A few weeks ago, I had to schedule a medical procedure. My diagnosis wasn’t serious, and my doctor assured me I’d bounce back fast. Going into the operation, I was pretty nonchalant. Once back home, however, I quickly ditched my blasé attitude. If the meds were working, I was comfortable but loopy. When they wore off, I was lucid but in pain. Either way, I was totally off my game.

Sometimes learning to locate the brightness in your life in spite of what’s happening around you is a fundamental survival skill. You know how flight attendants remind us that, in case of an emergency, we should put on our own oxygen mask first? These days, the equivalent safety instruction is to remember to take care of ourselves in order to be at our best for others. Learning to find moments of peace amidst uncertainty helps us cultivate calm and resilience. It’s good for us, and it’s also good for everyone around us.

As a coach and facilitator, I often guide leaders and teams through bright listening exercises. Here are a few I find particularly effective (and I practiced them myself during a wonderful two-day workshop called “Scaling Intimacy” led by Jenny Sauer-Klein).

We’re all discovering that there’s currently no such thing as an “accidental” connection at work. Impromptu water cooler conversations, unplanned lunchtime chats, and spontaneous hallway discussions have been replaced by scheduled video conferences with select participants. No one “drops by” on Zoom just because they feel like it!

For most of us, it’s hard to feel certain about much of anything these days. If you’re a business leader, you’re not immune to thinking that the future, both short-term and long-term, looks pretty opaque. The good news is that you can get some clarity by creating a company culture that taps into and embraces the collective intelligence of your entire team. Collective intelligence may not give you 20/20 vision, but it will certainly help shine some light on the road ahead.

Lately, when the Live Bright Now team talks with clients about creating bright company culture, we’ve been using a new term: shared diligence. We talked about this concept in a previous post, and, since then, people have been asking what we mean. Here’s more on why it’s so important.

With so many companies contemplating reopening their physical offices, we believe that businesses must foster a culture of shared diligence to move forward safely and successfully.