ARTICLE
When the clattering shrill noise that pierces your ear drums and when the ringing pitch becomes too unbearable, you shutter for silence and look for ways to stop the noise. You put your hands to your ears, find a pillow to cover your head and hope that the feverish pitch will stop. This is a signal that things need to change. We are living through change every day with COVID-19. In March of 1978, I experienced a shift in how to work through the unexpected. I had just completed my undergraduate studies at UC Santa Barbara and was ready for the future. I packed my Toyota pickup with all my belongings and drove across the country to work as a staff aide to a U.S. Senator. I was eager to expand upon my past summer and fall DC internship experience and learn the world of the U.S. Congress. I had temporary housing lined up with a family friend and all just seemed to fall in place. Then just like the pandemic of 2020, my world came crashing down. My family friend awoke me to the horrible news that my mother was found dead in our Virginia City home. His words still haunt me to this very day. You see, my mother was a brilliant strong woman who raised my brother and me as a single mom. She never achieved the lofty goals of becoming a lawyer herself, but she was self-taught in the law as the top legal assistant for law firms in Northern Nevada. She was working her way to become a district director to a U.S. Senator and was seen as a community leader. She was a single mother raising two sons while maintaining the respect of her peers. I wanted nothing more at that stage in my life than to be a success in her eyes. Then the unexpected happened. She was gone. I returned to Nevada to reconstruct my life, handling her financial estate, and taking the necessary steps to close out her accounts and make decisions I never imagined would be made at such a young age. It was a road untraveled. My inspiration was if a single mother can become a community leader raising two boys, I too could find a similar path. The unexpected taught me to stay calm and focus on making the future the very best I could. You can’t control how life ends so suddenly for a family member, but you can adjust your path to move forward through the unexpected. And that’s what we are trying to do, right now. The pandemic is growing in almost every county in California and we are moving from Phase 3…Phase 4…back to Phase 3 and maybe back to Phase 2. State to state, region to region, it’s a patchwork of different economic realities, which seem to shift like the wind. We are going through increased upticks in COVID—19 where the ebbs and flows have once again reached alarming rates. Just take a look at these headlines from various newspapers and media outlets from Wednesday: --Orange County employees worry about spread of coronavirus in office building as more colleagues’ test positive - Orange County Register --Six COVID-19 cases now reported by California Assembly. Legislature’s return date unclear — Sacramento Bee --L.A. County coronavirus surge worsens with 4,000 new cases, higher infection rate — LA Times --Northern California county will issue fines up to $10,000 to businesses not requiring masks - Sacramento Bee --San Francisco pushes back reopening timeline for indoor dining, outdoor bars — San Francisco Chronicle At home in Santa Cruz County, the infection rates are climbing too. We have seen a dramatic rise in the last week where Wednesday’s total reported cases reached 503, 211 active cases, 289 recovered cases, 3 deaths, 51 required hospitalizations and 19,691 total negative lab test results. Just a week ago, Wednesday, July 1 — the number of cases was under 400. You can see the County Health Dashboard below: https://www.santacruzhealth.org/HSAHome/HSADivisions/PublicHealth/CommunicableDiseaseControl/CoronavirusHome.aspx According to the latest reports from Dr. Newel, the County Public Health Officer, we are entering a critical stage of the pandemic were the trends are moving upwardly and she cautions that the county could be close to being added to the Governor’s watchlist. We’ll see in the next two weeks what impact the July 4th holiday weekend has on these numbers. If that happens a roll back in community engagement will happen, closing of indoor activities and other curbing instances. To navigate is to make proactive, purposeful decisions to accelerate through the crisis curve. Most decisions these days seem to be a good decision—until they are no longer a good decision. Then it’s time to course-correct, in real time, with another decision. The times we are in, call for “knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do.” Here are some thoughts for Chamber members, employers and employees to help us through these trying times: --Navigating means taking responsibility. Navigation is the companion to anticipation. Together, they keep the organization on an even keel. Ken Blanchard, the management expert and co-author of The One Minute Manager, described the tension between anticipate and navigate in this way: Be the “president of the present” and the “president of the future”— both at the same time. Navigation focuses on what happens in the present, with real-time adjustments. Making a decision is easy. Making a decision, knowing you personally own the consequences, is much harder. The starting point is humility— not because of the consequences on you — but rather recognizing the burden those decisions may place on others. Humility begets self-awareness, and self-awareness reminds us we’re not the smartest in the room. --Plan a little, think a lot, decide always. Navigating is determining both direction and velocity. The truth is leaders can’t move an organization faster than the people and culture can absorb. Another way to think about it is launching a rocket. If the launch trajectory is off by even inches at the start, the