Over the past few weeks, my inbox has filled with emails from organisations I’d forgotten I’d ever had contact with. I must have signed up to an email list or bought something from them many years ago, but it’s so far back, I can’t remember why.

We’re all still trying to work out how to be useful to the people we serve in this moment. We want to help.

But the thing to remember about helpful conversations is that timing matters. Being helpful is not just about what you say or how you say it, it’s also about when you say it.

That doesn’t mean we need to stop talking, but it might just mean we need to be twice as good at listening, especially now.

Image by Fezbot