Gently, Gabriella Braun, describes how we are struggling with who we are and what it means to be a human being in a work environment. Her book “All That We Are” does what she promises in the subtitle: “uncover the hidden truths behind our behavior at work.”

As a reader, we are invited to follow her work just as if we were there with her. Able to listen to her inner world and observations of the situation.

She also shares simple and yet not always visible truths about the ways we stand in each other’s way to being able to support one another as a team.

I asked them how they were. ‘Fine.’ ‘All right.’

‘How are you really?’ I asked.

‘Fine.’

‘Do you ask each other this?’

‘It’s intrusive,’ Seb said, taking the lid on and off his pen, ‘We don’t do that.’

‘You need to. It’s not about intruding into each other’s private lives. You’re partners. You need to know enough so that you can work well together and manage the agency. You need to know, for example, if something is going on with one of you, so you can respond and cover for one another if needs be.’ – “All That We Are” by Gabriella Braun

No one is saying that it is easy to do what would be best and would enhance our relationships, at work just as much as with friends. But it does start with the understanding that much of what we don’t say to protect ourselves or the other, puts barriers between people instead of connecting them.