When you don't know what's coming next, maybe do the unexpected.

My first ‘home office’ was inside a surf life saving club, in Sydney’s south. My partner and I spent several years as caretakers (pre-kids and pre-employees), living and working out of a shoebox of a flat that looked straight out to the ocean.

Every year, for more than 20 years, we have produced the club’s annual report at a discounted rate, in recognition of its community service, our ties to this place and the start it gave us, way back when. It’s a job that stands apart from everything else Big Picture does, but it’s been a constant for more than two decades.

A few weeks ago, the club’s board of management decided that, with no revenue from its cafe and restaurant tenants, it couldn’t afford to have the report produced this year. When I spoke to the committee member responsible for conveying that news to us, I could hear in his voice how difficult that decision had been. It felt like one more notch tightening on the belt; one more thing slipping through our fingers; and the end of an era that defined so much in our lives.

Of course, it also dealt a blow to our pipeline. One less project to keep our team productive, engaged and focused. As an employer, our major focus right now is holding onto our whole Big Picture team, which of course relies on work coming in the door.

So we made a decision.

This year, we’re producing the annual report for free.

It might seem counter-intuitive, but for us, it was more important to maintain a connection, and to provide meaningful work for our team, than it was to count the dollars. We’re all doing things we didn’t expect to do this year. When so much is unpredictable and unknown, small measures of counter-intuitive action help us embrace the madness, rather than give in to it.