Earlier in this pandemic experience I wrote about resilience, inspired by front line health care workers, teachers and Olympians (link).  Almost six months later, I am renewing my reflections on the topic.  For individuals, for organizations, for societies:  we are needing to ensure resiliency in ways I don’t believe have been tested in my lifetime.

We are not only worried about how well our health care workers can navigate these challenging times; we are worried about whether the systems that employ health care workers can survive the strains they are now collectively under.  Do those systems have sufficient resiliency to not only endure but also actively adapt and prepare for a different future than the one they had been planning just 24 months ago?

We are not only worried about keeping children too young for vaccination safe; we are worried about the capacity of our schools and daycare centers to function effectively as both staff and students navigate daily reports of risks, exposures, changing protocols, all aimed at minimizing the chances of yet-another bout with a virus.   We were already grappling with acknowledgement that disparities in health, educational attainment and economic opportunity needed to be addressed in our society’s support for our children – the pandemic has laid bare those challenges even more dramatically.

In workplaces, restaurants, entertainment venues and retail establishments we have constant reminders that the calculus for risk in our lives has changed.  For the most part, we are handling it – and I give enthusiastic kudos to the officials — public health professionals, in particular — for their dogged commitment to our well-being.  That the advice keeps changing is frustrating, sure.  But we are fighting something that constantly evolves, making impossible what most of us really want:  sure things.  We want experts to tell us what is going to happen, and then we want to hold them responsible for results that shield us from harm.  Unrealistic expectations, it turns out, in a pandemic, especially one likely mishandled at the very beginning.  How we ended up without a nation-wide coordinated response will go down in history as a massive blunder.  But there is no going back – we must find resilience in our systems, in our institutions, in ourselves to move ahead and overcome this collective social experience.

So I’ll share again the ‘7 Cs,’ the offering from respected pediatrician Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg:  in 2013, he first published his construct to help parents assess their children’s development of resiliency.  I think it is instructive for we grown-ups as well, especially in these times of extraordinary stress:

• Competence: the skills to face challenges that confront us
• Confidence: belief in one’s ability
• Connection: sense of belonging
• Character:  sense of self-worth
• Contribution: opportunity to give back, to help
• Coping:  capacity and skills to handle stress
• Control:  realization of what one can control, what choices we have

As you continue to navigate these times, reflect on how the 7 Cs enable your journey.  Ensure your own resilience and that of the people, organizations and communities you touch.  God’s speed.

Like most business leaders, I suspect, I have very mixed feelings about the year we are about to close and the one we are ready to kick off.  But as with every time of transition, it seems important to acknowledge where we are and where we are going.

First, there is much to celebrate and we need to keep reminding ourselves of that:  slammed to an abrupt halt almost 24 months ago, our economy has recovered to a degree most didn’t imagine possible this quickly.  Not evenly or equitably, it is true – but then we’ve known for a long time that we need to work harder to ensure fairness in our economy.  We still have lots of work to do on that front.  And while it is undeniable that COVID-19 is still a menace to everyone, we have vaccines and treatment options that were developed in record time.  Again, more work to do, but much has been accomplished.  Enough progress made that I maintain my overall optimism that we can keep accomplishing things for the common good.  Lots more work to do.

I am lucky to be part of a small group that meets monthly for idea-sharing and support.  Each member of the group leads an organization and can both empathize and cajole the rest as we share our journeys; this week we talked about the perspective gained in this challenging year.

“I remind myself regularly about the oxygen mask message on an airplane:  you can’t help others if you are not taking care of yourself first.”

This was such an important offering from one of my colleagues.  Maintaining the confidence and composure to lead in uncertain times requires physical and mental strength.  Take care of yourselves.

“Staying nimble is a priority.” 

The days of having detailed plans that guide a whole year are gone forever and so finding ways to keep our teams ready to adapt but also feel focused and clear about objectives is an evolving leadership challenge.  Encourage your teams to be creative and empowered to develop new systems that will respond to these new dynamics.

