For the record, I hate COVID. I will not name my child “Covie,” and I swear never to pretend it is cute if someone else does so. I will not make COVID jokes, though, I will giggle at the memes people create that are helping to keep us all sane. I will keep a healthy six feet between me and others, although, truthfully, I’ve never been that fond of people anyway so keeping my distance is more of a treat than a challenge. And, I admit, it’s often harder to laugh than to cry these days.

We are all being forced to climb Mt. COVID. We are climbing over the sadness, the fear, the loneliness for some and sense of dislocation from routine for others. Yet, despite our individual experiences, WE are climbing this mountain together. And since we are here in this place of disruption, we might as well take a moment to learn what this pandemic – this GLOBAL experience can teach us.

 We are learning to grow our ingenuity both at work and at home. There is, it turns out, innovation in all of us.

We are leaning on our colleagues more, while depending on them less. That’s an interesting push-pull that seems to be making us stronger.

We are finding ways to give back to the community – sewing masks, delivering food, working, literally, in the face of death. And as a result, we are learning, again, that kindness can breach the boundaries of difference where logic often fails.

All of this we have done and learned as a group. As a world. As people who are trapped in a terrifying dream that has turned out to be real.

So, as we continue to climb the COVID mountain, the questions are…What will we learn? How will we make our business more humane and effective? How will we be better? And, how will the world build on the moment when we stood as one against the mountain?