The Oregon Coast During Covid-19
A picture is worth a thousand words.
For a coastal town whose major income source is tourism, shops, lodging and restaurants are struggling like the rest of the country/world. Enforcement of this ‘closure’ is challenging at best. Many homes here are second homes for people from Portland and Seattle. “Outsiders” are noticed by locals. Fear can bring out the ugly in some folks.
So far, we have under 10 reported cases of infection in this coastal region. Most everyone wears gloves and face masks when in the grocery and post office, and getting take out.
For me, meditation, prayer, and walking in the woods and on the beach are sources of relief and quietude for me as I digest all this. I feel healthy, am sleeping OK most nights, and committed to cooking at least two new recipes a week. One certainty: I’ll emerge from this with a more diverse repertoire of tasty meals and new favorite foods!
I hope this finds you and yours healthy and sane.
Thanks for reading,
Pat
The New Normal for the 2020s:
Change. Change. And More Change.
Some hoped for. Some sought out. Some forced. Much unknown. Whether you are ready or not. Whether you want it or not. Whether you think you can handle it or not.
Back in February (feels like a year ago!) I attended a meeting of the OD Network of Portland to hear a speaker – Steve Brown, The Bald Futurist. My mind was blown open when he predicted with confidence ‘we will experience an amount of change these next ten years equivalent to the amount of change that occurred during the last forty years.’ Say whaaa?
(What he did not predict that evening was Covid-19 as an accelerant for change world-wide. I forgive him. He’s a futurist, not a fortune teller.)
His new book The Innovation Ultimatum lays out 6 strategic technologies that will reshape every business in the 2020s:
- Artificial Intelligence
- Sensors and the Internet of Things (IoT)
- Autonomous Machines
- Distributed Ledgers and Blockchains
- Visual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality
- 5G Networks and Satellite Constellations
Steve writes:
“No company is immune from the next big wave of automation. Both blue- and white-collar jobs will be transformed, and some jobs will be entirely automated. The smartest leaders will find ways to maximize the effectiveness of their employees rather than seeking to replace them with automation technology.
The best teams will be made up of people, algorithms, and robots working closely together. The digital intelligence of algorithms and robots will support the emotional intelligence of human employees so that they can optimize business operations and deliver the best overall experience for customers.”
Why am I so intrigued? I work primarily with white collar professionals in the service sector who want to advance their careers. This slide from Brown’s presentation (used with his permission) contains good news for the people with whom I work.
Brown explains any job or aspects of work that can be automated or digitized will be. There will be fewer accountants and lawyers, for example, because portions of their work can be digitized and completed with intelligent machines far faster and or less cost than humans.
The good news is humans will be spared much of the tedious, repetitive aspects of their work, and freed up to do higher order thinking and problem solving.
The left side of the spectrum above holds good news for many of my ideal clients. No smart machine can replace empathic connection in human interaction. Any architect, engineer, marketing manager or CEO who needs to talk a client down from the ceiling knows what I mean.
How are your people skills? Do you engage others with respect and curiosity? Are you a sought-after team player, a strong collaborator who solicits every team member’s ideas in pursuit of the best solution, w/o needing to be the one with the right answer? How well do you handle conflict? It’s an inevitable part of team and project work. Ignoring it doesn’t make it go away.
These skills + subject matter expertise will keep you relevant, employed and promoted.
And, notice something else on the left side of Brown’s spectrum – judgment/ethics. Resisting my urge to rant about the politic dynamics in our country today, I do believe this: now more than ever it is vitally important to your mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well-being to be doing work aligned with your core needs and values.
Why? Because this alignment brings with it a strong internal coherence, which in turn, gives you clarity of purpose and a strong sense of agency in your life. These anchor you in times of high uncertainty, where the ‘right answer’ doesn’t exist, only options and trade-offs for moving forward.
For example, many of us have a core need for certainty, (we each differ by degree how well we tolerate ambiguity). How are you coping with the uncertainty surrounding Covid-19? You can’t see, taste, smell, feel, hear the virus. Like glitter, it lingers on surfaces.
We want to protect ourselves and our families and friends. So, we do what we can to empower ourselves and increase our sense of certainty of personal safety: we follow the CDC Guidelines about washing our hands, disinfecting surfaces, wearing face masks and gloves at the grocery, etc.
(One of my favorite jokes going around: My body has absorbed so much soap and disinfectant lately that when I pee it cleans the toilet.)
Change. Change. And More Change.
We are experiencing in real time, Steve Brown’s predictions about how technology will and is reshaping our lives. Just look at the immense creative expression happening on YouTube, Facebook, and other social media; the millions of new users of Zoom, Skype, and other platforms.
Some of my favorites are families singing and dancing; free viewing of collections in major art museums worldwide; out of work actors and singers singing clever parodies of the virus to showtune songs; and political punditry.
Telemedicine is accelerating and becoming a new normal. Work-at-home out of necessity will redefine how and where we work going forward. Education delivery systems are being reinvented at all levels: primary, secondary and college/university. The ripple effects throughout and across sectors will be enormous.
Change isn’t easy; it’s a bumpy ride with lots of unknowns and forks in the road. And excitement and opportunity if you are looking for it. How will you know the right opportunity for yourself? By having clarity about who you are, values you want to live, and what you need to bring your best self to work.
Each of us has a unique combination of at least 10 core needs which drive our behavior. Can you name yours? This is an important starting place for moving forward.
Career Advancement in Times of Turmoil
Are you doing work you love? If yes, terrific! Make yourself hard to replace — increase your skills in working effectively with teams, become a strong collaborator for complex problem solving, and make difficult decisions based on your internal coherent sense of True North. When you do work aligned with your core needs and values, you are able to bring your best self to work every day.
Have you been thinking about making a change? Terrific! Before you do, I urge you to identify your needs and values and build your future around those.
Want to Have a Virtual Coffee Together?
Would you (or someone you know) enjoy having a conversation with me to jump start your thinking process? I am opening eight, 45-minute slots a week, for the next 4 weeks. No charge. No sales pitch. My goal is to have great conversations with interesting people to share ideas, insights, connections and resources.
I have a core need for contributing to others. To paraphrase Jerry McGuire “Help me help you”.
Having meaningful conversations via zoom or facetime during this challenging time would do as much for my well-being as I hope it will for you.
Scheduling is easy. Just click https://bookme.name/patarcady.
I hope we talk soon!
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