In William and Susan Bridges’ transition model, we find ourselves in what they call The Neutral Zone. The trappings and confinements of COVID are (largely) gone, but that doesn’t mean that we really know what the new normal looks like. A space has opened up for us to again redefine our work, our roles, and our relationships, but we haven’t grown into it yet. It’s a disorienting time, and anxiety provoking; one teacher described it to me as “turbulence at the boundary of the unknown”. We meet a new person; will we shake their hand, or will some new greeting of respect and friendship take its place?

Our culture doesn’t prepare us well for The Neutral Zone. We tend to value the determined over the tentative, decisions over ambiguity, and making things happen over letting things unfold. But in the neutral zone, we can serve ourselves and our people best by reversing these priorities, and asking ourselves these questions from the Tao Te Ching:

“Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action arises by itself?”