I am currently sitting in the OHSU Cancer Insitute nervously waiting for my partner Pam to finish her last chemotherapy infusion. I am unclear why I am so nervous. Perhaps these surroundings over the last year and have represented a lot of uncertainty and stress. However, today it is different; this is her last session. After several rounds of chemo, radiation, and surgeries, she no longer has evidence of cancer. Something that makes me feel so thankful for everybody who helped to enable this outcome. This, by far, is the most significant thing I am grateful for in 2021.
With this, I am also grateful for many amazing things in my professional career. Something that has given me hope is the actions of others. Here is what is top of mind:
The members, volunteers, board members, and staff of the Agile Alliance have been outstanding this year. They stepped up to support our nonprofit during the impact of covid on the organization. This was in the form of the thousands of people and companies that joined us this year, the volunteer hours given by our initiative teams and our board, and the outstanding hard work of staff members in support of the mission. 2021 was a significant shift for us as we learned how to be a better membership organization. Thank you, Ellen Grove, for stepping into the Interim Managing Director role. Doing this work is never easy, and I am grateful for you stepping in when we needed you.
I am also grateful to my partners and audience of the Agile Coaching Network. Shawna Cullinan, Diana Larsen, Hendrik Esser, Jörg Pietruszka you add so much. I have said this before, but it is the truth that I could not do the show without all of you. Finally, I want to give a big thanks to all the thousands of people who attended our live recording sessions and podcast listeners. You are all wonderful and genuinely help to build a great coaching community.
The next is to my fellow board members at the FOREST GROVE FOUNDATION INC. This has genuinely been a transformative year for our 501c3, from a fiduciary to a full-blown service provider addressing the west side’s homeless, hunger, and other needs. I have learned so much from each of you, and I need to call out the outstanding leadership of Brian Schimmel. It has been an honor working with all of you!
Lastly, I am grateful to all of my friends and colleagues here. We have had some great conversations, shared knowledge, worked on things, supported one another in moments of need, or just shared a moment of serendipity in a very uncertain time for most of us. Thank you for reaching out and making me a part of your year.
The biggest lesson for me was to embrace uncertainty. At times of stress, falling back on what I learned from Dave Snowden a decade back was critical. Uncertainty is just a part of life, and building a happy new year is truly an emergent thing helped by positive narratives. These are my exemplars for 2021, and I hope that they continue to unfold into a great 2022. 🖖