rocket is going to be off by miles when it’s in orbit. It takes navigation and strategy to maintain the right trajectory over time. One thing is certain: we can’t ignore reality. If we try, what becomes truly unavoidable is the consequence of having avoided reality. “Let me think about that” can be just as toxic as “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” No decision is still a decision—and probably a bad one—and it can lead to organizational paralysis. In these times especially, we must plan a little, think a lot, decide always. --Know when to take the wheel. When you’re responsible for the whole organization, you oversee the entire system—from ground level structure, to employees and your customers. Nothing should be “beneath” you. How and when you need to take the wheel depends on the organization and the circumstances. A historic moment serves as an example. Recall in July 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to reach the moon. The landing was supposed to be a totally hands-off operation. Just before touchdown, Armstrong noticed that the targeted landing site was at the edge of a large crater surrounded by boulders. He overrode the computer and landed the Eagle manually. “The Eagle has landed” became a victory cry everywhere. Now, 51 years later, we can reflect on that moment with deeper appreciation for Armstrong’s split-second decision to take matters into his hands. It’s a powerful lesson for all of us: When it’s smooth sailing, we can delegate more to our team and occupy the upper airspace to view the entire organization and its strategy. But when we face critical issues in the moment, we need to be at “ground level.” --Lessons learned the hard way. Of all the times that leaders must navigate in their careers, the moments that undoubtedly stand out the most will be times of crisis. These are the moments that teach us what to do when we don’t know what to do. Have Plan B for Plan A, particularly today. When we’re in the thick of it—the turbulence, the storm, the crisis—clouds of uncertainty and ambiguity shade the horizon. But the horizon is ahead. Embrace the unexpected to be expected. Look up, look out, look forward. Perspective is usually liberating!
When the clattering shrill noise that pierces your ear drums and when the ringing pitch becomes too unbearable, you shutter for silence and look for ways to stop the noise. You put your hands to your ears, find a pillow to cover your head and hope that the feverish pitch will stop. This is a signal that things need to change. We are living through change every day with COVID-19. In March of 1978, I experienced a shift in how to work through the unexpected. I had just completed my undergraduate studies at UC Santa Barbara and was ready for the future. I packed my Toyota pickup with all my belongings and drove across the country to work as a staff aide to a U.S. Senator. I was eager to expand upon my past summer and fall DC internship experience and learn the world of the U.S. Congress. I had temporary housing lined up with a family friend and all just seemed to fall in place. Then just like the pandemic of 2020, my world came crashing down. My family friend awoke me to the horrible news that my mother was found dead in our Virginia City home. His words still haunt me to this very day. You see, my mother was a brilliant strong woman who raised my brother and me as a single mom. She never achieved the lofty goals of becoming a lawyer herself, but she was self-taught in the law as the top legal assistant for law firms in Northern Nevada. She was working her way to become a district director to a U.S. Senator and was seen as a community leader. She was a single mother raising two sons while maintaining the respect of her peers. I wanted nothing more at that stage in my life than to be a success in her eyes. Then the unexpected happened. She was gone. I returned to Nevada to reconstruct my life, handling her financial estate, and taking the necessary steps to close out her accounts and make decisions I never imagined would be made at such a young age. It was a road untraveled. My inspiration was if a single mother can become a community leader raising two boys, I too could find a similar path. The unexpected taught me to stay calm and focus on making the future the very best I could. You can’t control how life ends so suddenly for a family member, but you can adjust your path to move forward through the unexpected. And that’s what we are trying to do, right now. The pandemic is growing in almost every county in California and we are moving from Phase 3…Phase 4…back to Phase 3 and maybe back to Phase 2. State to state, region to region, it’s a patchwork of different economic realities, which seem to shift like the wind. We are going through increased upticks in COVID—19 where the ebbs and flows have once again reached alarming rates. Just take a look at these headlines from various newspapers and media outlets from Wednesday: --Orange County employees worry about spread of coronavirus in office building as more colleagues’ test positive - Orange County Register --Six COVID-19 cases now reported by California Assembly. Legislature’s return date unclear — Sacramento Bee --L.A. County coronavirus surge worsens with 4,000 new cases, higher infection rate — LA Times --Northern California county will issue fines up to $10,000 to businesses not requiring masks - Sacramento Bee --San Francisco pushes back reopening timeline for indoor dining, outdoor bars — San Francisco Chronicle
At home in Santa Cruz County, the infection rates are climbing too. We have seen a dramatic rise in the last week where Wednesday’s total reported cases reached 503, 211 active cases, 289 recovered cases, 3 deaths, 51 required hospitalizations and 19,691 total negative lab test results. Just a week ago, Wednesday, July 1 — the number of cases was under 400.
