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September 2023
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DO THE BEST IN THE WORST TIME3/30/2020 My daughter was trying to get something done but can't said, "Mama, kids do their best. Kids do their best."
Why can't we all do our best with the shrinking options that we have. Many are now stuck in lock-down situations with recreation being taken away as social distancing is imposed. I cannot overemphasize how the right attitude and mindset can get us out of the anxiety and debilitating restrictions we are facing. We may not be able to control so much of what is happening out there but we can control our responses, our attitudes, and our convictions of hope for the human spirit, compassion, and to become a force for good. We can control and design intentionally what is happening inside of us. Staying healthy, exercising, and giving up on negative mental frames can take us in a better place while staying at home and doing what we can to alleviate our individual woes. The fact that we are keeping healthy and away from illness is a service to society and to the medical institutions and workers who are completely burdened with the epidemic. Being sane and cheerful at home is a service to our loved ones and families who are also struggling on their stresses. Being productive, learning a new skill, chatting with a friend help immensely with mental health. We can do our best. Stay safe
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OPPORTUNITY FOR COMPASSION3/26/2020 The COVID-19 crisis however, unprecedented in scope and gravity, is not a new phenomenon.
We have SARS, Ebola, Zaika, and other epidemics throughout the recent years and countries who have underserved and underfunded health structures collapsed under the weight of the health demands of populations who are sick and needed medical care and attention. While here in Canada and other developed countries, there are aid packages for businesses and workers that are hit by the crisis, poorer countries have nothing to resort to cushion their economies and their people from economic ruin due to collapse of trade and commerce and mobility of people, goods, and ideas. We do not appreciate that we have the resources and the will to ensure that our economy and country withstand this crisis. We have to cooperate and lend our support to those that are more vulnerable and can easily succumb to harder situations. Even in our communities, there are pockets of deep poverty and isolation. There are many ways to touch them and it's not always about money. This is the time when all these talks about charity and benevolence must be demonstrated. Lest, we become the noise that nobody wants to hear. It is even useless to complain when we know that there are more suffering in other places. When you think about it, there are more opportunities that have opened up for us to become more united, accepting, and kind to one another. Embrace the challenge or move out the way.
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MANAGING REMOTE TEAMS3/23/2020 How do you manage remote teams and ensure that productivity and quality work are guaranteed?
There many ways to do that: 1. Communicate the outcomes needed to be produced on a weekly basis. Know what each of the staff will be delivering and give them the timeline to accomplish those. 2. Make regular check-ins to see how they are doing. Some would be sick and will be self-isolating and some will not be able to work at all due to childcare issues and other reasons. 3. Get a standby roster of contract staff that you can use in emergency situations. Let me them know that you might need them to complete a certain task, or a project that needs their expertise and skills on a short-term basis. 4. Confine your communication to a few emails per day. Too many communications can make them feel overwhelmed as a single email can have several agenda on it. 5. Create a tier of managers that staff can communicate on a regular basis. Even yourself can fall sick and not be available for days. Have a list of other people to connect with so that information flows smoothly. 6. Empower them to make decisions at their level. Give them permission to make some mistakes as things are fluid and that today could be different from yesterday and the day before. Scheduling can be done online and let people know what's the best time to for the online meet. 7. Take time to celebrate remote staffs' achievement by giving them regular feedback about their work. If they are doing well, let them know. If they are struggling, let them know you are available to support them. Remote work is tough and the first few weeks could be slow crawl for some. I hope these are helpful. Stay healthy!
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PARANOIA TO THE NTH DEGREE3/19/2020 I don't know who started this in the provinces but travelling outside of the Canadian province which you are based on, can get you to be quarantined for 14 days too not just for international flights.
This policy is part of the 'overabundance of caution' that propels everyone to do the self-isolation without feeling the symptoms from the COVID-19 virus. They said that the symptoms can surface within 4-5 days after travelling and it is prudent to stay at home within those days. The part that struck me the most was the information being peddled around that children can supposedly 'carriers' of the virus without them getting sick or feeling sick. How can one determine that unless the child has been tested officially? How can one say that the child can be a carrier so social distancing is no longer an option but a must? What is the best scientific evidence behind this assertion? Testings are those who are considered vulnerable, have history of international flights to areas where the virus is prevalent or exhibiting symptoms of the disease. For regular folks who are not feeling it, it is just best to do social distancing and refrain from going to crowded places where exposure is high. With this, only through testing can you officially know that you are positive or negative. People are dying with regular flu, other communicable diseases, and illness from cancers, hyper-tension, lungs, and liver complications. These diseases are the underlying causes of deaths from COVID-19 where seniors, small children, and people with complicated health issues are the most vulnerable. We cannot be too blind and ignorant to follow anything that is said on the media or told by our relations. We have to question the premise and see if it fits the overall evidence paradigm presented to us by the public health authorities. We cannot allow paranoia to creep into our strategies to curb out the spread of the virus. We should stop hoarding and stop panic buying so that those who are in real need can get their supplies without hassle. The ugly head of division, hatred, and exclusion, and anti-Chinese statements are coming out now and we need to put a stop to these fear-based reactions. You cannot lead from a fear-based perspective.
