I have often looked at my job to “ask questions, to be curious about the other person’s point of view, to have empathy.” No, I didn’t write this, but it could clearly be my credo after all these years and words of wisdom. I found the quote in a blog written by Jessica Carroll about 18 months ago. She has had a long career in IT management, running that department for the US Golf Association for decades before moving to roles in customer experience leadership and now has her own consulting practice.

I used to interview Carroll for various pieces that I wrote when she was at the USGA about 15 years ago, and decided to catch up with her recently. Back then, cloud computing was the shiny new thing and gathering lots of attention — just as AI is getting now. “Everyone now is looking at AI and reacting the same way as they did back then about the cloud,” she said. “I think AI is more evolutionary and not as big a job threat as many people are predicting.” We spoke about how the tech world has changed, however: “We don’t look towards IT as the ultimate authorities anymore. This could be because executives don’t really care about the IT details because tech has become a commodity.” I suggested that perhaps the deeper acceptance of tech throughout businesses has made us less fascinated with it than in those early days when email, the internet, and clouds were quickly evolving and far from generally accepted.

In our chat, I caught up with her in her new role as world nomad. She and her husband, a commercial photographer, have spent the last year living for weeks or months in different places around the world: Barcelona, Florence, Peru, Cape Town, and now in the UK. This was after planning their transition more than a decade ago and selling their home and most of their possessions in New Jersey last summer. They initially thought of early retirement but both enjoy working remotely and have made it possible with being experts in their respective fields — she mostly consults on customer experience — and manage to mix work with the travel. For example, both reserve Mondays for work, and that includes being available during US work hours when they are abroad.

You might think the current political situation was what motivated them to make this move, but as I said their planning started long ago. Nevertheless, “it is refreshing though to remove ourselves from the constant US news cycles. And also to listen to people’s views of our domestic political climate when we are abroad. I tend not to share my views but just listen,” which gets back to the quote at the top of this post. The rest of the quote continues with the point of her article, which was written before she hit the road full time: she tries to “foster an atmosphere where the various teams become enthusiastic about collaborating to solve problems or create innovative solutions.” She goes on to talk about finding common ground: “What if, instead of territorial boundaries, we find a common purpose and intentionally seek ways in which to communicate more productively to help each other make our daily lives better?” Good advice, both in the corporate world as well as for all of us personally.

Once upon a time, I might have envied her nomad way of life, but lately I have been enjoying sticking closer to home. Still, she wrote more recently: “It’s not enough to build great solutions. Without deep, ongoing engagement, opportunities fade, and loyalty weakens. A one-time transaction doesn’t sustain growth. A relationship does.” I agree completely.