Embrace the suck

My neighbor is a Vietnam veteran and active organizer for the veteran community in Chicago. As we were walking thru the neighborhood in a desperate attempt to get away from more Zoom calls, he told me about a unique kind of walking / hiking challenge he was organizing this month. His goal was to get people complete a 22km "ruck" - sometime during September.

I was interested - but curious about the odd number. I had heard of 5k races and 10ks - but 22km was an odd and specific distance to cover. I asked about the distance - assuming it was a new kind of race. We stopped walking and he told me about the significance of the number 22 - a single number that has come to shape the way that Americans think about military veterans.

Why 22 km?

In American, 22 vets take their lives each day. The number has become the rallying cry to call attention to suicide among vets, especially those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And Illinois has the 3rd highest population of veterans in the country. The isolation, risk, and stress of the Covid-19 pandemic has created a greater need for the counseling, companionship, and support services for veterans and their families. This ruck march challenge would help to both raise funds and awareness for the military suicide epidemic and honor those who serve.

What is a "ruck"?

As the Co-Founder of Walkshop, I am used to doing long walks and being out on my feet. I find these days that I need the break from online meetings and constant Zoom interactions. And when I take an afternoon to be out walking in nature - I create the time and space to think. Moving outdoors helps me to not only stay active in an otherwise sedentary routine of working at home (aka living at work) but also helps me generate new ideas.

“All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.”

— FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

But a "ruck march" is something a bit different. A "ruck" is short for "ruck sack" which refers to backpacks service members sometimes wear. To "ruck up" is to get through a particularly challenging or stressful situation. And while I usually go for a walk with only the metaphorical weight of the world on my shoulders, our ruck challenge was a bit harder this time.

One of my fellow (socially distanced) walkers was a physical trainer and active coach for veterans. He gave us the challenge to carry a heavy sandbag during the entire 22k trail. The additional weight symbolized the burden that people carry around with them at all times when they are dealing with anxiety, depression, isolation, and mental health issues.

There is no way I could carry that kind of load by myself. The sandbag was HEAVY. It was just too much weight to carry on my shoulders for more than 5-10 minutes before it began to wear me down.

So - as in real life - we had to come together as a team to support each other through this experience. We regularly looked out for each other on the trail and when someone showed signs of stress or weariness, we encouraged them to ask for help. When it became too much to shoulder, we would drop the weight and let someone else carry the burden for a while. We shared the load, supported each other, and made sure no one was left carrying the weight by themselves at the back of the group.

A good reminder

This experience was exhausting. My feet hurt like crazy when we finally completed the hike.

It was a great reminder though, that we never really know what someone is carrying around with them. Not all pressures are as obvious as a huge and heavy sandbag - but they weigh us down all the same. Heavy stress in life can really wear us down - especially when we feel alone or isolated during a quarantine.

On this hike, it was very obvious when someone started to fall behind and when they needed help. We prompted each other often and supported each other when we could see the help was needed.

So I had to consider, do I do this in real life?

When I am so isolated from my employees at work and can't easily read body language nor connect in person - will I know when someone is needing additional support? When someone does something unexpected, am I really aware of all of the things they are dealing with right now?

Putting it to work

This was a vital reminder of how important our connection is and how heavy the weight on your shoulders can be when you feel you are tackling challenges by yourself. Our colleagues need two things to be successful in quarantine:

• Not to feel alone, even if they are isolated, distributed, or quarantined
• Not to carry the burden of work without support

To help put things into motion at work at Table XI, we have recently created a "culture club" that helps us to check in with our (now entirely distributed) team members. Through a series of 1:1s, small group discussions, and all company events - we are trying to foster connection and understand what support everyone needs.

We are also looking into how we measure our employee engagement - looking for blindspots and areas where people need more support. Tools like Know Your Team help to uncover topic areas where we as a business should dig in and learn more...

and tools like Culture Amp could help us measure employee engagement more effectively to see where people need more support. We are looking to roll this out in Q4

We are creatively trying to not only foster connection, but reduce the burden of work when people are isolated and struggling.

Embrace the suck

Beyond this incredible reminder, the ruck gave me many things:

• A good chance to meet new people
• A glorious afternoon outdoors and away from Zoom
• A chance to clear my head and think about some issues that have been bothering me
• An opportunity to ask for help from my fellow hikers to unpack some issues

It also reminded me just how quickly people can bond when they "embrace the suck". Basically, this is military term that acknowledges this is going to be super hard - and it still needs to get done.

Embrace the suck": Translation: The situation is bad, but deal with it.

2020 has truly sucked and I haven't always embraced it. There has been incredible stress and issues both at work and in our community. But I have a team. I have people who support me and that look to me for support. I have a family that both shares my burdens and gives me space. And sometimes an experience like this ruck can be a reminder of the privilege that that kind of teamwork and atmosphere provides.

Together on the trail - we worked a team, shared the load, and embraced the suck. We got it done together despite that heavy sandbag. Perhaps we pulled together more even because of it. And as a result of that shared sacrifice, we all became closer contacts.

I am thankful to the organizers of this ruck and look forward to doing it again next year. I am proud that we completed the challenge, supported (in a small way) our veterans, and got away from Zoom for only a few hours.