What a frustrating moment for him, he had set out to celebrate the work his team had achieved and they didn’t listen to him. The team reacted with a view on the situation as being unique and fears of the future.

At first sight, one could take it as a normal situation. One may even appreciate the carefulness of the team or the laudable effort of the boss to encourage his team.

But what’s also happening is that communication fails. No one reaches their goal. Both parties remain in their position and refuse to take a look at the situation from another point of view. Both wait for the other side to move first. As if seeing things from a different point of view could invalidate their point of view.

Both stick to their frustration instead of seeing that both positions can coexist and can be correct.

What has been challenging for the group was to deal with two emotions at the same time. They assumed, that they can only handle joy or fear in a given moment. For them, both emotions opposed one another. As if we could only feel one emotion in a given moment instead of a quite natural mix of four basic emotions. Fear, joy, anger, and sadness can all four be sensed at the same moment, each one of them with a different intensity.

In the given situation it’s easy to see at least how joy and fear can coexist.

There is the joy of celebrating and offering recognition for the team’s achievement. And there is a fear which is oriented forward and serves to anticipate the future.