Too small to be threatening. Too regular to be remarkable.
Some days I imagine we are like the mycelium underground, connected in ways that are not visible, especially to those who are not looking. All the while, we go about our daily work with the understanding we are part of a network—transmuting toxins, communicating through electrical pulses, and sharing nutrients.
Last week I had the treat of spending time with a group of health care leaders working to implement compassion practices within their network of care centers.
Often, compassion gets relegated to an afterthought or a "nice to have" rather than what the data shows -- that compassion impacts both care outcomes and employee engagement. Meaning that compassion is imperative.
This group of leaders held that very tension of working to create meaningful change where the workforce is now chronically burned out and political and cultural uncertainty challenge aspirations for a new way forward.
During the workshop we examined ways to seed culture change into accessible and repeatable practices that can be embedded into workflows. After hundreds of love note installations and collaborations, I shared these tips for tackling BIG connection problems, which is actually to start SMALL. Think about actions that are:
Too small to be threatening
Too regular to be remarkable
Too integrated to be eliminated
Yet powerful enough to transform culture
To be able to see the possibility of the small actions, the first task of a connection operative is to NOTICE. Notice everything. Notice all the things that work, those that don't, where attention is going, where there are cracks, what is annoying, and that which is annoying but no one complains about, what is easy and what is hard. You start by noticing all the things. (Thus the magnifying glass during the workshop to illustrate my point.) This noticing looks beyond surveys, and it can't be outsourced or accomplished with AI.
It takes an empathetic heart, a willingness to be surprised, and the care to slow down and notice all the small things.
I think of this as the actual work of connection. Just like the mycelium, it is the often unseen and terribly mundane that makes way for the regenerative potential of our intentional connection.
I'm grateful for our connection and commitment to community.