Unified

We sat around a large conference room in the Robin Conference room. The wall opposite the door was all windows, but all of the other walls were covered in the white paper and sticky notes of our work. The meetings had been long and mentally draining, but eye opening for me. Kevin and Mike, who had trained is in the basics if lean, were walking us through some systematic conflict resolution. It seemed I took notes at every word.

Around the table there were eight of us from various parts of the company, people I had gotten to know pretty well in the time we had worked together. Michelle, who refused to give up when her back pain caused her to have to take breaks laying flat on the floor. She had adult children who still suffered the effects of being too long in the foster care system. Shantel, who nearly always wore a blanket, because she never seemed to get warm and could win nearly any eye rolling competition you could conceive of. Ferren, who had spent some time as a professor, and had just gotten back from Jamaica with his girlfriend. Reuben, who I had met long ago, when he worked with my mother-in-law, who was quiet, knowledgeable and friendly. Ben and Kevin, who were a couple of most socially capable IT people I have met. Family men, who talked about their wife and kids and friends. Last with table were Rozanne and Barb, my boss at the time and her boss. They were opposites in that Rozanne was as non-confrontational as Barb was confrontational, but neither really opened up in the same way the rest of the group did.

We were talking about a single enrollment process for providers, but my mind was on the people. Who I was to them? Before these sessions they were workers and subject matter experts, now they were people with families and I imagine they were also people with beliefs, political and religious. The problem was, they, like me, had a part to play here. A mask.

"Every handoff wastes time," Mike says pointed to a handoff which leaves and area and comes back to the same area. "Is this needed. Can we do all this work into one area?"

United. The problem with the masks we wear is they keep is from being united. They are a handoff, which wastes time. I was sure my mind was running places Mike never intended, but they felt like important places.

Can a person be united? Can they get rid of the masks? In some cases we put the mask on ourselves, don't talk about church at work, don't bring work home, pretend that you kids didn't just drive you crazy when you greet the pastor at the church door. In other cases, people put the mask on us, don't ask the guy who lives with his girlfriend about his relationship with God. Is this needed? Is it worthwhile to spend the cupcakes playing hide and seek with yourself?

I needed to change. This is something which I already strived for, but I needed to find a way to be one person to everybody. Take off not just the masks that I put on, but those people would try to put on me.

I talked about Michelle about her kids and talked about my own. I asked Reuben about his church and told him about mine. This wasn't enough, though. So I signed up for twitter and shared the address with anyone and everyone. This didn't ultimately work, but it moved me closer to that unification I found so important.