What a long year and it seems yet a longer one ahead. I’m writing this as my wife’s brother recovers (prayers said and fingers crossed) from COVID-19. Her parents wait with bated breath to see if they too will catch the disease that has killed, as of this morning, more than two million people worldwide. TWO MILLION and still counting. How do you ever empathize with the pain of that fact unless it’s touched you personally?
The start to 2021 proved harder than I anticipated despite a few days to rest and focus on my family. I discovered that our General Manager was experiencing the same heavy feeling after the holiday: how were we going to continue safely guiding our team with the pandemic raging when we sometimes struggle to find the grit to face the day personally? Nothing had fundamentally changed on January 1, and we felt lost.
Yet we found our footing last week through a very common exercise in our company – reaching out to our team and asking for help. This time it’s strategic planning. Normally a top-down effort in many organizations, we’re building our 2023 plan with the help of every employee-owner at Metcalf. By early this week, we will have engaged the entire company to help us identify the most critical things to accomplish over the next three years. The passion and curiosity they always bring to ownership is powerful to witness and tangible enough that it evokes emotion. This time especially that feeling was reassuring.
The employee-owners at Metcalf have always been there to cheer us on, to challenge us to lead by listening, by empathizing. The energy emanating from our co-workers during the virtual “firesides” felt almost close to normal. Working together on our three-year strategy, they reminded us how the purpose that drives our crew of owners remains as solid as ever. Especially now, we feel the desire to give back and do more for those around us.
One team member captured that ethos so well. She said what we do at Metcalf to serve our clients, partners and public is not the only measure of our success; rather it’s one more piece of the bridge we’re building to bring history and heritage to everyone. We believe that when we connect with our story, the human story, we can begin to empathize with those around us. Now more than ever we cannot, and should not, forget the power of that.
Our GM called immediately after the first employee-owner engagement and I could hear the smile on her face. The fog was lifting and we were seeing our line of sight again. After nearly a year, we know we can lead in a pandemic even with the constant expectation that tomorrow will bring another surprise. We also have one hell of a dedicated crew of folks all pulling in the same direction. What we needed was a reminder, a nudge to remember that what we do everyday elevates our clients, partners and the public. From our technology to internships, new services to those offered for decades we’ve built it all to serve, especially now when challenges are the norm for everyone. Creating opportunities to connect with history and heritage is our mission, but not the only way we empathize with those around us.
Photo by Daan Meens, Project Director
Milky way shot over the Little Missouri River in Theodore National Park, ND
