Several years ago I wrote an article for Inc. about 3 Powerful Ways to Help Your Team Cope With Tragedy. At the time, the tragedy was the burning of Notre Dame.
Last week's invasion of Ukraine resurfaced this conversation. Looking back, the Notre Dame fire seems merely unfortunate in comparison to the events of the past several years. We've been bombarded by tragedies, and many teams have developed better ways of processing these events together.
Even still - when new events unfold, we need to decide:
What should we do in our upcoming meetings?
Should we begin by acknowledging what's happening, even though most meetings deal with entirely unrelated topics? And how can you NOT talk about it?
As a meeting leader, you may feel it's important to address something that you believe is or should be on everyone's mind before diving into your agenda.
You might be right, You might also be making an assumption that could derail your meeting.