts. Speaking of cohorts…
One new year, two new programs
Leading through uncertainty is for those seeking a new perspective on uncertainty, strategies for navigating it as a leader, and connections to a new group of leaders. The next cohort (at beta prices!) launches January 27th. Executives who’ve been through it loved it, saying things like “it’s been a gift to be part of these conversations” and “Being at the top is lonely. I don’t have a lot of people to talk to about what I’m doing. You created an open environment [to talk about making change happen].”
The second program has garnered us the most emotional emails and emojis 🙂 🙇 🙋 🙌 ☝🙏 of any of our work to date. We call it “Where is home?” and it’s all about navigating the equally delightful and terrifying thought that many of us can now live almost anywhere. New dates are coming soon, so sign up for the waiting list to hear about them:
If any of the above interests you but the dates don’t work, you want to learn more, or you’d like something customized for your organization, we’re here to help:
I’m so glad you’re here,
Amy
Founder and CEO, Collective (formerly nau)
Navigating uncertainty as a leader
When I lived in Singapore, I had many expat friends, all of us living in a place we loved but knew was temporary. With that came a sense of floating, a lack of tethering. There was a book that we furtively shared, almost denying we needed it. Yet we took such refuge in this dog-eared book, because it so precisely articulated what we were experiencing.
I keep thinking of that book now, in the midst of all the change swirling around us. It’s aptly named Transitions, by William Bridges.
In it, Bridges makes the point that transitions are marked by three phases: first there is an ending. Then, before we get to the inevitable beginning, he argues that we go through something called the “neutral zone.” This is a period, like being in neutral in a car, when we are engaged to go but not actually moving. It’s a period rife with uncertainty. And this was the game changer, realizing this was a stage we all went through.
Of course, we humans don’t love resting in neutral.
As Bridges notes, when he worked with people in the midst of transition, regardless of whether they were there willingly or unwittingly, “they all agreed that the in-between place was strange and confusing. They hoped to get out of it, in favor of either the Good Old Days or the Brave New World, as quickly as possible.”
Sound familiar?
This framework for transitions is a powerful one for our current landscape. The pandemic was an inflection point that changed the way we live and work forever.
We are ready to settle into the new normal (or go back to the past!), yet uncertainty still abounds. The pandemic keeps threatening to end but then rearing up again; the economy is faltering; layoffs are seemingly ubiquitous; return-to-office mandates aren’t working how we expected, or they’re creating another layer of questions to answer.
As a society, we’re in a massive, years-long neutral zone. Or, as I prefer to more optimistically call it, a liminal zone. Here’s the crux: We’re not just grappling with the shape of how we’ll work together, we’re re-defining who we are as leaders and people. Debates over where we should work aren’t about logistics as much as they’re about values: I want to be with my family more; I wish for more serendipity and soft moments with my team.
No wonder it's taking time.
Much like renovations, liminal zones are always longer than we anticipate. For perspective, consider this: the industrial revolution lasted somewhere between 80 and 180 years, depending on how you count. I don’t think this transition will take nearly as long, but in the scheme of things, three years is pretty short.
So while we do all we can to usher in those new beginnings, there’s value in embracing the in-between, in learning how to flourish within it.
As it happens, my professional career has prepared me for this exact situation. I’m a trained designer and meditation teacher, and both vocations provide tools for thriving in the liminal zone. Here’s what I’ve learned: flourishing in uncertainty is what gets us faster and more confidently to the new beginning. More than that, it’s what defines the new beginning.
So, how can we flourish in the liminal state of uncertainty?
Experiment through ambiguity
In design, we embrace the ambiguity that comes with uncertainty, because that’s where innovation is bred. It’s so much easier to make big, impactful changes when the sands are shifting.
How do we do this? First, we reframe ambiguity to opportunity, by asking what changes would we would like to see happen, what needs would we like to fulfill. Then we experiment our way forward. Reflecting on the opportunities that exist, we brainstorm and test new solutions. This deliberate attention and action has the effect of dissipating the natural fear that arises from uncertainty, replacing it with hope and curiosity.
Embrace impermanence
In the meditation world, we emphasize that life is impermanent. We’re taught to notice the micro-moments of impermanence: The rise and fall of our breath. The constantly evolving sky, as clouds come and go and the sun shifts. These serve as reminders that we’re in a constant state of flux. If we can notice that everything is impermanent, we can recognize that we’re very well equipped to deal with life’s inevitable transitions.
Recognize the terror-adventure paradigm
Times of uncertainty are roller-coasters. They can be equally as exhilarating as terrifying, yet we’re naturally inclined to focus on the latter. As a safety mechanism, the human brain is wired to focus on the negative, so we can benefit by actively reminding ourselves of the positives. For instance, if uncertainty comes from surviving layoffs, along with survivors' guilt and excess work, there is a chance to shake up how the team works and to re-prioritize. Or if it comes from job loss and related financial angst, it also creates space in our days and a chance to revisit what we want out of work. Put poetically, as a character said to another in a novel I recently read: “I don’t want you to miss where you are on the way to getting somewhere else.”
What’s common across all three of these prompts is that they navigate us away from fear, reframing it through action and awareness. As leaders, we’ve successfully maneuvered through many uncertainties. But it requires another layer of attention to bring others through times of ambiguity, and a good starting point is recognizing when we’re in the liminal zone.
I won’t claim that the label dissolves all the angst. We are human after all. But it is a powerful step in allowing ourselves to breathe more easily and open our eyes to the adventure part of the paradigm.
So perhaps it’s high time we stopped whispering about the weightlessness of transitions. Once we do that, we’ll certainly find comfort in a shared experienced. And we may even find we can fly.
If this is a topic that you’d like to delve further into, we have an upcoming salon series centered on this very subject, leading through uncertainty.
And if you’d like something immediate, here’s a sequence of activities to try with your team or on your own:
Step 1: Schedule a retro, where you reflect on what has happened recently for the team. A simple framework is to consider what’s no longer working, what you’d like to retain, and what you’d like to add in. Tech and product teams will know this routine well, but here is the secret sauce that puts a twist on this familiar approach:
Our goal is to hold space to reflect on how we work and how we navigate the conditions within the organization, allowing any emotion that arises, without solving anything. We’re looking for the needs we can better address, the opportunities.
In the design world, the analogy is user research. Before proffering any solutions, we spend time asking people about their hopes and needs.
In meditation, we allow thoughts to come and go, without judgment or trying to solve for anything. This allows us the space to respond thoughtfully, not react unthinkingly.
Step 2: In a separate session, craft experiments based on what came up in the retro. Once you’re away from the emotions, you can see what needs are underneath them. Perhaps you want to change how you communicate, how you build relationships, or how you prioritize work.
Our goal is to craft experiments that can be done in a day or a week, that don’t take time or energy to build, and can easily be iterated on.
In the design world, we deliberately make our prototypes rough, so that we’re not so invested we can’t change them if they’re not working. We continually ask: What did we learn from this? How can we make it better? We go in with the assumption that the end result will look nothing like the first prototype.
Step 3: Iterate. Make the time to check in on what’s working and not, to tweak and adjust. Depending on the uncertainty you’re tending to, this could be once, or frequently for a period of time.
If you’d like to try this with your team, download the activity here, and let us know how it goes!
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