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OVER-ABUNDANCE OF CAUTION3/12/2020 As you might have received in your inboxes, restaurants, businesses, organizations, government agencies have sent their own crisis mitigation policy statements on COVID-19.
In those statements, they have succumbed into the overabundance of caution, to suspend their events or ask their staff to work from home. While these measures are meant to "flatten the curve" of the virus spread, we are also bombarded by all sorts of misinformation from social media and even our well-meaning friends and relatives who resort to more panic-driven actions than anything of rational mindset and objectivity. Caution based out of solid evidence is a good parameter but once it borders on panic, fear-mongering, and delusional thinking of doomsday scenarios, it becomes a vehicle for more social unrest and collective fright. Let us be mindful that we need to be calm, level-headed, and objective about the virus as much as we can so we don't spread more fear and heighten the level of insecurity that people feel while they are self-isolating and social distancing from other people. For those of us who are healthy and able to navigate the closing spaces in our community due to the pandemic, we need to show compassion, understanding, and care for those that are actually sick or feeling symptomatic. We do this not by buying more supplies that we can need for 14-days self-isolation or by refusing to let fear control our lives.
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LOGIC OVER IRRATIONALITY3/9/2020 There is not a single hand sanitizer in the stores.
Believe it or not, people have been panic buying more than they should. We can stop the fear mongering right now by using logic to dispel the most insidious rumors and fears spreading. It starts with understanding that people will survive and have been surviving from COVID-19. Taking the necessary precautions for an ordinary flu is fine but beyond the stock piling of food, panic buying on sanitizers and alcohol, and tissue papers, and hoarding several medicines are totally useless. The 14-day quarantine is good for those that have actually known that they can be infected seriously knowing that either, they had been on a cruise ship where an infected persons lived with them; second, they have been to flights where the destinations have been known to have the most infections, and third, community transmissions wherein in that case, staying at home when you feel like having a weak immune system is a must. I flew today on a one-hour flight from Alberta to BC. People are living their lives mindful that the risks are not intense enough to stay at home, lock the doors, and don't go to work and school. The airport is quiet and the line-up to customs is almost nil. For those that schools and workplaces were shut down, there is a big reason for that. Aside from that, live your life with the same intentionality as you would in a normal flu season. We should monitor the risks around us but not get paralyzed by fear and fear-based myths surrounding COVID-19.
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DITCH THE DWELLING3/4/2020 I hit a ditch, hitchhiked with a total but kind stranger, get to where I should go, and work until it was time to go home.
It was a every eventful day but nonetheless, another one of those days that could stop you on your tracks with all the stuff that needed to be taken cared of. The choice to let an event or a series of events shake you is a choice we can make. Some days it could be worst. Some days, it could be too light that you can't believe you are breezing through it. Whatever the day would look like, know that it could happen and when presented with an incident, do what you can possibly do, get back on the track, dust yourself off, and appreciate all the great things that you have. Believe that people have your back and they have yours. It is not a mantra or a façade that we can easily put on when we know we can feel better despite the terrible things happening. We have the choice to not allow more dwelling on the problem but rather focusing on solutions and building-back better.
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FUN IN URGENCY3/2/2020 Sitting in front of a crumbled spaghetti-marshmallow tower was a fun play. We had an exercise as a group and we just tried whatever we can to do without circumventing the rules, which were not at lot of anyway.
One of the participants remarked that time constraints allowed them to be more creative and less methodical in their ways, that failure is just part of trying. Organizations that have a built urgency mechanism do not just sit back and let other entities control how they play in the marketplace. They have their own product timelines, marketing timelines, customer response timelines, regular reviews, so on and so forth. But these can also become part of tradition and become more of a fixture rather than a springboard for inspiration, creativity, and mental renewal. How do you inject the sort of fun play, creative spark, and enjoyment into timelines and deliverables? There must be rewards that are not pegged in terms of outputs and outcomes but are meant to encourage and allow creativity as a category. Second, there are less rules and mechanics to play so that everyone in the organization can participate regardless of their positions and levels of influence. Third, celebrate accidental discoveries of better 'ways of doing it' across the board. People in the organizations that are continuously improving and acting like they are part owners are generally more motivated and high performing. If you do not have the right team, there is no way there will be fun in normal times, more so in urgency. |
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