I’m sitting now in my home, looking through the 3000+ photos I took during my experience volunteering at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Games ended a couple of weeks ago. PyeongChang is empty. The volunteers said sad goodbyes. It was like leaving family.

     Think of it.

We worked long days together — sometimes starting at 4 a.m., sometimes ending at 2 a.m. We were housed at the same dormitory, ate at the same cafeterias, rode the same shuttle buses, huddled together in the bitter cold to keep each other warm, and cheered at the same celebrations.

We shared experiences, stories, photos, videos, selfies, and snacks.

We played games together in our downtime.

We recorded memories.

Now I reflect.

I reflect on my role as Support Staff for the Medalists.

What just happened over the last two months? What are my takeaways? What did I learn?

I’ve compiled a list…

1. Go with the flow!

It takes a lot of energy, effort and manpower to put on an event that the whole world is watching. When that many moving parts come together, you have to make time for everyone to do their part — which frequently means arriving early, getting into position and then waiting your turn.

I had to take off my fast-paced business world hat, and wear my go-with-the-flow hat.

Sometimes that meant changing my responsibility at the last minute — like the time I was assigned to support the Gold medalists. But then I was reassigned at the last minute because of language needs to support the Canadian athletes who won Silver in the Luge Relay Team.

Sometimes that meant running down the sliding center mountain to catch a bus back to the dorms.

I learned to accept the workflow, the pace, the last-minute changes.

This mantra makes the days feel smoother.

1. You don’t need a lot of stuff.
   I lived out of two suitcases. For two months.

One suitcase was filled with my volunteer uniform items.
The other held my laptop, toiletries for two months, and a couple of outfits of regular clothes.
As long as I had my phone/camera/GPS, my credit card and my passport, I had enough basics to get by.
Turns out you don’t need a lot of stuff.

1. There’s power in unity of purpose.

When everyone works toward a single purpose, the group can accomplish much.
When everyone works toward a single purpose, the group can accomplish much.
All the employees, the organizers, the management, the volunteers had a single purpose: Put on a great competition for the athletes and the spectators around the world.

Though we were divided into functional areas, we weren’t at odds with each other. We were all there to do the same thing. We all knew what our purpose was.
Stepping aside to let everyone do what they needed to do was a natural outflow of that mentality.

Most organizations of the world could really benefit from building unity and purpose in the participants.

1. Be patient.
   Especially in crowds.
   Especially waiting for communication.
   When 7000 spectators walk out of the sports venue at the same time — and there’s only one road — there’s nothing to do but slow down.
   This piggybacks the go-with-the-flow learning.

Our world is a crowded place. Be patient.

1. Cheer for everyone.

I loved this!

I had the chance to watch several competitions on my off-days: ski jumping, snowboard big air, bobsleigh, figure skating. Most of the spectators were Koreans.
The same phenomenon happened at each venue.

And the athletes were cheering each other on too.
Cheer for great performance.
Cheer for everyone.

But every medalist I met showed gracious behavior — even if they had stood on a podium before. They were willing to let us guide them.





And now my photo is probably floating around social media posts in Asia with the tags #BillGates #Pyeongchang.

Our goal in both cases was to prep them so they could soak up that moment of glory on the podium.


I met interesting folks from all walks of life — athletes, coaches, organizing committee members, professionals, students.





⏩https://medium.com/@bryansearing/14-lessons-from-volunteering-at-the-olympics-and-paralympics-4b431c3aac94?source=email-6a7005632570-1524010913011-digest.reader------0-3------------------fa134fe920f6-5&sectionName=recommended👍👍👍👍

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