“Leadership development is as important as management development.”

We all know that leadership is different than management; we know that management potential and leadership potential are different – and sometimes almost mutually exclusive, it seems.

Most organizations invest a lot in management development:  learning the systems and protocols that keep the operations running as smoothly as possible.  Leadership development gets attention, too, in good organizations…but perhaps not as seriously.

Yet the dramatic changes now occurring in organizational life scream out for effective leadership:  values, inspiration, motivation, empathy are all needed in unprecedented ways as our organizations strive to retain talent, maintain high morale and drive performance.  Invest in leadership development.

“Celebrate – even if the successes aren’t all you’d planned for; surviving the battle is worth acknowledging and recognizing.” 

Another important reminder as we close the books on 2021:  celebrating a year that we may wish we could forget is important for our teams and the precious individuals who make up those teams.  People worked hard, grappled with fear and confusion; they delivered on tasks large and small.

Mask up, maintain social distance, do it virtually, perhaps.  But celebrate 2021. And Happy New Year!

“I do not believe in miracles, but I cannot explain this,” said the doctor.  My 89-year old mother – vaccinated and careful – had been exposed to COVID and because of a pre-existing condition, it hit her hard.  Family had gathered from around the country to be together and hopefully have a chance to encourage her.  But the morning after determining that no ventilators were available, after leaving the hospital beginning to grieve, we were met with that message.  Mom was rallying, eating, entertaining the staff with funny stories about her family.  She is still 89-years old with severely impacted lung capacity, so we are realistic about her prognosis.  But she is now in a rehabilitation facility, surrounded by pictures, mementos and hosting regular family visits.  For the record, I do believe in miracles.

But I also believe in the extraordinary power of the human spirit:  throughout history, we know of its capacity for achievement.  The human spirit is at the core of a soldier’s ability to run toward danger, a researcher’s racing to develop a life-saving vaccine, an artist’s resolve to capture profound insights in a creative expression.

At this confusing, challenging time in our lives, leaders – of families, of organizations, of communities, of countries – need to count on the capacity of the human spirit to accomplish extraordinary things.  But like my mom’s rally, the conditions must be created that inspire or enable the human spirit.  Resources; Hope; Support; Purpose. 

We have too often expected extraordinary results without creating or providing those conditions. A few examples come to mind:

• Educational systems were stripped of resources to meet the increasing demands of learning in a technological, fast-paced world – and then we criticize the quality of our schools. That is not an ideological throw-away line:  the data show that over almost thirty years, the resources going into public education were sliced, diced and squeezed.  We, as a society, have to be honest about that. We can and should push to reimagine how education is delivered – but we must provide the resources to do so.
• Ditto in access to health care. While the passage of the Affordable Care Act was a move in the right direction, we still have grotesque disparities in access to care, which undermines hope.  In this nation with its vast resources, extinguishing hope seems a most crushing blow to the human spirit.
• It has taken too long, but I have optimism that support for recognition of systemic racism in our country is making headway. Repulsion triggered by George Floyd’s murder really did create a different trajectory for our future: while the resistance to ideas like reparation or critical race theory exist, that resistance is fueled by wariness about what reconciliation will look like or feel like or cost – and not so much by unwillingness to acknowledge our history.  We can and must keep making real progress toward a better future.
• Perhaps my most optimistic reflection relates to how purpose can not only ignite the human spirit, but can trigger institutional innovation and momentum, as well: the global recognition that we are in a race to save our planet. Decades after the most insightful conservationists began sharing dire warnings, the data is now irrefutable, we have an existential challenge before us.  The clarity of that sense of shared purpose is enabling collaborations and explorations that would have been impossible to imagine just a few years ago.  Now our capacity to imagine, fueled by the power of human spirit, must keep that work on track.

If we can help your organization illuminate how best to bring the power of the human spirit into the work ahead, we would love to have that conversation.  Resources. Hope. Support. Purpose.

