Smaller Town

I never expected to type the word "pandemic" but we experience the oddities of a lifetime, one at a time. I think of events in just my lifetime like: the Vietnam war, the oil embargo, various housing crashes, Y2K, 9-11, avian flu, swine flu. economic crashes, and probably several I haven't remembered. The one absolute similarity of all these is that I am still here today, and can look back on each of these events. When we were going through them, nobody was sure what the end looked like, and yet, here we are. I am confident that as a society, we will be here after the Pandemic of 2020.

When we are past this, looking back, we will recognize we learned some things and changed some things which may have been needing to change for a long time. One thing I've been watching is how we are interacting with each other. Sure, I miss going out for dinner or meeting friends as much as the next person, but what I am talking about is bigger. When I drive out to the Toybox, I see more people walking with their family. I see families taking bike rides together and I know we are figuring out ways to connect like never before. One friend talked about playing Yahtzee with his wife, and for the first time, I've had a couple of conference calls with my grand-kids in the last month. These are all different from the way we behaved only a few months ago. Some of this will go away over time, but I think some of it will stick for years, maybe decades to come.

I believe in small ways this is taking us back to a time of smaller towns. Not in actual square footage, but in the way we behave with each other. When I grew up, I was like many of us. Looking back, we did not have an excess of much. In fact, there were many ways we were really challenged. But in the middle of the situation, the communities we lived in took care of us, and we took care of others.

Let me provide a couple of examples. The house I grew up in had chain-link fence around half the yard, and picket fence around the rest. Why? Because mom and dad knew someone in need of work and he couldn't do chain-link fencing. So, the half he did was wooden picket. The same thing happened when they got the ceiling of the shop/garage finished. They had no intention of finishing it, but someone needed work, so they created a job. In the same way, our local grocer took care of my family. He was willing to carry what we owed for almost a year until mom hit tax season and she could catch up. The other thing he did was he gave mom credit for every coupon she brought into the store, whether she bought the item or not. So, even through college, I took our local newspaper and clipped every single ad and sent them home to Mom. I didn't think about how wonderful this was of them to do for us until years later. Finally, my friends in college LOVED the cheese I brought from home. It was great for burgers and grilled cheese sandwiches. I never really considered it was "government" cheese and what it really meant that we were receiving it. Part of what I see us doing now is moving to a new time where people are more engaged and more helpful to each other. We have to have each other's backs.

What I really want you to take away from this is that half or more of where we are in any situation is in our head.  Makes me think of the following story.

ABOUT ATTITUDE (author unknown)
It all depends on the way you look at things.  One day a father and his rich family took his son to a trip to the country with the firm purpose to show him how poor people can be.  They spent a day and a night at the farm of a very poor family.

When they got back from their trip the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"

"Very good Dad!"

"Did you see how poor people can be?" the father asked.

"Yeah!"

"And what did you learn?"

The son answered, "I saw that we have a dog at home, and they have four.  We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden, and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lamps in the garden, and they have the stars.  Our patio reaches to the front yard, and they have a whole horizon."

When the little boy was finishing, his father was speechless.  His son added, "Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are!"

Isn't it true that it all depends on the way you look at things?  If you have love, friends, family, health, good humor and a positive attitude toward life -- you've got everything!  You can't buy any of these things, but still you can have all the material possessions you can imagine, provisions for the future, etc., but if you are poor of spirit, you have nothing.

We need to look at this time from the perspective of the son in this story. I remember a dear friend who talked about a period of time he and his family had to live in the hayloft on an uncle's farm. He talked about it as being the best time of his life. I know I need to look at all this odd event in 2020 with a different attitude. When I look back at my childhood, I would tell you without question I had the fullest, most wonderful of years, with family, friends, and community. We didn't have much, but we had that.

Keep looking for the wonderful stories and opportunities in the midst of what we are going through. The good/wonderful is there, you just have to be on the lookout for it.

Time Well Used

Are you spending more time at home than usual? Yes, that's a ridiculous question. I know you are, just like the rest of the world. We are all trying to decide how to stay sane ... and fair with those who are now around us all the time. But if there is a question about what's important these days, this is the answer. We have to keep each other safe and sane until we find out where the other end of this tunnel is.

Have you taken up a new hobby? I know of people using this time to latch-hook a rug, something they have never done before. Some are knitting again, or sewing, anything to help make the time go by. When all is said and done, we will look back at Christmas 2020 and realize there were more personally-made gifts than ever before or after.

