August 2020: The Bountiful Buffet Edition

Aug 7

I just delivered another presentation to a group on how to deal with stress, anxiety and grief with those they work with, and was a bit rattled to realize that I first created the presentation in April 2020, with the assumption this would be a short-term strategy.

OH. MY.

Here it is August 2020, and my presentation has only expanded, and there looks to be little reprieve in sight. Wow.

So what I will be posting today are the MANY resources I am drawing on with clients... so many that I will simply gather them together into categories. Perhaps you will need to keep this tab open and chip away at the list, pacing yourself, because there will be a great deal of content. Let me know if I am being overwhelming... here goes!

(PS I chose the photo at the top because it depicts one of greatest -- and perhaps shallowest -- things I miss during the pandemic and beyond... the Whole Foods Hot and Cold Buffet Bar 😩)

Self-Care for You and Your Family

Helping People Move from Trauma to Growth (podcast). Very encouraging discussion about the potential for "post-traumatic growth" and movement toward resilience. I highly recommend this brief but pithy conversation. It provides some tangible steps forward and provides some welcome hopefulness in the midst of the prolonged uncertainty we've all experienced this year.
HBR Readers on Juggling Work and Kids… in a Pandemic. I loved this and have sent it to a few clients already, who have reported back that it gave them help and encouragement, mostly in confirming that what they were already doing wasn't crazy! I especially liked it because it was crowd-sourced from around the world.
How Can We Handle the Uncertainty about Whether and How Schools Will Re-Open? This articles offers a good balance between non-anxious and serious.

EVERYTHING Related to Your Work Life..

Some of you have been laid off, some of you see the writing on the wall in terms of long-term options and want to get ahead of it, and some of you have finally had the time to realize you feel stuck professionally and may want to take a leap. Others are struggling with boredom, some are surprised to be enjoying the flexibility of remote work, some need new ideas for how to make it all come together. I've heard all of those things in the past few months. Here are some resources that others found useful.

Your Ultimate Guide to Answering the Most Common Interview Questions. I gave this one to a client an hour before he had an interview, and he followed up afterward and was effusive in his description of how great it was to have this resource to prepare and really up his interview game, which was pretty rusty... I recommend bookmarking this one.
How to Convince Your Boss to Let You Keep Working Remotely Post-COVID. Like the one above, this link has practical, specific tips. The key is in the first one. Make sure you are able to prove, from actual data, that your productivity increased and improved.
Reopening the Office? Here’s How to Stymie Transmission of Covid-19. I believe this article is different in that it REALLY breaks down what we should do. A quote: "While social distancing, wearing masks, washing hands, and wiping down surfaces make those workplaces safer, limiting the spread of the virus depends on identifying and disrupting systems of connections. It will require mapping out transmission networks and breaking key links in those networks, a strategy quite similar to the one the intelligence community has long used to break up illegal networks." This isn't a "quick glance" read, but is immensely valuable and practical.
Does Your Company Have a Long-Term Plan for Remote Work? I am having this conversation with nearly every client in one form or another -- please feel free to hit me up for ideas and brainstorming.
The 25 best new productivity apps for 2020. Granted, I'm a total sucker for new productivity apps, but these showed some promise. I'm especially intrigued by the Pomodor timer, prompts writing tool, Reclaim.ai, Notes to Self, FlickType keyboard for the Apple Watch.
What Will Happen to Office Buildings? Are you ready to REALLY think outside the box?? This one intrigued me a lot.

What Am I Doing / Using / Reading / Listening To?

Here's a quick flyover of the many things filling my days... feel free to ask me more about any of it!

Training Presentations. Clients have requested me to help them with several different things:

Using Strengths Finder for Stress Management. Over 50 people attended this voluntarily! I told the HR VP that she sure was "reading the room" correctly in terms of what her teams needed.
Ideas for Remote Team-Building and Collaboration. I have several different ideas for professional development, trust-building and debriefing / problem-solving, along with the "Why's" of doing it in the first place.
How to Meet the New Needs of Clients Struggling with Grief, Loss & Anxiety. Sadly, I've had to do this one several times already, and have culled many resources along the way.
How to Do Ongoing Performance Management and Supervision Remotely. I enjoy working with leaders on this one -- remote work can almost enhance this task. Let me know if I can help.

Books I'm Reading. I am nearly always reading a few books at a time... plus a magazine or two. So...

My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem. I've listened to a couple of interviews of the author (here's one of them) and just had to learn more. It is eye-opening and so incredibly pertinent to the huge issues in our country right now.
The Enneagram in Love and Work: Understanding Your Intimate and Business Relationships by Helen Palmer. If you don't know what the Enneagram is (or don't care), you can skip this. I see it as a tremendously useful tool in life and personal development, especially in partnership with Strengths Finder.
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino. This is a FANTASTIC collection of essays on 21st issues: feminism, Millennials, reality TV, drugs, evangelicalism, social media, and the internet. If the word "essay" makes you queasy, I think Tolentino's memoir-ish writing style will draw you in. So much of what she writes about really got me thinking, especially about social media and how manipulative it is. Check it.

Podcasts. As I've told some friends, if I could find a way to make a living by listening to podcasts... that would be my happy place. Here are my latest finds:

Future Perfect. I landed on this one unexpectedly and I am hooked. They explain themselves best: "Future Perfect explores provocative ideas with the potential to radically improve the world. That’s never felt more urgent than it does today. But the truth is that humankind has faced crises throughout our history, leaving behind rich wisdom for us to draw from." The episode that drew me in was a dialogue between an agnostic and a rabbi on how to make sense of suffering. I really encourage you to check it out.
Julie's Library. I am SURE that a huge part of why I like this one is that Julie Andrews is my most favorite person of my childhood. My first movie memory was Sound of Music and my second was Mary Poppins and there you have it. But this is a lovely little respite from COVID nightmares and is perfect for children. Or big kids like me.
Make Me Smart. I start my day with the Daily from the New York Times and end it with this one. It's about 15 minutes long and captures the news of the day from tech, business and culture. The rapport between the hosts is warm and easy.

Time Travel. Here is what I was writing about at this time last year...

Last but not Least. Henri Nouwen, priest and spiritual writer, wrote,

“That is our vocation: to convert the enemy into a guest and to create the free and fearless space where brotherhood and sisterhood can be formed and fully experienced.”