Ok, fair warning that this post is coming from a place of exhaustion and even foreboding.  I just got a vaccine booster shot and don’t feel great; my elderly mother who almost never leaves her house just tested positive for COVID-19 and is in the hospital (cannot fathom how she was exposed); and my state is now topping the United States in the rise of active cases.  Uffda, as my grandmother might have exclaimed.

This is the moment when we kick into another, higher gear and effectively overcome the challenges we face…right?  I keep thinking that that is what we will, collectively, do – and yet we do not.  As a society, we seem incapable of coming together to beat this continually-evolving threat to health, livelihoods and education of our children.  How can we redouble our efforts – or change-up our approach to increase the chances of success?

I don’t have the answers – oh, I wish I did.  But perhaps sharing some observations that seem worth considering is a step in the right direction.  As a professional who has counseled business leaders and public officials on effective communications for many years, I hope these ideas are useful for communities, organizations, and engaged citizens who are focused on our shared progress.

1. Demonizing others doesn’t help. People around you who are not vaccinated or do not wear masks have their reasons – you may disagree, but they have them.
2. You have a right to protect yourself. Do not be willing to subject yourself (and those you care for) to the potential for exposure.  If someone isn’t masked, depart.  If there is someone in charge responsible for enforcing masking or vaccination status, share your concerns.  But don’t become the enforcer yourself – it won’t end well.
3. This counsel above may seem to be giving in to those who are not respecting the rules of public health – and in the near-term, it sometimes will be the case. But it is essential that we find paths back to having civil ways to set and follow-rules.  ‘Citizen’s arrest’ has never really been a viable idea in our civic structure. In the longer-run, the loss of business and/or engagement because of lax enforcement will prevail.  Sick people are not great customers, colleagues or patrons.
4. Information sharing is key: not just about mandates and rules, but about results and stories.  How easy it has become to get a test or a booster; how people who were doubters have changed their minds.  How unsustainable the challenges being faced in health care facilities are becoming; how devastating the impact of innocent people being exposed because of others’ lack of transparency about their vaccine status.  We have a shared fate that keeps being undermined by information-sharing that separates us from each other.  So share, not to ‘win’ but to inform, as the realities and facts about this pandemic continue to be revealed.
5. Find the right ways to balance urgency with patience: where and how can you improve your safety and the safety of those you care about?  Do those things with urgency.  Where and how must you acknowledge the rights of others – and practice patience.

I suspect it will be a long and dark winter in the coming months for me.  I’m stocking up on candles, will get fresh air whenever I can.  It is not my nature to be a pessimist, so I’ll keep fighting for our shared fate.  Take care and let’s connect if you are in the same boat.

I was intrigued with a headline in the New York Times Sunday edition last weekend: “Snap out of it, America” was the cover of a special opinion section. The premise of the section was that as a nation we’ve lost our capacity to think boldly.  And it was full of interesting ideas and focused on areas that would benefit from a renewed focus on innovation. I appreciated the read – but it left me wondering more about the ‘why’ of our fading energy for thinking big. And what it will take for us to collectively regain our mojo.

To be clear, there have always been lots of us with low tolerance for risk – and that is what innovation is all about: letting go of the status quo to try something new. Most of us go to school, get decent jobs, live our lives. ‘Risks’ are things like taking out a mortgage on a first home or taking on student loans. It has always been a minority of us with the confidence to ‘bet the farm’ or max-out on credit cards to pursue a dream. Even in our national political leadership, there have been leaders who encouraged high aspirations (John F. Kennedy’s pledge to get to the moon comes to mind), while there were others that implored us to lower our sights (Trump’s America First must be viewed as a version of this). So we can speculate that maybe we are just at that point in the continuing cycles of life: our mojo will come back around on its own. But maybe not.

