It's been a few weeks since my last blog post, and for good reason. Accomplishing ANYTHING is simply harder during a global pandemic (imagine nodding your head in agreement to THAT sentence a year ago). Our energy is tapped, our attention split, and our sources of anxiety have multiplied like, well, a VIRUS!
As an in-person teacher, it's very easy for me to get caught up in all of my extra duties and concerns. The classroom is no longer just a physical space but a construct; some students are there in person while others appear via Zoom video (or request recordings to view at their convenience at a later time). The very idea of simultaneous existence in proximity to one another was stretched to its boundaries a few weeks back when I had to implement a new class rule: No attending class while driving. Students were literally Zooming in behind the wheel.
Amidst this chaos and new responsibilities, we leaders can sometimes forget that something big, heavy, and all-encompassing has happened around us. Our students, employees, and followers are experiencing trauma. Maybe not blunt-force, smash-you-in-the-face, bone-shattering catastrophe, but upheavals of reality all the same. Our life from March 2020 simply no longer exists, and may never return completely to normal.
Recent articles and even scholarly research have documented the phenomenon. Some of the victims are very easy to see...healthcare workers, public-facing employees, and, tragically, people who have lost their jobs. Others may be suffering right under our noses; think, for example, of the college freshmen who are experiencing the strangest first year of college in recent memory....right after being denied normal rites of passage like graduation ceremonies, proms, and other parties. Make no mistake, these are upheavals of expected norms that will color their perceptions of reality (https://www.healthline.com/health-news/the-world-is-experiencing-mass-trauma-from-covid-19-what-you-can-do#Understanding-the-definition-of-trauma). An entire generation of young people is collectively learning that life, indeed, is not fair.
One of my favorite expressions from my musical life is "if you play it once, it's a mistake; if you play it twice, it's jazz." The meaning from this statement is that sometimes you have to improvise and make a new tune when the old melody falls apart. I've taken this axiom into the classroom this year; the following lessons learned are not based on formal research, but come from observation and trial and error. As my audience is 18-24-year-old college students, some of these methods might work for the people you work with or lead as well.
1. Take frequent breaks: In the "old days" of 2019, going 20-30 minutes solid for a lecture before a break was common practice. These days, I stop after no more than 15 minutes to dialog with my students. Between the additional fatigue of wearing a mask (for students and instructor) and the challenges of holding the attention of young people who are (slowly) going through a national crisis, we simply need to give people more time to breathe. Has this strategy affected the amount of material I can cover in a period? Definitely. Do I think my students are retaining more than if i held with the "traditional" approach? Absolutely....because they've told me so. Which brings me to my next point...
2. Check in with people....anonymously if possible: I use a great free tool called "Poll Everywhere." This online service allows me to to create real-time polling among other cool approaches. My current favorite is a word cloud:
Using their laptops or smartphones, people can answer an open-ended question with a word or short phrase. If more people type the same word, it gets bigger. You can quickly (and anonymously) know what the people in your room are feeling. This week, I simply asked my classes "how are you doing?" and watched the screen populate with words like "stress," "depressed," and "scared." We took 10 minutes at the beginning of the session to see how we could support each other. Yes, it cut into class time, but I truly believe the remaining 40 minutes were more focused and productive because students got to "let it out" before we jumped into the material.
3. Tie in material, if possible, to the unfolding situation: As an instructor of HR, labor relations, and other business-related fields, it's not been tough to apply key concepts to the world around us. Helping our students understand some of the practical business mechanics of a worldwide pandemic empowers them to have a say in outcomes. For example, discussing remote work through the lens of industries which migrated to such practices because of COVID gives students a chance to explore how those careers could work for them. I've even conducted mock "online interviews" so that our young folks can be better prepared to make a first impression via video. Showing someone that they CAN navigate a changing world gives them power!
4. Be able to laugh at your own failings: Most of my current class load is "hybrid" format, meaning up to half of my students are attending class, in real-time, via Zoom video (and NOT while driving). It can be a challenge to ensure that everyone is having an equivalent experience. My best advice is to make a joke when you push the wrong button on a Zoom call; at this point in time, nobody is an expert on all things tech.
5. Encourage engagement: Many people will, if left unchecked, turn off their cameras and choose to be invisible. Require remote attendees to turn on their cameras, even if it means asking a silly question that everyone must answer. Marginal students appear to be the most ready to embrace remote learning under the assumption that they can also hide from a bad final grade. There are probably similar attitudes among marginal employees as well.
6. Keep your sense of humor in general: There are times, under this constant stress of the current "new normal" that our brains will simply shut off. The content on our Power Point slides seems like it's written in a foreign language. We can't remember the name of the masked student who's been in class since August. We can't determine which button shares the screen with audio. My advice: Stop and own it. Laugh at yourself. Be human. It gives permission to our students (or employees and co-workers) to be imperfect too.
I don't know that I'll go as far as to say that a global pandemic was "just what we needed," but the current reality represents many great opportunities. We have a chance to rediscover the value of humor. Of connections between people. Of vulnerability. Of compassion toward others. Of empathy. In so many ways, the content we teach and the professions that we perform all have a new item in the job description, namely, "take care of those around you..including you."
As a teacher, I hope to help produce great managers, HR professionals, project leads, and technology professionals. Just as importantly, I hope to assist in shaping great PEOPLE. If 2020 has taught me anything is that we've never needed good humans than ever before. We, as teachers, managers, co-workers, and friends, have the power to be examples for others on how to make it through, including asking for help when we need it.
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