Articles

As COVID vaccines are being administered to people all over, companies who closed their offices are now considering bringing their employees back to the office.  Some, with this consideration, will decide not to return at all.  For those that are coming back in some form, plans are being made.  And while it is possible to just ‘return to the office’, it won’t be the same as before.  We have been away long enough that returning is going to be yet

Every year around this time I do a reflection of the past year.  What worked?  What didn’t work?  Where were good results produced?  What do I need to do better in the next year?  I strive to keep the analysis balanced between acknowledgement of success and acknowledgement of improvement.  But as I reflected on 2020, I had to admit that my thoughts were heavily skewed towards improvement.  Absolutely my perfectionism was coming out.  I also realized that I needed to

Albert Einstein said “Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”  But what is the truth?  How is it determined?  In this era of calling everything that doesn’t agree with your position as fake, it is important to consciously think about what you believe.  It is also important to be able to think critically about what is being read, watched, and listened to so that facts can be found – especially given the

I have worked out of my home office for nearly 20 years.  My boundaries have always been pretty good between when I work and when I do not work.  However, during this COVID-19 time, I discovered that what had helped maintain my boundaries was business travel.  Once I was home full-time and working remotely, I discovered that my boundaries weren’t quite as solid as I thought.  I found myself, during my non-work time, looking around my house and thinking –

Many people are exploring how to do work differently in a virtual world.  Areas of exploration and discussion include communication and relationship building.  Is it possible to build skills and relationships via a virtual format?  How do you onboard a new person?  How do you pull a team together?  All good questions.  No doubt that these activities are more easily done in a live, face-to-face format.  But who knows how long it will be until we can easily work that

As a young engineer, I was taught that there was a 3-step process for project management.  The steps included Make the Plan, Work the Plan, and Renew the Plan.  Back in early 2020, many of us made plans for how we would handle the uncertainty and changes due to COVID-19.  Most of those plans weren’t intended to still be going on.  The feel that this is ‘just extended snow days’ is over and very little is ‘back to normal’ in

How much of what we have learned about the past is incomplete or isn’t true?  Even the quote ‘History is written by the winners’ is incomplete.  While the quote is attributed to Winston Churchill there is little evidence that this is his original quote.  Knowing whether or not you can rely on what you learned as ‘history’ is especially important right now as we have conversations about it with different perspectives.  The circumstances, context, and author of historical events should

Disruption and change – these words seem to be everywhere right now.  The COVID-19 virus has been disruptive and a big change for most individuals and for businesses.  For some, the change has been relatively small although inconvenient.  For others the change has been huge and life altering.  So much varies with circumstances – childcare or school needs, telework capability, aging parent care, knowing how to cook, etc.  These circumstances can make adapting to the change much more difficult.  My

What a rude awakening for me!  I really thought I was coping quite well with the stay-at-home order.  I have worked out of my home office for almost 20 years.  My husband and I go out for an occasional dinner or show or movie, but those aren’t frequent things that we do.  Much of my work was switched to remote or postponed.  All-in-all it didn’t feel like major changes, just small inconveniences.  I thought, ‘this isn’t so bad, and I am adapting’.  Then, I went downtown to

What a crazy time this is!  Many of us are under stay-at-home orders due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.  We are having to do things differently, with no specific endpoint in view.  Will the order go through the end of April?  Will it extend into May?  We just don’t know.  Many are just hoping to return to ‘normal’.  But what does that even mean?  Things will be different once we all start coming out of our homes.  There will be small