Silver lining in the sky!

It seems to have arrived. With businesses asking for rescue packages from the government, company's starting to lay-off employees and new job offers being rescinded, it is not unfitting to say that the sad, gloomy downcycle of business is here and will probably be here with us for sometime. While some sectors may initially look more impacted than others, sooner or later the effects will be transmitted across industries. Well, that's the tragedy of living in a well-connected global economy. Recently, I interacted with my fellow colleagues and read many posts and messages on social media about how people are scared, anguished and sad. So I thought of sharing a different perspective on this.

It's not a full-stop, its a comma!

First things first, this is not the end of the world. Human memory is limited in its capacity by design and selective in recalling by our nature. Many of us or our friends and colleagues may remember the dotcom bubble or the 2008-financial crisis. The world collectively did not get doomed, rather novel technologies and new ways of business emerged. Yes, some people got hit badly, but then some got a push too; it is at the end of the day a zero-sum game. So, instead of focusing on the external factors over which we have little or no control, let us utilize this time to focus on making ourselves better. A new skillset, a new hobby, a new experiment, there is absolutely no end to human curiosity. We can adopt flexible and innovative working solutions to engage within our teams and customers; we can make good use of this time by up-skilling ourselves, sharing knowledge and learning from our peers.

Life's unfair, right?

The line in the graph depicts a linear relationship between a person's efforts and the results achieved in a Utopian world. In this perfect world, every action would have a positive outcome, every contribution would be rewarded and world would be a wonderful place to live in. Right? Well, we may never know because Utopia doesn't exist. What does exist, are real people living in real world with Murphy striking every now and then. Things ultimately are not distributed evenly. How they are distributed in the real world closely resembles the Pareto principle or the 80/20 rule. A handful of people reap the majority of the benefits because incidentally a handful of people are deemed to contribute to the majority of the work. If you didn't get the appraisal last year you hoped for, I bet your boss would agree with the above hypothesis. So what should we do in an unfair world? Stay calm and update ourselves. We shouldn't restrict ourselves into boundaries. We need to show our employer, our team, our clients that we can very well work beyond the set boundaries. After all, there are no physical boundaries in today's age, we are all restricted by our own mindset.

Carpe diem!

In our daily routine, it is difficult for many of us to reflect on the direction of our life viz-a-viz the choices we have made. We almost crave for the next weekend to come so we can sit in our sweet alone time and find that inner revelation-of sorts. But then due to some commitment to work, family or friends, the next weekend gets postponed to the next one and then to the next and so on. That moment with our own-self doesn't arrive. In the words of Kristin Armstrong, a former professional road bicycle racer and a three-time Olympic gold medalist, "It's not only moving that creates new starting points. Sometimes all it takes is a subtle shift in perspective, an opening of the mind, an intentional pause and reset, or a new route to start to see new options and new possibilities." This lockdown has presented us a wonderful opportunity to take a pause and spend some time with our own self, reflecting on the journey it has been, based on the choices we made and the path we took. This journey has bestowed on us many achievements and moments of joy and fulfilment, it is time to remember and cherish those moments by showing gratitude to the people who guided and supported us during this journey. Reach out to that colleague in your previous company who helped you out in a project when you were struggling to submit a report or to that support staff in your present organization who works tirelessly filing your documents and scheduling calls so that you stay organized. Also, it equally important to focus on the things which went awry during this time and recall the learnings we got from such incidents. By making ourselves accountable for every outcome in our life, we ultimately move towards a paradigm of high self-worth and integrity.

Necessity is the mother of invention!

Einstein was so apt in his observation: "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." The current scenario how-so-ever unpleasant is ultimately an outcome of our individual choices, probably a decision made in the past. It is common sense to understand what will happen to us if we don't continue to learn and update ourselves- we will go extinct. A black swan event like this one does nothing more than to accelerate the extinction. It is much easier to play victim than to owe up to our failures. However, failures teach us some very important lessons- they expand our knowledge, build our resilience and open our gates to the world of compassion, empathy and kindness. In the words of Janet Fitch- "The phoenix must burn to emerge.” With this renewed knowledge and grit, we try one more time, we make another choice owning the responsibility of its outcome. We may fail again but in this continuous process of failing, learning and trying again, we invent our way of life.

So, I insist everyone to leave aside the worries and utilize this time to show to your organization or your manager or your team, how resourceful you could be. Desperate times calls for desperate measures, that is indeed true; But desperate times also open up newer opportunities; Opportunities which never existed before. It is for no reason that we humans are considered the world's most adaptable specie. The corona virus is probably here to stay for sometime, and it may change the business world in ways never seen or thought before. The question therefore is not whether we will survive this, but whether we will be ready for the new normal when it arrives?

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Stay healthy, Stay safe, Stay productive!