Beautiful moments, icebreakers, and a motorized wheelchair

I can’t believe this, but we’re in year three of the COVID-19 pandemic. (“Tragedy” seems a more fitting word.)

By now, we’ve all been touched by the pandemic in some way. We’ve lost loved ones. We know someone who lost a family member or friend. We’ve been sick or hospitalized.

But we aren’t really talking about how it’s impacted us.

Sure, you hear lots of discussions about remote work and “the new normal.” We’ve all complained about supply chain issues and the latest out-of-stock product.

But we’re collectively experiencing a global tragedy, vicarious trauma, and the accompanying grief. You don’t hear a ton of watercooler chat about all these big feelings bubbling under the surface.

While we never know if this moment will be our last or if we’ll see this person or that person tomorrow, that uncertainty feels more top of mind these days.

Knowing that, how do we choose to treat people? Ourselves? How do we make every moment with someone The Best Moment?

And importantly, how do we recognize the precious, beautiful moments that touch us? How can we be grateful for them? How do we fill our lives with them?

It’s challenging right now to think about beautiful moments. My friend and Stanford Business School professor Jennifer Aaker recently shared the the idea that we need to punctuate our days with beautiful moments, and pay attention so we don’t miss them. Beautiful moments are the stuff of life, and the meaningful moments we share with others are among the most precious.

How would your work relationships change if you started to think in terms of beautiful moments? What would you do to engineer them? How would you encourage more vulnerability and empathy? What beautiful moments would you share?

Imagine this new icebreaker: Share a recent beautiful moment.

(It really changes the whole energy of the icebreaker, doesn’t it?)

A recent, impactful example from a friend: He told me that he found out he’d fathered a daughter. He had no idea until she reached out on ancestry.com! His willingness to share so openly and honestly about their evolving relationship created a beautiful moment of connection.

For me, I’m adding beautiful moments to my daily gratitude list. I’m constantly searching for small, precious moments and really, truly appreciating them.

Here’s my first entry:

I recently saw an elderly couple in a motorized wheelchair. The husband was in the front, the wife behind him. They looked so happy, zooming around San Francisco at high speeds together! (I want to be that much of a daredevil in my 80s and 90s!)

What’s a beautiful moment you experienced lately? It could be with a loved one, a colleague, or even a stranger. These moments are everywhere – but you have to look for them! Email me and as a bonus, include Jennifer Aaker at [email protected] so she can be looped in.

– Charlene

My Latest:

• Unpopular opinion: You can’t have it all! Work-life balance doesn’t exist! Watch my latest livestream to learn a more supportive perspective.

• Do you meditate? Well, I don’t care! 😉I’d much rather you have a mindfulness practice. In Leading Disruption, I share why mindfulness could be the solution to every leader’s biggest challenge.

• I’m DEVOTED to my team’s success – so much so that I have a radical approach to employee relationships. Tune in to my livestream on Tuesday, August 23 to find out the simple and profound practice at the heart of it all.

• Check out my episode on Buzz Knight’s podcast “Takin a Walk” on Maximizing Your Leadership Potential. We discuss topics ranging from having uncomfortable conversations around disruptive change to how leaders can foster optimism in their organizations.

Three Good Things:

• Reads: If you suffer from information overload, then Building a Second Brain by Diego Forte is a must read. Based on the by the same name, the book gives pragamatic, step-by-step instructions on how to capture, organize, and very importantly, retrieve the information. It’s the process that I use and it has changed not only how I do research and write but also how I manage my life.

• Referrals: I love Burning Man. Love. It. I’ve even found local Burning Man communities! The 10 Principles guide the community and one of my favorites is “Gifting” where giving is unconditional with no expectation of return. There’s no money at Burning Man – and it’s not bartering where you give with the expectation of getting something. The gift is sometimes physical – a handmade necklace or a grilled cheese sandwich. But more often, it’s the gift of someone’s attention, a stranger stopping to help me with directions. It’s a reminder to me that the caring and kindness behind gifting is something that we to practice in our daily lives.

Resource: I’ve kept a crumpled paper packing list in my closet for years and after a recent trip where I left essential things behind, I decided to go digital. I now use PackPoint to manage customized and updated packing lists. My favorite features – it adds the weather of your destination, how many nights you’ll be gone, and takes into account various activities (like hiking or going casual work meetings). My wonky custom list is “livestreaming” so I never forget essentials like an external microphone.