If you need a reference point for this post, read the one prior. Where I asked: What makes you tick?

If you will recall my ‘3 questions’ or ‘3 bases’ or maybe we can call them the ‘3 pillars’ of a meaningful team experience, I believe there are 3 spaces we expect to have filled in any working situation. (You can click here for that post) I compare them to the final statement in the famous love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, in the end it is ‘faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love’…I compare them to Purpose, Joy, and Care on the team, or in the task. In my own life I saw this ‘funnel’ taking place in every setting, I just did not recognize it in the past. And the expectations set for others around me did not always align because any one of these spaces was not clear, or a tank was not being filled. And that causes a reaction, which often leads to a deficit in how that person or group responds to others, and so on, and so on…

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In simple terms here are the 3 big questions I ask:

What are you doing?

Do you understand the PURPOSE in what you do?

Why do you do it?

Do you feel JOY in fulfilling your part?

How does this impact you and those around you?

Do you believe the others CARE for you, and do they feel the same?

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If you imagine it like an hourglass you will put CARE right in the middle, the most important part, where the sand is allowed to flow. If there is no CARE, the other components become isolated and marred.

Why an hourglass?

From the top down, you can see a circle, and you can imagine it tightening as you get to the middle, and then the analogy just ends. But if you look at the side, you realize that one pours into the other. And if you take it a step further, you can flip the hourglass and allow the sand to pour into the other half. The relationship becomes reciprocal. Actually, it simply becomes a relationship.

• Clarifying purpose in the chaos…
  • Enabling others to find joy in using their gifts and skills…
    • Building an atmosphere of care for being here.

So I can give this to someone else, and I can continue funnel my thoughts and actions through this, allowing the sands to each find meaning in all relationships involved. But what about the other way around? What about the person on the team that is having their reservoir filled?

Let’s include the other half of the hourglass:

• Clarifying purpose in the chaos…
  • Enabling others to find joy in using their gifts and skills…
    • Building an atmosphere of care for being here.
    • Feeling the safety of a caring environment to call home…
  • Joyfully engaging my gifts and skills to the best of my ability…
• Understanding the purpose within the context, knowing I helped make it happen.

And if everyone does their best, we remain curious in what we do and the people we get to do this with, the hourglass has no end to the number of times it seems to flip, and we feed into one another in our purpose, joy, and care.

The analogy falls apart when we consider how we feed into others, allow others to seed and grow in new places, and… this is why I prefer agrarian analogies 😊

In my own life, looking back over the past year for instance, I can also use this as a method of discerning my own understanding of the ‘3 elements’ in how I have encountered varying contexts.

1. Was I clear in purpose? Did I try to accomplish something that was not mine? Or did I just get chaotic?
2. Was I working within my gifts and skills? Or was I turning a bolt with a hammer?
3. Did I feel loved and supported in whatever space I was in? Did I show that I cared about the others in my midst?

The (un)tick in my work could look like sand getting stuck in the hourglass or seeds planted in tough soil. Either way, you feel it as time elapses. The question is what do you do when you realize that you were not ‘ticking’ in every place you could?

That’s the beauty of sand in an hourglass: It is movable. Sometimes it takes more effort than others, but we can shift it around when we need to.

So what are some ways you shift things when you know you are not ‘ticking’?

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