Beyond Lockdown - something new from me next week
“Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional” Attributed to many sources, from the Buddha, to Haruki Murakami, and Alcoholics Anonymous.
Something new from me to you
A couple of weeks ago, I offered to help any client resolve an unprecedented issue freely — and free of charge. Several of you reached out to me, and we’re underway. I’m privileged to work with hundreds of amazing people each year, in dozens of organisations, so my most common question right now is, “Andrew, what are others doing?” or “Andrew, what are you noticing?”
So, starting Monday, I’m putting out a daily short video and mini-newsletter called “Beyond Lockdown”. Each day I’m going to comment on one best practice I’ve been observing and discussing amongst my numerous clients:
1. Strategy in new times: Should your strategy change now?
2. How to make high-quality decisions, digitally
3. When new circumstances demand new metrics
4. Keeping people-focussed when they’re dispersed
5. Innovation now is doing what we should have been doing years ago
6. Business continuity plans are broken: change and ‘black swan’ events
7. Why survivors matter: inspirational storytelling in a crisis
If you have other topics you’d like to hear about, let me know at ww@workwell.com.au. If you’re on this list, you’ll get these automatically. If you don’t wish to receive them, just unsubscribe from the first one — you’ll still stay on the 5 Minute Strategic Mindset list.
So, back to regular programming for today . . .
Patterned behaviour change
Why do we think change is difficult? Take a look at the graphs below. They show some Google searches that have dramatically grown since early March. It shows us that people are increasingly making bread, working out, brewing beer —and watching more Netflix — than before.
Yes, these behavioural changes you could argue are ‘forced’ upon us, but what about behaviour that starts as compulsory but becomes patterned. In just weeks, I have learnt to veer away from people when passing on foot, by a wide margin (a metre at least). I’ve noticed this translates into bike riding too — I give riders I pass a much wider berth. The weird thing is that it even happens when I’m driving — I’ve noticed I pass with a couple of metres to spare, even moving into the oncoming lane to do so.
Question: “What patterned behaviours do you want to nudge people towards, under these new circumstances?”
Isolation feeds stimulation
In the mid 1300’s in Florence, Giovanni Bocaccio wrote his masterpiece
The Decameron, 100 tales told across 10 nights, by 10 people. Did you know that his storytellers are just like us — locked down because of a virus? In their case, it was the Black Death, which killed between one- and two-thirds of Europeans, estimated at over 200m deaths. Bocaccio’s narrators escape from the plague to a villa for a fortnight and it’s the job of each to tell a compelling story to entertain and edify the others. While many of the stories concern Lady Fortune (yes, you can’t control or predict her), many also focus on very modern themes of mercantilism, cleverness and adaptability (while mocking piety and dullness).
My wife, son and I took a leaf out of Bocaccio’s book during Earth Hour this week (an hour on Monday night when many people switch off all electrical items, including lighting). We ate dinner by candlelight and my son grabbed our box of “100 Questions” — a set of conversation prompters from Alain de Botton’s School of Life (“Do people envy you?”, “Are you good at taking criticism?” and “When have you acted without 100% integrity?”). We had such a good time with these, despite knowing each other extremely well, that my son, before dinner both of the next two nights, switched lights off, grabbed matches, and lit candles.
Question: “What novel ideas or thoughts are stimulating you right now?”
Keep making decisions
My business mentor, Alan Weiss, said yesterday, “It’s not a wrong decision that kills you, it’s the inability to make a decision that does it”. I was with a group of eight consultants, from Australia, Japan, USA and Canada, who get together with Alan, somewhere in the world, three times a year for 3 days of provocation and mindset shifting. This time, we’re doing it digitally, but we spoke about our clients who suffer from indecision, paralysis, or deferral or postponement of vital decisions. We all know that ‘perfection is the enemy of success’ and this applies now more than ever before.
I’m noticing three types of clients right now: (i) those making better decisions, because urgency compels them to focus, and act (Samuel Johnson’s witticism applies here: “There’s nothing like a trip to the gallows to focus the mind”), (ii) those making worse decisions, because they’re reactive or emotional, and thus unable to resolve complex factors; and (iii) those in Alan’s latter category - they’re deferring decisions until “after the crisis”. My message: Keep making decisions, calmly and rationally. Your people, your customers, and your partners will thank you for your leadership.
Question: “What decisions are most important to you now more than ever before?”