My daughter was trying to get something done but can't said, "Mama, kids do their best. Kids do their best."


Why can't we all do our best with the shrinking options that we have. Many are now stuck in lock-down situations with recreation being taken away as social distancing is imposed.

I cannot overemphasize how the right attitude and mindset can get us out of the anxiety and debilitating restrictions we are facing. 

We may not be able to control so much of what is happening out there but we can control our responses, our attitudes, and our convictions of hope for the human spirit, compassion, and to become a force for good. We can control and design intentionally what is happening inside of us. 

Staying healthy, exercising, and giving up on negative mental frames can take us in a better place while staying at home and doing what we can to alleviate our individual woes.

The fact that we are keeping healthy and away from illness is a service to society and to the medical institutions and workers who are completely burdened with the epidemic. Being sane and cheerful at home is a service to our loved ones and families who are also struggling on their stresses. Being productive, learning a new skill, chatting with a friend help immensely with mental health. 

We can do our best. Stay safe!

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The COVID-19 crisis however, unprecedented in scope and gravity, is not a new phenomenon.

We have SARS, Ebola, Zaika, and other epidemics throughout the recent years and countries who have underserved and underfunded health structures collapsed under the weight of the health demands of populations who are sick and needed medical care and attention.

While here in Canada and other developed countries, there are aid packages for businesses and workers that are hit by the crisis, poorer countries have nothing to resort to cushion their economies and their people from economic ruin due to collapse of trade and commerce and mobility of people, goods, and ideas. 

We do not appreciate that we have the resources and the will to ensure that our economy and country withstand this crisis. We have to cooperate and lend our support to those that are more vulnerable and can easily succumb to harder situations. Even in our communities, there are pockets of deep poverty and isolation. There are many ways to touch them  and it's not always about money.

This is the time when all these talks about charity and benevolence must be demonstrated. Lest, we become the noise that nobody wants to hear. It is even useless to complain when we know that there are more suffering in other places. 

When you think about it, there are more opportunities that have opened up for us to become more united, accepting, and kind to one another.

Embrace the challenge or move out the way.

How do you manage remote teams and ensure that productivity and quality work are guaranteed?

There many ways to do that:


1. Communicate the outcomes needed to be produced on a weekly basis. Know what each of the staff will be delivering and give them the timeline to accomplish those.

2. Make regular check-ins to see how they are doing. Some would be sick and will be self-isolating and some will not be able to work at all due to childcare issues and other reasons.

3. Get a standby roster of contract staff that you can use in emergency situations. Let me them know that you might need them to complete a certain task, or a project that needs their expertise and skills on a short-term basis.

4. Confine your communication to a few emails per day. Too many communications can make them feel overwhelmed as a single email can have several agenda on it.

5. Create a tier of managers that staff can communicate on a regular basis. Even yourself can fall sick and not be available for days. Have a list of other people to connect with so that information flows smoothly. 

6. Empower them to make decisions at their level. Give them permission to make some mistakes as things are fluid and that today could be different from yesterday and the day before. Scheduling can be done online and let people know what's the best time to for the online meet. 

7. Take time to celebrate remote staffs' achievement by giving them regular feedback about their work. If they are doing well, let them know. If they are struggling, let them know you are available to support them. Remote work is tough and the first few weeks could be slow crawl for some.

I hope these are helpful. Stay healthy!

I don't know who started this in the provinces but travelling outside of the Canadian province which you are based on, can get you to be quarantined for 14 days too not just for international flights.

This policy is part of the 'overabundance of caution' that propels everyone to do the self-isolation without feeling the symptoms from the COVID-19 virus. They said that the symptoms can surface within 4-5 days after travelling and it is prudent to stay at home within those days.

The part that struck me the most was the information being peddled around that children can supposedly 'carriers' of the virus without them getting sick or feeling sick. How can one determine that unless the child has been tested officially? How can one say that the child can be a carrier so social distancing is no longer an option but a must? What is the best scientific evidence behind this assertion? 

Testings are those who are considered vulnerable, have history of international flights to areas where the virus is prevalent or exhibiting symptoms of the disease. For regular folks who are not feeling it, it is just best to do social distancing and refrain from going to crowded places where exposure is high. With this, only through testing can you officially know that you are positive or negative. 

People are dying with regular flu, other communicable diseases, and illness from cancers, hyper-tension, lungs, and liver complications. These diseases are the underlying causes of deaths from COVID-19 where seniors, small children, and people with complicated health issues are the most vulnerable.

We cannot be too blind and ignorant to follow anything that is said on the media or told by our relations. We have to question the premise and see if it fits the overall evidence paradigm presented to us by the public health authorities. 

We cannot allow paranoia to creep into our strategies to curb out the spread of the virus. We should stop hoarding and stop panic buying so that those who are in real need can get their supplies without hassle.  

The ugly head of division, hatred, and exclusion, and anti-Chinese statements are coming out now and we need to put a stop to these fear-based reactions. 

You cannot lead from a fear-based perspective. 

 

I am aghast at those people who refuse to do remote work or online as opposed to showing up in person and being physically present. With the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations have been forced to look at their online/remote work capability and found themselves ill-prepared and inadequate. 

The remote infrastructure has become more simplified and easy to use than in the last 15 years when the technology is starting to catch up with a globalized work environment. Nowadays, there are many providers, platforms, and capacities already built into the system, including task platforms that help teams accomplish projects across time zones and organizational mandates.

The beauty of this set-up is that people needed to be comfortable using the remote technology and know that  it takes practice to be better at it. It's like using the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) for the first time. There is a sense of trepidation and fear of making mistakes along the way. But it is also part of expanding the repertoire of delivery mechanisms that organizations should have to be able to serve their business interests.

In the long run, more people will have the fuller access and comfort in using remote and online technologies to run organizations, deliver services, and strengthen customer relationships. This crisis has led us to understand that not all remote or online would be subpar and of little quality, but could be thoroughly enhanced to the best of our resources so that whether in crisis or non-crisis moments, we are getting ahead in our progress and not going back to earlier generations when showing up and meeting up meant being in one time and place. 

This online/remote work is becoming a norm not a crisis-induced action.

​Are you ready for it? 

As you might have received in your inboxes, restaurants, businesses, organizations, government agencies have sent their own crisis mitigation policy statements on COVID-19. 

In those statements, they have succumbed into the overabundance of caution, to suspend their events or ask their staff to work from home. 

While these measures are meant to "flatten the curve" of the virus spread, we are also bombarded by all sorts of misinformation from social media and even our well-meaning friends and relatives who resort to more panic-driven actions than anything of rational mindset and objectivity.

Caution based out of solid evidence is a good parameter but once it borders on panic, fear-mongering, and delusional thinking of doomsday scenarios, it becomes a vehicle for more social unrest and collective fright.

Let us be mindful that we need to be calm, level-headed, and objective about the virus as much as we can so we don't spread more fear and heighten the level of insecurity that people feel while they are self-isolating and social distancing from other people.


For those of us who are healthy and able to navigate the closing spaces in our community due to the pandemic, we need to show compassion, understanding, and care for those that are actually sick or feeling symptomatic. We do this not by buying more supplies that we can need for 14-days self-isolation or by refusing to let fear control our lives.