Silver Linings 1: Changes in daily life

I’ve previously discussed in my post Why Lockdown 2.0 is so much harder the greater challenges of Lockdown 2.0 that those of us in Victoria (and many other states and countries around the world) currently face. And we’ve since moved into Stage 4 restrictions which really really sucks.

Being grateful

Now I try to be grateful for what I have and I realise that in so many ways I am very lucky compared the lot of others around the world and even within Australia. Although that doesn’t prevent me from feeling pretty crap from time to time about all this. So I’ve been searching for some silver linings. For me an obvious one is that I get to spend more time with my kids. Albeit homeschooling and working at the same time are mutually exclusive activities, on balance, I’m still enjoying it. But what else is there? Are there any big picture silver linings?

Green lining

Throughout this time there has been alot of talk globally about the potential environmental benefit that could come from Covid. With governments injecting trillions of dollars into their economies surely some of this would go into adopting renewable energy and the like. Genuine big picture spending that would create jobs and investment now, whilst delivering for future generations in terms of a better environment and access to lower cost energy. Sadly it seems that the Australian government have their heads buried in the sand on this one once again. Whilst the European Union is to dedicate 25% of it’s €750 billion recovery package in response to the coronavirus crisis, for climate-friendly measures. So at least there will be some global environmental benefits even if we won’t really see them here in Australia.

Happy habits?

There’s been alot of information thrown around about how long it takes for a new behaviour to become automatic. Based on a 2009 Study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology 66 days is the number often quoted. However, significantly, 66 days is the average and it can actually take between 18 and 254 days. This may seem like a mute point however when we’d all been working from home and Zooming our lives away for the first 66 days many people may have thought. "It’s been 66 days, this still sucks and is anything but automatic!" However as we're getting closer to the 254 day mark how does it feel now? Does it in fact feel like the ’new normal?’ 

"It’s been 66 days, this still sucks and is anything but automatic!"

So assuming we have all developed new behaviours that enable us to work from home (or at least remotely) and produce 10X output compared to previous. What will be the outcomes of this? Here are just a few potential silver linings

Workforce Agility

With so many people working remotely for the past 6 months it’s now just 'how we do things.’ No thought is given to where people actually are now. They could be at home in St.Kilda, at their beach house in Rye or up at Lake Eildon. If they have power and internet the job can be done. At Advance Thinking we agreed early on in the Covid Crisis with one of our consultants and our client that he would move back to Tassie for the time being so he could be closer to his family. It made no difference to the client where he was based and in fact they were happy to know he would be in a happier, more secure headspace near his family. Which would likely improve his performance when it came to work.

So it’s really just about having the right resource in the right role. It’s an age old mantra and now it takes on new meaning. In fact it’s now the right resource, in the right role no matter where they are based.

With this comes implications for the global workforce. Whilst it’s great for me because I can work from Port Douglas when I want, it also means that companies may look to bring in cheaper resources that are based in economies with lower cost of living and lower wage expectations. This doesn’t have to mean the extreme case of outsourcing roles overseas. It could mean sourcing resources from cheaper locations within the same country. It’s certainly alot cheaper to by a house in Shepperaton than St.Kilda.

Personal Agility

Another silver lining that might have come from Covid is breaking down the "industrial-era nine-to-five work week” as Atlassian Founder, Mike Cannon-Brookes labelled the aged practice. Personally I’m fortunate with the work I do in that, within reason, I call my own hours. For me this means I start work early some mornings, work late some nights and work some weekends. And I manipulate my work hours around family and fitness. For example I like to go for 3 hour long bike rides and I can be a bit of a fair weather rider. Cold mornings and wet roads aren’t for me. Instead of waking at 5am to go for a ride I might work at that time and ride later when the day has warmed up. 

As with working from a location that suits, working times that suit can also benefit employers because again the employee is able to strike the best life balance possible. In the past the issue for this has been management mistrust however in the last 6 months management has learned that if you manage based on deliverables rather than time spent in front of them at your desk you really can get 10X results.

There are many other silver linings. I’ll talk some more about these in coming weeks and please feel free to share yours.