Let this season do its thing

Hello!!

We’ve officially entered that part of summer where everyone starts talking like it’s already over. August long weekend passes, and suddenly it’s “where did the summer go?” and “fall is basically here” … and my personal favourite “September is going to be BANANAS!!”

Meanwhile, it is still very much August.

The kids are still home. Someone on your team is on vacation, someone else is answering Slack from the cabin with questionable Wi-Fi, and your calendar is somehow both quieter than usual and completely impossible to coordinate. The nights are getting a tiny bit shorter, and the garden is finally doing what you begged it to do in June.

September has big back-to-school energy. Projects kick back up, events start happening, calendars fill, and everyone collectively remembers the 100 things they said they’d “circle back to in the fall.” (A quick laugh on circling back).

And our team is preparing for it.

But recently I’ve been wondering if we spend so much of August bracing for September that we forget to actually be in August.

The Growclass community participates in ongoing coaching circles with the wonderful Gloria Eid, and in one of our recent sessions she introduced us to a framework around the seasons of life and the elements we resonate with.

The idea is that we move through seasons in our work and lives, just like we do outside. Winter is a period of rest and inward reflection. Spring is when we start again, plant seeds and trust something will grow. Summer is the doing season: experimenting, iterating, trying things, tending to what we planted. And autumn is when we harvest, celebrate, assess and actually appreciate what we worked to produce.

Touch some grass 🎙️ Gloria recently launched a podcast, Fully Divine, Fully Human. Consider this my little mid-summer recommendation to listen while walking, gardening, or road-tripping! 

Gloria’s coaching sessions naturally had the group thinking about the seasons of partnerships.

There are relationships in spring right now. Maybe we’ve had a coffee, swapped a few ideas, or discovered there’s something interesting we mutually care about. 

Other partnerships are deep in summer. We’re building something together, trying things, changing plans on the fly, sending a mildly unreasonable number of emails and figuring out what works as we go.

And then there are the relationships heading into autumn. Something worked! An event happened, a program launched, people showed up.

Not everyone is in the same season at the same time.

A little August energizer for your next team meeting or community gathering. 

Ask everyone:  “What season are you in right now– maybe it’s personal life or a work project?”

Spring 🌱  I’m planting something new and figuring out what it could become.

Summer 🌻 I’m building, experimenting, iterating and doing.

Autumn 🌾 I’m ready to harvest, celebrate or reflect on what we’ve accomplished.

Winter ☃️ I need some space to rest, think and work beneath the surface.

Then ask:  “What do you need from the rest of us in that season?” (Don’t skip this part! Regardless of the season, everyone has something to offer. It’s never easy to think about what we need from the people around us, but being part of a supportive team (or partnership!) also means getting into the practice of asking: “What do I have to give right now?” Maybe it’s some coworking energy, a second set of eyes, or a thoughtful introduction that can go a long way.

Because someone in summer might have energy to give to someone in winter. Someone in autumn might have a lesson that helps someone plant something new in spring. And sometimes, just knowing your colleagues or peers are in different seasons makes it a whole lot easier to understand each other.

* Energizers are the Growclass version of an icebreaker. We rotate the energizer host of our weekly all-team meeting. 

I think that’s particularly important in partnership work because it’s very easy to assume everyone should be moving on your timeline. We might be ready to harvest while someone else is still figuring out what they want to plant. We might be in full summer-doing mode while the person on the other end of the email desperately needs a little winter.

There’s still time to tend to things before we start worrying about the harvest. Send the “I saw this and thought of you” email. Have the coffee without a perfectly constructed agenda. Make an introduction because two smart people should know each other. 

September will come. The calendars will fill. We’ll launch things and attend things and harvest some of what we’ve spent the year working on.

But August is still here. So while I’m not going to be completely offline (you will absolutely catch me answering emails by the pool), I’m going to try very hard not to rush through it.

September can wait a few more weeks. For now, I’m soaking up what’s left of summer, and replying to you with sunscreen fingertips! 

Until next time… waving

Talitha