As a business owner and someone entering the later phase of my career, I have been reflecting on the topic of risk a lot lately: risk appetite, risk tolerance, risk management. And I think a big part of what is happening in our collective, national psyche is vertigo caused by inability to assess risks as well as we have in the past – primarily because the pace of change has accelerated. Add to that the fact that, as a society, we have so much to lose relative to the lives our forefathers and mothers were living just a couple generations ago. And a sad, final contributing factor I would observe: the dynamics pulling us out of a strong sense of American esprit de corps and into tribal identities: there are so few ‘win/win’ propositions – only win/lose scenarios. And so whether one is calculating in dollars, in influence, in reputation, avoiding risk becomes the rational choice – who wants to be a loser?

What is giving me some surprising optimism is the reported ‘Great Resignation.’ Not because I am unimpacted by the phenomenon of talented people deciding they want to leave organizations like mine and strike out of their own (it has been a particular challenge in the professional services and creative services world for years now!). But I am encouraged because it has to be interpreted as either a repudiation of how organizational life is valued OR a sign that people’s tolerance for risk is on the rise. Or a combination of both. A perfect set-up for innovations: in what work life looks like; in how people balance careers and family; in what people value and what they are willing to trade for what they value.

Said another way: in my experience, innovation is most potent when there are imbalances that motivate us to seek some kinds of correction. The expanding disparities of the past thirty years – the collapse of the middle class, the uneven recovery from the Great Recession, the inequitable experiences during the pandemic are all contributing to imbalances that cannot be ignored. We can and should innovate our way out of these troubled times. My bet is that we will look back decades from now and recognize some valuable signs of progress toward equity. But the process will likely be painful for some (those with the most to lose); an adventure for some (those with the highest risk tolerance); scary for some (those with the lowest risk tolerance).

My advice: for most of us, it will be important to focus reflection on the risks of NOT innovating, as opposed to our inclination to see change as a risk to avoid. Lean in…

I have the good fortune to live in a place with usually glorious fall seasons – this year included. We’re mostly famous for our winters, even though they are not as long or as cold as our reputation would have someone believe (really!). But in a year like this one, when each coast of the United States has been battered first by drought and then by horrific rains, we are feeling grateful for our weather reality: after a beautiful summer, we are enjoying a fabulous autumn…all in preparation for the winter season we know will come. We know not only how to survive it, but how to thrive through it.

I belabor this setup to make a point: having the benefit of predictability is something we have now learned is not guaranteed. The pandemic has upended the rhythms of retail, of work life, of entertainment. Climate change is upending our seasons, our real estate and our infrastructure. So, for me and others in the upper Midwestern United States, experiencing our usual seasonal realities feels like a particularly valuable gift, at least for now. We are experiencing life as we have come to expect it.

But we only need to watch the news or scroll our preferred social sites to be made aware that so many people here and around the world are grappling with challenges fueled by dynamics beyond their own control—even beyond their imagination. It is one thing to have made decisions that undermined your own security: bad career or educational choices. It is something entirely different to have your context create catastrophic damage all around you, whether via climate change, pandemic or political disruption. And once people have recovered from devastation, how to prepare for a changed sense of opportunities going forward?

At the very least, I hope recognition that predictability is slipping away causes each and every one of us to consider our capacity for empathy and for granting grace to others. Can we reclaim our collective inclination to catch people when they fall, have people’s back when they most need us there? The ongoing debate about the role of government causes me to be pessimistic.

But even beyond that instinct to offer support, we also need to find the collective courage to re-imagine aspects of life – and then double down to move forward, innovating to ensure success in the future.  How will our economy change faster than we might have thought possible just a few years ago: what work is valued differently? What work is valued less? How do people transition through those changes?  How will use of space be changing as we move forward: in housing, in commercial workplaces, in retail?  Which sectors of our society will be changed only modestly? Which sectors will be transformed?

I find myself appreciating this late autumn time even more than most years. For me, winter is the time to hibernate: to slow down, reflect on the year ending and then on the year ahead.

This year, it strikes me that organizational leaders need to be digging deep to think about leading their colleagues through a period of extraordinary disruption. Helping people adapt to the loss of predictability will be key: without effective leadership, it will too often be experienced as loss, rather than opportunity. And there IS great opportunity in this time, if we can rise to the challenges around us.

