Resilience: orchid or buttercup?
How do we bounce back from our collective COVID19 calamity?
How risk adverse are we? It's about resilience, and mother Nature can teach of some lessons here. Its (nature's) biomimicry process and strategies have proven over eons how to be more resilient. After all she's done 10 43 experiments over her lifetime:
In a study on how quickly plants recover from storms, destruction etc., scientists were able to find some that did well, and others that didn't.
The orchid seems to have the best resilience, while the buttercup has none!
"The common spotted orchid does it largely by just bending the main stem," said Prof Scott Armbruster from the University of Portsmouth who led the research: "It's pretty quick, within a day or two, it's reoriented its main stem so that now all the flowers are in the right position," he told BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52204434
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Nature and flowers' hold
some wisdom here:
you should refocus your core values and business competency QUICKLY
The key word here is ‘refocus’. A complete business plan will have a downward scenario and an exit strategy. Look those over. Look over your values and vision and refocus so you can continue to thrive.
It really is the early bird that gets the worm.
One can also apply this to our
daily lives. Since many of us are isolated in our homes, it’s time
to take stock, reassess and make some plans. Consider it an
extension of deep winter. We’re hibernating right now. And as we
come out of hibernation we’ll have a renewed ‘spring in our
step’. Pun intended.
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There’s
a lot of small businesses that are struggling right now to stay
afloat. Some may have even spent the early winter months getting
ready to roll out a new business product, service or strategy. And
then the COVID19 pandemic hits fast and hard and all bets are off for
small business’s plans. Hopefully those businesses had exit
strategies in place that can provide some more options.
my story of resilience in dire times: I’d
like to relay my experience in 2001 with a similar dilemma.
I was running a very successful engineering management consulting firm (Aptek Associates) in the 1990's. We focused on helping large Silicon Valley clients manage their facility operations effectively. In 1999 we were faced with the Y2K dark cloud.
We had a great 15 year
track record and were on the top of our game in 1999 when the Y2K
bubble hit. It affected Silicon Valley more than any other industry
because it was the root cause behind the anguish of a supposed digit
error going from 1999 to 2000. In reality only programs based on
Cobol were really affected, and the end result (nothing happened) was
way worse than the lead up (fretting and dire predictions of
disaster) for midnite Dec 31, 1999. My company could easily have
signed dozens of contracts to help do risk assessments and help
companies re-engineer themselves around Y2K. But we thought it was
all misplaced and our ethics prevented us from taking such ‘easy’
money. There were plenty of other consultants around who relished
taking those contracts.
So
we survived Y2K – barely. All our existing contracts in 1998 were
not renewed or were delayed in 1999. We floundered around in 2000
unsuccessfully trying to scrap together more long term, hi-value
contracts. The only one we were able to scrounge up was a $30k
contract with Northrup Grunman – a defense contractor. And that
violated one of our founding principles of not working with companies
whose main business was killing people… more on that later.
So
in the winter and spring of 2001 we invested heavily into
strategizing a new business line, rebranding ourselves, and rolling
out our ‘new’ company in the fall of 2001. And then the shit hit
the fan: 911 happened and as the instant shock heard around the
world started rolling through the business world – everything dried
up, instantly. Everything was put on hold. Besides airplanes not
flying, office buildings were shut down, the entire economy sank.
Stock portfolios crashed, investments dried up, and no company was
about to hire anyone except a security firm.
My
company was not high up enough to engage in risk assessment – that
was the one business line that prospered. We had a reputation for
doing advanced SD (system dynamics) modeling, but the big boys
(McKinsey, PWC, BoozAllen, etc) snapped up all that work very quickly
– and we could not compete at that level. It takes a LOT of money
to push a hi-level proposal forward along with multiple
presentations, and having a highly qualified team to back it all up.
There was just no way for my company to get to that level given our
low bank balance after the Y2K down cycle.
So
it was a one-two punch. First Y2K reset everything, and then 911
gave a real gut punch to anyone trying to get up and running again.
So
in 2002 I made the decision to call it quits. It was one of the
hardest decisions in my business life. Mind you, if was not a
straightforward, linear decision. There was a lot of uncertainty. I
spent hours talking with colleagues and past clients. We tried in
vain to get another contract. And when the Northrup Grunman contract
came up for renewal, I had already decided to not pursue renewal. I
was a cocky wise-ass back then (success had bred overconfidence that
led to unchecked arrogance). When the client asked how they compared
to our other private Silicon Valley clients (HP, Cisco, Raychem, Sun,
etc) I said: ‘it’s nice to know that $600 toilet seats are alive
and well’. The room burst out in laughter that was quickly
replaced with polite resentment. Our contract was not renewed.
It
had been a great ride. Over 20 years of hi-level management
consulting had opened doors into a world I didn’t know existed. I
remember arriving in Chicago to give a keynote address at McCormick
Convention Center. As the airport limo pulled up to the downtown
Hilton on Wabash, and as I settled into my suite – my whole world
was put into focus: homie makes good. I had come a long ways –
more that I ever dreamed of. As a 17 year old shy teenager I had my
first job at Serra International just a few blocks away in Chicago’s
loop. I was star struck back then witnessing the rich people pulling
up in limos to fancy hotels. And here I was – one of them.
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But
my point in all this is to relay the lessons that I learned from the
one-two punch at the turn of the century, that may be applicable
here.
During
this COVID19 pandemic it’s a great opportunity to revisit and
re-strategize your life’s goals and plans. It’s time to take a
deep breath and look at the big, big picture. Where are you going,
are you on the right path?, is this really what you want to do? What
you really enjoy? Are you content, happy?
There’s
a saying ‘when a ship misses the harbor it’s seldom the harbor’s
fault.’
Now
may be a good time to reassess that harbor that you’ve been
approaching for the last few years. Is it still the right harbor, or
do you want to readjust your course and steer into a different
harbor? Which one? Why?
Vision,
goals, objectives, logistics, implementations. That’s one of the
standard left brained, short versions of strategizing. There’s
also the right brained version of how does your gut feel about it?
Do you enjoy getting up each morning and relish taking on the day and
feel fulfilled at the end of the day? Or are you reluctant in the
early morning and glad at the end of the day that it’s over? Or
maybe you’re doing what you love and enjoy but are putting in 20
hour days (or 6/6: 60 hours 6 days a week). Is your personal life
in balance with your work life?
This
COVID19 period presents a great opportunity to re-reflect on your
life’s direction and course.
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