This was originally posted on LinkedIn. Empathy and humanity are essential to “showing up”.

“Showing up” can be frustrating and fun.

On Wednesday evening, I planned on presenting training for my colleagues at work on “teamwork”.  I prepared, sourced the content and slides, set up exercises in Mural, and opened the Teams call 15 minutes before the meeting start.

Teams would not let me into the meeting that I set up! Strike 1

My colleague Ali scheduled another Teams meeting and I joined that call.  I was just getting started and after 15 minutes or so of delay when Strike 2 happened.  My computer froze up.  Reboot, nothing, crickets, another 10 or more minutes gone.

I was finally able to rejoin after the second reboot, but only one screen was working with my WFH setup. I needed two to move between the Teams discussion and Mural to avoid delays.

Empathy and humanity

Here’s where empathy and just “humans_being” kicked in.

After a short discussion and out of respect for everyone and the remaining time, we agreed to reschedule the session.  To my amazement and delight Ali, Janelle, Lisa, Nicole, and Patrick stayed online to just talk and connect!

What I thought was a bit of missed opportunity and wasted time turned into a chance to connect more, laugh more, and share more life.

It was also the first time I talked about how I navigate life, finding my “new normal” daily, with the challenges around PTS.

Oh, in case you are wondering, there wasn’t a Strike 3!  I plan to be up-to-bat next week swinging for the fences, “showing up”, all with other “humans_being”!