The Importance of Vulnerability

These are truly turbulent moments in time. Our current global pandemic is affecting all of us and has disrupted the rhythms of our daily lives.

So much of our time now is spent in virtual meetings and on phone calls, trying to understand constantly changing information, new rules, and pandemic terminology. During this, I also find it important to make time to connect with people individually, even if it’s to simply ask “how are you doing”.

As I share my thoughts and perspective on our new business landscape regularly with our team members, I have also taken the time to start recording videos to personally reach everyone, whenever and wherever they are.

In my most recent video, I spoke about the emotions that many of us are experiencing including anxiety, confusion, fear and perhaps even grief. As individuals, how we handle these emotions varies greatly and can vary every day. When I watch the news about the number of infections and deaths, I can’t help but worry.

And, worries abound! Are you going stir crazy from sheltering in place? Are you dealing with the added stress of trying to home-school your kids? Perhaps you have immediate family members or friends who are health-compromised from illness or age. Perhaps you, or someone you love, has even been directly affected by COVID-19.

During my worry, I try to find comfort in Reinhold Niebuhr’s, American theologian, quotation:

“Grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”

This helps me to find strength in the human experience of overcoming adversity by remaining resilient. I could become paralyzed by emotion, or I can work to lead and empower my team to apply our skills, talent, and experience to the best we can—for ourselves, a partner, children, family and community. I know that we can learn, adapt, and grow together during this time and I encourage you to also find the strength to be the best you can be, too.

We are embracing our future at Atmosphere by leading with a vision, plan, and infrastructure for our post-COVID experience as we formulate our re-entry into our Worklabs. To ensure that the health and safety of our team members and guests remain our top priority, we’ll facilitate deep cleanings of all spaces, implement new on-going protocols, and work on a phased re-entry to manage density. PPE will be readily available and we are retrofitting our spaces to promote physical distancing. Our leadership team strives to make responsible decisions consistent with our values, while not knowing exactly what the future holds. We have assessed and modeled many options, with the goal of always doing the right thing for team members, and our organization.

I deeply appreciate all the hard work our team members and partners are doing to create a path forward for our organization. Without you, we could not live our values and serve our clients and communities. Our entrepreneurial culture is about being nimble, pragmatic, and aiming for speed over elegance. I have been so impressed to see how quickly we have adapted to new ways of working, which I know is not easy.

I challenge myself to strike a balance between accepting how little control I may have in this situation, to not letting that acceptance turn into complacency. In turn, I challenge those around me to be engaged, supportive, and to let our combined efforts, and community, buoy us as we hold each other afloat.

Carlene Wilson, CEO