Of traffic and opening doors..

I’m not sure about you but it sure seems like rush hour traffic is back.  One of the things that had been noticeable in our #WFH environment is that we didn’t have this concentration of cars on the highways at either end of the work day.  I will be among those who will go on record and say I miss that.

One of the other things I’ve noticed is to what lengths we as a public will take to open doors for each other.  Believe me, this is way past “Southern nice”.  I’ve seen people try to beat another person to the door for the right to hold it open for them – or people stay at a door well beyond the prior norm to hold it open.  I’ve even participated in a bit of a door dance, trying to figure out which way to go so that only one of us as dance partners has to touch the door.  All just so another person didn’t have to risk making contact with a high-contact surface.  I’m intrigued at the genuine selflessness of this gesture to others that we don’t know and will likely never see again.

These two examples just strike me as representative of the various aspects of life that have changed and continue to be redefined since the pandemic hit our shores over 16 months ago.  Such examples remind me of a quote from Dave Hollis that a client shared with me, “In the rush to return to normal, consider which parts of normal are worth rushing back to.”  This begs the question, what does it mean to be normal?

And yet, even as I write this, infection rates are increasing at an alarming rate due to the delta variant and in the U.S., vaccination rates have largely stalled, which is by itself startling.  It would seem that we are set to enter a new cycle of this great human experiment:  of how we see the world and others in it, how we make sense of it, and to how all of this affects our behavior.  Surely, traffic will just be an indicator of how we work and what it means to go places.  Perhaps, the simple kindness of opening doors will have endurance and find ways to come alive in other human to human interactions. 

For these and other dimensions, I’d challenge us all to be vigilent in our awareness to the dynamics around us.  As leaders, the challenge would extend to being sensitive to needs and setting norms and standards – either through example and tone or in policy – that are mutually beneficial, generous, and considerate of others.  Examples and opportunities are all around us, if we’ll only make the effort to notice and be resolved to act accordingly.