Enjoy the falling leaves; take advantage of the time to reflect; be ready for spring!

November 2nd, 2021 was an important day in the United States of America. People across the country headed to polling stations to cast their ballots for school board elections, levy proposals, as well as choices for mayors, city councils and even governors. Candidates accepted defeat or celebrated victories – with a few places too close to call, as the ballot-counting continues. The importance of the day was that it felt so normal: the craziness of the allegations of election corruption we endured for months after the election one year ago have faded into the echo-chambers of internet sites most of us never see.

It is still disappointing to me that too many otherwise rational political actors have never made explicit their acknowledgement that Joe Biden won, fair and square, in 2020. They have been allowed to undermine our democratic process without paying any price for that dangerous choice. But if we are able as a nation to renew our fealty to democratic decision-making and the rule of law, maybe I just need to get over my disappointment.

Part of the challenge for us moving forward is that, like sports, politics is experienced differently by segments of the citizenry. Using professional sports to set the frame: there are those of us who enjoy watching games with friends, casually tracking how our home teams are doing. But it is ‘just sports,’ right? Then there are those of us for whom it is much more serious business: identity with a team is visceral and unconditional. When our team wins, it is because they are awesome. When they lose, it is because the officials were unfair or incompetent. Most wouldn’t literally bleed for their team, though in the case of some post-championship crowds, it has come to that. And of course, professional sport is also a very big business, almost monopolistic in its ability to create and extract wealth for those who own the teams.

Politics has many of the same dynamics. For most of us, it is simply the way we are persuaded to vote on how the government should prioritize things: what we want to be funded, what we want to be allowed or banned. Voting is considered the foundational act of being a ‘good citizen,’ and I am inspired every election day when millions of us show up to do our duty. But for others, it is nearly blood-sport: opposing sides are demonized, those who simply manage the processes are badgered and manipulated, and the predictions of doom associated with losing are hyperbolic. And the power-brokering that happens beyond public scrutiny is disturbing to contemplate. Unlike professional sports, there are no private sector ‘owners’ of the political process – or there shouldn’t be.

Yet as Winston Churchill soberly commented 75 years ago, democracy is worthy of our support and our trust. It is the best way for us to ‘rule ourselves’ in a world where one’s own interests must co-exist with others.’ A key to its success over time, however, is that it requires that its citizens act in their own self-interest. And that, of course, requires that citizens be both well-informed and engaged.

We have real work to do on our democracy: a country as large, complicated and diverse as this one will always be challenging to lead. Striving to illuminate different aspirations for our path forward – and then allowing all our citizens to be part of deciding which path to take – that is the American political process that we need to demand and support. Congratulations on our 2021 election cycle.

Organizations used to spend weeks, even months, developing multi-year plans that went deep on details about strategies, resource requirements, talent recruitment and more. Annual budgets were drawn from those strategic plans, setting out the milestones and measures that would be used to define goals and incentives for a set 12- month period.

After navigating the ever-changing milestones associated with navigating COVID-19, those old planning paradigms seem positively quaint.

Organizations do need to have planning frameworks, of course: deciding how to deploy both human and financial resources is dependent on making choices that are based on determining where the organization is trying to go. But the dynamic nature of our current organizational lives has me thinking about how to adapt our planning processes for the ever-increasing speed of change we are experiencing. And it has me thinking about what we can learn from professional football, in particular.

My dad was a football coach and two of my brothers were quarterbacks, so I grew up around the discipline of preparing with detailed plans but also being ready to improvise on the field.  Huddles are the place where the play is called: something they practiced over and over again and chosen for the moment because it is an opportunity to take optimal advantage of the skills and talents of your team at that point in the game, that place on the field.

But then the huddle breaks and the team gets positioned at the line of scrimmage…and so does the opposition. This is where real leadership happens: you can see the players assessing the yardage in front of them, pointing to what they want teammates to note, barking out code words that dynamically change their plans.