You can see the County Health Dashboard below:
https://www.santacruzhealth.org/HSAHome/HSADivisions/PublicHealth/CommunicableDiseaseControl/CoronavirusHome.aspx
According to the latest reports from Dr. Newel, the County Public Health Officer, we are entering a critical stage of the pandemic were the trends are moving upwardly and she cautions that the county could be close to being added to the Governor’s watchlist. We’ll see in the next two weeks what impact the July 4th holiday weekend has on these numbers. If that happens a roll back in community engagement will happen, closing of indoor activities and other curbing instances.
To navigate is to make proactive, purposeful decisions to accelerate through the crisis curve. Most decisions these days seem to be a good decision—until they are no longer a good decision. Then it’s time to course-correct, in real time, with another decision.
The times we are in, call for “knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do.”
Here are some thoughts for Chamber members, employers and employees to help us through these trying times: --Navigating means taking responsibility. Navigation is the companion to anticipation. Together, they keep the organization on an even keel. Ken Blanchard, the management expert and co-author of The One Minute Manager, described the tension between anticipate and navigate in this way: Be the “president of the present” and the “president of the future”— both at the same time. Navigation focuses on what happens in the present, with real-time adjustments. Making a decision is easy. Making a decision, knowing you personally own the consequences, is much harder. The starting point is humility— not because of the consequences on you — but rather recognizing the burden those decisions may place on others. Humility begets self-awareness, and self-awareness reminds us we’re not the smartest in the room. --Plan a little, think a lot, decide always. Navigating is determining both direction and velocity. The truth is leaders can’t move an organization faster than the people and culture can absorb. Another way to think about it is launching a rocket. If the launch trajectory is off by even inches at the start, the rocket is going to be off by miles when it’s in orbit. It takes navigation and strategy to maintain the right trajectory over time. One thing is certain: we can’t ignore reality. If we try, what becomes truly unavoidable is the consequence of having avoided reality. “Let me think about that” can be just as toxic as “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” No decision is still a decision—and probably a bad one—and it can lead to organizational paralysis. In these times especially, we must plan a little, think a lot, decide always. --Know when to take the wheel. When you’re responsible for the whole organization, you oversee the entire system—from ground level structure, to employees and your customers. Nothing should be “beneath” you. How and when you need to take the wheel depends on the organization and the circumstances. A historic moment serves as an example. Recall in July 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to reach the moon. The landing was supposed to be a totally hands-off operation. Just before touchdown, Armstrong noticed that the targeted landing site was at the edge of a large crater surrounded by boulders. He overrode the computer and landed the Eagle manually. “The Eagle has landed” became a victory cry everywhere. Now, 51 years later, we can reflect on that moment with deeper appreciation for Armstrong’s split-second decision to take matters into his hands. It’s a powerful lesson for all of us: When it’s smooth sailing, we can delegate more to our team and occupy the upper airspace to view the entire organization and its strategy. But when we face critical issues in the moment, we need to be at “ground level.”
--Lessons learned the hard way. Of all the times that leaders must navigate in their careers, the moments that undoubtedly stand out the most will be times of crisis. These are the moments that teach us what to do when we don’t know what to do. Have Plan B for Plan A, particularly today. When we’re in the thick of it—the turbulence, the storm, the crisis—clouds of uncertainty and ambiguity shade the horizon. But the horizon is ahead. Embrace the unexpected to be expected. Look up, look out, look forward. Perspective is usually liberating!