Timing

We all have had instances that we label “bad timing”. I have had many myself - my daughter was born while we were on vacation, I read an article that brought me to nearly uncontrollable tears while on public transit, I have made inappropriate remarks at family gatherings, I went through two successive high stress projects at my former workplace without a break in between, and I started my new consulting business during a global pandemic. The last one is qualitatively different from the rest - I had a substantive role in the first examples, and they were not widely shared, whereas I did not play a role in this COVID-19 pandemic, and we are all collectively experiencing this together.

While some of us are keeping society moving from their normal workplaces - those on the front lines of healthcare most notably, those who keep us fed, those who ensure we have power and the internet, the media keeping us informed, and many more - most of us are sequestered to our homes, diligently following the rules, desperately awaiting the lifting of restrictions our public health experts have advised our governments to take.  

I know that being confined to our homes is challenging, but some of this is in our perspective. Elizabeth Gilbert during her TED livestream thought we could think of this as a well deserved retreat that we always wanted to take, but never did. We can do things we have been putting off - like baking bread - but we can also get more comfortable with ourselves.

This is not easy. We have become very accustomed to needing external stimulation to be comfortable. A study at the University of Virginia demonstrated that in studies of participants for a duration of 6 -15 minutes, “many preferred to administer electric shocks to themselves instead of being left alone with their thoughts”(abstract). We may be losing the capacity to reflect and introspect, to think deeply about who we are, and who we want to be.

This pandemic may present an opportunity for many of us to reconnect with ourselves, and become more comfortable with a day that is not completely programmed with external stimulation.  

One practice that could be of use is gratitude. I have been thinking of the many things that I am grateful for during this period of forced isolation. Here are a few on my list

• Having a family who I can still hug (none of us have COVID-19 - yet)
• Learning who the cabinet ministers and public health officials are
• The explosion of free resources, from mental health support to community gatherings
• The spontaneous acts of kindness, from celebrating the shift change of health care workers to restaurants who are generously feeding those who cannot feed themselves 
• The renewed appreciation parents have for teachers, we all have for truckers, grocery store clerks and personal support workers
• The dedication of the traditional media to bring us the most accurate information they have
• The ability to wear track pants during otherwise business virtual calls
• Wearing fun socks all day, and not having them covered by shoes or boots
• The incredible outpouring of the arts community, freely giving away their crafts from their homes to ours

I could go on, but overall, I feel truly blessed, even though this is one of the most marked periods of our history.

But enough about me. How are you? I know that there is much angst and fear, especially among business owners who are facing an unknown future. Pat Lencioni offers some advice to businesses in his War for Jobs podcast . We know that crises can bring the very best (and very worst) out of people, and that people have an overwhelming desire to help, but the physical isolation measures of this pandemic make that very difficult. He encourages businesses who have problems making payroll to have the executive team take a voluntary paycut, and offer to their employees to do the same (some may not be in a position to participate, but many will). We will be overwhelmed with the offer of generosity, if it is presented this way, for the greater good of being able to avoid layoffs.  

If your business is in a hold pattern, just waiting for things to go back to normal, you may be missing an opportunity that may not come again. You can get to know both yourself and your company better, you can truly build trust, you can work on your imminent priorities, you can work on some processes that should be looked at. You can emerge from this period stronger and more viable.

Or, you can complain bitterly, lament that this is happening, worry incessantly, look forward only to things getting “back to normal”, and emerge from this being more fragile and broken, both personally and organizationally. There may not be the same normal to go back to.

If you would like some guidance to fully benefit from this time that we have been given, contact Beyond Safety Compliance. Message me on LinkedIn, check out my website www.beyondsafetycomplaince.ca or send me an email at [email protected]. I’d like to help.