FOCUS

When I worked at Gensler, the firm launched its first Workplace Performance Index, the result of years of research and analysis of how people are most effective while at work. The initial study reported that there are four activities, or “work modes,” that most people participate in while at work: focus, collaboration, learning, and socialization. These became our workplace language in the years following, and it continues to inform the work that we do today at CGS.

But I have to be honest. Over the last two weeks of mandatory WFH, our team has been able to collaborate remotely thanks to Microsoft Teams, learn remotely thanks to webinars and townhalls, and socialize remotely thanks to virtual happy hours and coffee breaks on Zoom… but I’m really struggling with focus.

Even with the relative quiet of working from home, I’m finding myself distracted and more prone to diving down a rabbit hole of “what-ifs” than usual. The unprecedented change happening in the world, paired with a whole new way of working (for me) has me feeling a bit unsettled.

In a recent Harvard Business Review article titled, “The Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief,” David Kessler (the world’s foremost expert on grief) says that we’re feeling multiple kinds of grief at this time of uncertainty: individual, collective, anticipatory, micro, macro. He also says that, while we’re working through the stages of grief, we should remember that the final stage, acceptance, is where the true power lies. Acceptance is control. And we’re seeking control.

Kessler also adds a sixth stage of grief: meaning. Connection. Gratitude. Light. And moving forward.

Good advice.