The strength in relationship

Early this week I was driving home and got caught in an unusual traffic jam. Under normal circumstances our traffic is hardly noteworthy, but like the rest of Washington, Spokane is under the Stay home, Stay healthy mandate so a traffic jam was quite a surprise.

As we slowly crept down the street, I noticed that the line of vehicles ahead was turning into the parking lot of the local elementary school, driving past the school office with their windows down and occupants cheering, then returning past me and back the way they came. Apparently, the community had organized a ‘socially separated’ thank you parade for workers at the school. As I drove past, I saw a handful of elated school staff smiling out from the front entrance. It was powerful to see the joy that this kind act spread through the staff and how it reflected into all the parade vehicles. People I didn’t even know were smiling and waving at me as if I wasn’t just trying to squeeze through.

Thinking back on this bright spot in my week, I am inspired again by the power of community and the potential that our teams have when we work together to tackle a common goal. This parade reminded me that it can be both effective and fun.  I believe that the challenges and complexity of our industry can sometimes overshadow the “elementary” parts of creating team success. We can easily bypass the easy things and jump right into implementing advanced strategies. Unfortunately, we undermine our success by neglecting the simple humanity of first building team relationships. It seems like a simple thing, but I can guarantee you the joy and power in the thank you parade was driven by the strength of relationships and not by an advanced process of parade implementation.

So as we slowly clear this current hurdle and plan our re-entry into a post COVID-19 society, let me encourage us all to remember the powerful stories we’ve seen in our communities and challenge us all to take our team success to the next level by remembering some simple lessons from elementary school.