All right, if not a hobby, have you attacked a long-overdue project? I will tell you without question my shop is cleaner than it has been in years. I honestly don't know if this is a plus or a minus. I should use the time to make things, but for some reason, cleaning and organizing has been more reassuring than actually working on projects. This has to change and it needs to happen quickly. I still have a long list of projects to tackle and not moving forward on them is not good. But my shop is beautiful.

What about improving communications with friends and family? People who are committing to stay in touch with others better than usual. Sara has a friend she now calls on Thursday every week so they can check on each other. This isn't a bad plan, and here's a hint from my old Payless days. It really is all right to use a calendar app to help you remember. The member of our group of managers who had the reputation for being the most outgoing and communicative with the rest of us did this. It took us a while to figure it out (I was Wednesday every other week), but even after we figured it out, we were good with it because whatever the tool, we stayed in touch. Maybe you could take more time to talk to those in your circle (figurative circle of course). I've talked to my son and sister more lately than usual and it's been wonderful.

Below is a quote from Seth Godin's Friday the 13th blog post last September.

A useful definition of art

Art is a human activity. It is the creation of something new, something that might not work, something that causes a viewer to be influenced.

Art uses context and culture to send a message. Instead of only a contribution of beauty or craft, art adds intent. The artist works to create something generous, something that will change us.

Art isn’t painting or canvas or prettiness. Art is work that matters.

It’s entirely possible that you’re an artist.

Everyone can be, if we choose.

Maybe now is the time for all of us to be a little more of an artist. Maybe now is when we create something new, or as Godin says above, "something that will change us." In my attempt to do this, I have gone back to work on my Etsy page and added several things. Go take a look and see what I'm doing. Let me know what you think of the things I've been working on. The link is  https://www.etsy.com/shop/ToyboxWoodworking

If you have "art" you've been spending time on, please share it. I would love to see how you are spending this extra time we have all found ourselves with lately.

Have a great weekend, and please, do your best to stay safe and sane.

Change 2020

First, I hope this finds you well and safe in these turbulent times.

Next, as is typically the case, I've been thinking about this situation in the light of my past.  In doing this, there are a couple of things which present themselves. The first is about change in and of itself.

Through years of managing and leading people and organizations, I discovered an undeniable truth about change. It isn't the old situation people have issue with, and it isn't the new. The problem period is always during the actual change as people don't like uncertainty. As a leader, I always knew my primary job through transitions was to inform everyone as best I could, and then make the change occur as quickly as possible. You know, get people to the "new" place.

A large fear in the current situation for is that we have no idea what the new normal looks like, or when it will get here. If we had an answer to either piece of this question, we'd be better equipped to handle the current environment. And (my opinion totally), we worry that the people who know how bad this will get and what we need to prepare for it aren't telling the entire truth. Again, circle back to my original comments about managing through change. It is important to inform people as well as possible. I'm not sure our leadership is accomplishing this.

Last Friday evening I had the opportunity to attend a virtual cocktail party with several people I have professional, and personal relationships with. We talked about business and our personal lives. One of the biggest things I noticed was there was more conversation about family and pets than I ever remember. Many of the people on the call are working from home, and family/pets are now part of the daily landscape. I don't think this is a bad thing, and I hope it is one of the items we keep as we come out of on the other side. Another was how easily we had transformed to a "work from home" environment. Some people on the call were incredibly well prepared and had this situation included in their disaster recovery documentation. For those not so well prepared, the speed that this had come together to get people isolated was amazing. I can't even imagine what this would have been like ten years ago, when working from home was more of an idea than a reality.

One other thing we need to consider at this time is what our businesses will look like going forward. I once worked for a manager who asked us to look at the entire organization as though we were building it from scratch whenever we had a personnel opening. I hated that exercise, but also knew that at the end of the task, we would have a stronger, more agile organization than before. As I speak with folks, I've been told that with the removal of travel and meetings, some of the most senior folks in organizations are wondering if they add value to their company. This is a powerful question and now might be a good time to think about how your company would look, given today's business, if you built it today. Then comes the question of how close you are able to get to the ideal structure. This is where you add the humanity to the program and get as close as you can while helping as many of your employees as you can.

One final note. Go for a walk and look around. It is amazing at how many homes suddenly have a chair outside the front door, or how many neighbors are going for walks in the evening. My household has started riding bikes again. In some type of twisted way, this emergency could be helping us to get back to a simpler, more family-based time. This is absolutely not the way any of us would have done this, but there it is, it might be part of the new normal when we finally get there.