Our stories from 2020

Every year each team faces ups and downs, and 2020 was no different. Maybe this year we felt those ups and downs more strongly, following the peaks of the famous curve that suddenly became part of our daily life.

 As we close this troubled year, we share in the first person how each one of us, at @outsight, lived some of the peaks of this roller coaster.  

If we had to describe our year in just 4 words, they would be Challenge, Adaptation, Overcoming, and Vulnerability. But in fact, each one of these words includes many stories, made of positive and negative emotions, difficult moments, and also very happy memories!  

Our most repeated hashtag in 2020 was #togetherisbetter. And this is how we want to start and live in 2021 :)

@Ana

For me, 2020 was a year of CHALLENGE. 

I had two particularly difficult moments, one in March and one now, at the end of the year. In the beginning, when everything was already happening, it seemed as if we were in a general sense of denial. I felt that we were not wanting to see and adapt to what was actually happening. The other most difficult moment is happening now. When I walk around my neighborhood, I see people living in their cars. Last week, I saw a father and his son living in a van outside a supermarket and that causes me a lot of apprehension and sadness...

When I think about the best of 2020, I remember two things. First, when I first participated in a @spoon room in April. It was amazing to be in a breakout room with people from different countries, whom I didn't know, and suddenly be talking about such intimate things with strangers from the other side of the world and realizing that we had so much in common.

Also noteworthy is the work with one of the teams we supported remotely this year in a client in the financial sector. It was very energizing to feel, once again, the power that comes from bringing to the table the things that concern us as a team and as individuals. And how much that allows us to evolve as a team, grow as people and increase our well-being. Would we all rather do it in person? Yes, and much is achieved this way and, as in all things, this format also brings benefits.

@Joana

For me, 2020 was a year of ADAPTATION.

The hardest moment was to see my daughter crying with sadness thinking she couldn't hug her grandmother for Christmas. I was moved by her love for her grandmother, it filled my heart. On the other hand difficulty of the physical distance, the lack of hugs, how hard it is to be apart from those we love, as if she were expressing it for all of us.

One of the memorable positive moments was at the @spoon room in April when we organized an online space for strangers to talk about how they were living their days, sharing their humanity. @Maff Potts played @samba da benção (link) that talks about sadness, and in that moment I felt an enormous beauty, a special connection between human beings sharing their joys and sorrows, together. I felt that human fragility can connect us in a very beautiful way.  

@Teresa

For me, 2020 was a year of OVERCOMING.

This year will stay in my memory, also for many good reasons! The shock and apprehension were clearly balanced by happy changes. Perhaps the most relevant, my wedding in May. Although remotely, my dear ones were there. The birth of my great-nephew and the recent news that another will be born soon... The sum of all the small moments of connection, solidarity and hope, lived by me, read in the newspaper or reported in the third person, balancing the sadness of the mass graves in Brazil or of the friend who lost his job. The "farewell" of the International class of TheLisbonMBA, a happy closing moment for a group of people who knew how to adapt and reinvent themselves. And the ever-present feeling that this difficult year also brought an opportunity: allowing me to get in touch, first hand, with the way we deal with situations of deep uncertainty..

When I take stock of 2020, it is remarkable what I have learned, when I met new people or decided to accept new challenges.  Also, the good results I have achieved, whenever I have made conscious choices and prepared myself for difficult situations and what I could take from them. There were and there will always be setbacks, but overall, I felt myself moving forward a lot this year: in the way I see myself and the reality around me, knowing that there are always different paths to experiment, within my "fair share".

@Madalena

For me, 2020 was a year of VULNERABILITY.

The most difficult moment for me was when my mother tested positive for covid. The fear of losing her and not being able to be with her physically to support her, made me feel very vulnerable.

When I think about the best of 2020, I highlight two positive memories. First, the work we did with the HR team in a client in the industrial sector. We made a very rich journey together, and we celebrated how the team evolved greatly in its ability to dialogue more openly and the steps they took to improve the way they work together. My second positive memory was experienced in my own team at @outsight. I felt that this year we spoke more openly about our own vulnerabilities. Personally, I became more aware of how saying "I don't know" and "I need help" strengthens trust in the team and helps me/us to go further. I asked for help a lot this year and that was a giant step in my personal journey.