I’ve had the opportunity to talk to football players who were on teams with leaders like Aaron Rogers, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. They talk about the capacity of those athlete/leaders to dynamically read the field, assess the readiness of their colleagues to adapt, and call audibles to change the whole team’s understanding of the priorities for the next moment. It doesn’t always work – because the leaders on the other side of the ball are doing adjustments of their own (with leaders like John Randle, Jalen Ramsey and Mike Singletary). But the magic of watching a disciplined group of professionals adapt instantaneously based on a few words is impressive in and of itself – and of course, when it works and the offense breaks through, it creates the sense that anything is possible. Or when the defense correctly reads the intention of the audible and adapts – it is a powerful reminder of the capacity of a team of people to accomplish a shared goal.

As our businesses adapt to the speed of disruption and innovation that seems to be our inevitable future, spending a few Sunday afternoons watching the genius of what happens at the line of scrimmage may be a very valuable investment in lessons in leadership.

It is important to note that having the capacity do that real-time assessment and re-ordering of priorities is only part of the challenge. Building the confidence and trust across the team is also essential: assurance that when the audible is called, everyone knows what it means, what they need to do and why. High-stakes leadership communications. Go team.

Full disclosure: I have had ‘a job’ without a break for over 47 years – since I turned 18 years old. Not the same job, of course:  I’ve moved from private to public sector and back again. Always in an office, though they ranged from a cubicle in a suburban office park, to prime real estate just off mahogany row in a corporate headquarters, to ornate space in a public building surrounded by pomp and circumstance. I share all that just to put my following observations into context.

My career and family life followed what I know has been the norm for so many: I worked first to help pay for post-secondary education, then invested in a home and ensured that I have had continuous employment ever since to pay the mortgage(s). Along the way, we proceeded in our careers to also enjoy wonderful vacations and the periodic splurge on amenities like a swimming pool or another home improvement. Nothing too crazy: what I understand to be a pretty typical path for those of us born into enough privilege to access a college education and upwardly mobile career opportunities.

Now popular media is filled with stories of the choices people are making to step away or out of that ‘career ladder’ notion of worklife. Sometimes it is about the challenges of balancing work and family, especially for women. Sometimes it is about coming to terms with recognition that the work isn’t being valued enough to justify continued commitment. And sometimes it is about acknowledgement that work can’t only be about money. Striving for purpose may be a driving reason for stepping away. The anguish of loss suffered through the pandemic has certainly awakened people’s awareness that life can be short, and perhaps not worth toiling at work that one hates, or at least finds unfulfilling. There are likely as many specific rationales as there are people making the decision to step away from a job.

But at a macro level, I think we are just starting to contemplate what is going on, and where it might lead. Beyond those personal choices being made by millions of people is the reality that the relationship between work and wealth has been breaking down for a couple generations and deteriorating more quickly in just the past generation. Most recent data show that in the United States, the ‘middle class’ has lost ground whether measuring by income or by assets. Collectively, the middle 60 percent – more than 77 million households – own about the same value of assets as the one percent of households that have the highest incomes – just over one million households. Translated: most people are working hard, but owning less of the real estate, the private businesses or the stock portfolios that have historically created generational wealth.

Meanwhile, we’ve watched new forms of wealth creation emerge. Private equity dollars lift up thousands of start-ups, and though only a small fraction are ultimately successful, they offer an inspiring potential path to both wealth and freedom from ‘a job.’ Influencers on social media are another phenomenon: accumulating income by creatively sharing your likes has not only invented a new career category – it has effectively turned the traditional worlds of advertising, marketing and public relations upside down. Being famous is now a career choice, rather than the consequence of being exceptional at some other professional pursuit. Remarkable.

These trends won’t undermine much of our economy overnight: large employers, in particular, still have tools to incentivize talented people to climb their ladders. But underestimating either the cultural evolution or the economic shifts underway in our collective relationship to work would be a serious mistake for any organizational leader. I often quote Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to emphasize the point: “The pace of change has never been this fast; but it will never be this slow again.”