Sharona’s CCTP Log: 2020-2021

Hello CCTP graduates:

June 2020. Nancy, Joe, Carol, Stuart, Laurie and I consider offering CCTP remotely. Resistance!! This virus will be gone by the Fall, and we will host CCTP in Wellfleet.

July 2020. It is clear that we will not be offering CCTP live this Fall. We have requests for remote training. Stuart and I agree, with the help of the CCTP faculty, to move CCTP 2020-21 online. Twelve courageous, smart, motivated, interesting participants from around the world sign up.

October 2020. Remote CCTP 2020-21 begins. For some participants, the day begins before the sun comes up (Alaska) and for others (South Africa, Ireland) our “day” begins in the late afternoon or evening, after a full day of work. Morning coffee coincides with afternoon tea!

Almost everywhere, the pandemic is raging. Worldwide deaths surpass one million. Many participants are living in some level of lockdown, some with children learning, or struggling to learn remotely. We are living at work, working from home, and dealing with fears and anxieties about the unknown. Worldwide inequities are exposed and exacerbated by the pandemic. In the US, we are in a high stress election season. And still, we find our way to connect and learn. We pair off by bringing a kitchen item to the screen and matching up with someone with a similar item, rather than finding a partner at the other end of a string. Partners work with their intervening pair, mostly by texting one another, “Are you ready to interrupt?” Partnership/pairs develop real cultures and personalities! The group develops a personality. One group member recommends a book on Thursday, and by Saturday, another group member flashes the book on their screen. “I ordered the book you recommended, and it came today.” We share resources, laughs, worries, and recipes. We meet one another’s pets. We create a learning community.

February 2021. Pandemic deaths continue to rise. Some of us are fortunate enough to get vaccinated. Many of us are still in shock from the Capitol riots in January and the tense days leading up to the US Presidential inauguration. Lockdowns in many parts of the world are chiseling away at our lives and spirits. Some of us have friends or relatives who have gotten sick. The mood in our February check in is heavy. The state of the world is weighing on many in the group, in one way or another. We complete the check in, and we take a short break. Stuart and I meet in our kitchen and agree to ask the group if they want to process the feelings that are present, or to continue with the agenda of the weekend. The response is a resounding- “Let’s move into the learning. That’s what we came here for.” I take a deep breath, and shift into a “lecturette” on working with families/teams.

Mid-February 2021. This need to move on, to do the best we can with the circumstances we are living in, comes up again and again. It is winter in New England. Most days, the weather is freezing, or below freezing. We can no longer socialize outdoors with friends and family. One Saturday, Stuart and I prepare to head out for a hike. We put on every item of winter clothing we own. (For me, that means two big down coats, two hats and a pair of mittens on top of my down gloves.) We head over to the Arnold Arboretum in Boston. The ground is covered with snow, and some of the trails are covered in ice. To my surprise, and glee, the parking lot is full. The trails are dotted with other super-bundled up hikers! So many like us, determined not to let the frigid weather keep us cooped up indoors. This lifts my spirits.

April 2021. Our last of six weekend sessions of CCTP. Participants display their high-class intervention skills, “boot camp style,” with a real guest team. As part of our closing, they create poems, songs, and commercials about CCTP and there is creativity and laughter. Members of the first remote CCTP graduate each other, share their appreciation, and join the ranks of CCTP graduates.

September 2021. Remote CCTP 2021-22 begins on September 30. Stuart and I meet with the faculty for that class. We share the creative adjustments we made to the program in order to move it online. The hour passes too quickly. As we wrap up, I ask, “Was this helpful?” Lucy holds up two full pages of notes and says, “You really brought remote CCTP to life!”

I do look forward to looking around the “big room” and seeing your faces, sharing a glass of wine and standing around at break times, munching on cheese and crackers as we process our learning. And, I am pleased that we have found new ways to connect with you and with new participants who might be unable to travel to Wellfleet to train at GISC. It reminds me of the Albert Einstein quote, hanging on my refrigerator “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

I am thinking of you in your many corners of the world as we all experience this time. I hope you are finding your ways to keep moving and creating, in spite of the halts and pauses of the last 18 months. I would love to hear about what inspires you to keep going.

Warmly,

Sharona (on behalf of Nancy, Joe, Lucy, Carol and Stuart)