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Bingo

By That's life

Well, I must admit, this whole pandemic thing has been a whirl wind ride with feelings fluctuating daily, and it was in one of those moments that I needed to entertain myself.

Inspired by a news article that showed a graph plotting the use of the word ‘unprecedented’ over the last year, with the curve ending in a dramatic exponential growth, I came up with an idea – Bingo.

I created this set of bingo cards which can be used when watching the news, to try and bring an element of fun to what can sometimes be a depressing absorption of all that’s going bad in the world.

What isolation feels like

By That's life

Not sure what’s it’s been like for you,

but I must admit, after a while the whole ‘living in isolation’ gig becomes a bit of a blur. Luckily for us, here is Australia we are slowly going through a process of exiting our abodes and braving the real world.

Now is the time to exploit risk

By Work

We’re a train…

entering a dark tunnel, but there is light in the distance, and if we adapt and respond positively to the uncertainty we face, we can come out the other end a better train…. It will look different…. It will feel different…. And if we want it to be better, we will need to embrace change.

If risk is ‘the effect of uncertainty on objectives’ (ISO 31000), then unarguably now is the greatest moment of uncertainty we have ever faced (as individuals and as a business). Through uncertainty comes the necessity to look at things differently and to do things differently from before.

If we have to work from home and can’t travel to work, how can we continue to deliver timely and quality work to our customers?

Risk management is a means of preserving and creating value – Preserving value by understanding the threats is important, but equally important (if not more so now) is creating value by identifying opportunities for new ways in which to work. Risk management enables us to understand our objectives and paint a future of what could be, to help us identify opportunities.

A good way of starting this is to understand our value proposition by asking active and open questions so we can use our imagination to then ‘see’ things we couldn’t before. We can ask:

  • Which needs or products are taking centre stage?
  • What customer needs exist for which there is no current solution?
  • What are we not doing for our customers?
  • If we were starting over now, what company and offering would we build?
  • Why are today’s loyal customers still doing business with us?

By staying flexible and understanding how we can find opportunities in what’s different now, we can come out of this better, stronger and different.

Inspiration material: We need imagination now more than ever, HRB.org, 10 April 2020

Not everything has changed

By That's life

Of course this wouldn’t be one my my teenagers – one’s a brunette, the other a red head.

And as for the eagle eye readers, pre COVID is series 1 and during COVID is series 10 and counting.

Covid shopping

By That's life

I heard on the news yesterday that supermarket shelves are getting back to usual stock levels …and that means back to normal supply and demand balance for toilet paper – small cheer of ‘hooray.’

Interestingly, Australians seem to have a thing for toilet paper. When other countries in lockdown focused on eating essentials such as pasta and tinned tomatoes, the first thing to run out on the supermarket shelves was toilet paper. According to the Statista market outlook, the (estimated) toilet paper revenue rose by 140% in Italy (#1), followed by Australia at 98% (#2). Considering Italy’s early coronavirus hit versus Australia, it makes you think there’s something more to it for the Aussies.

From now on, we’ll be known as the nation who values sun, surf, bbq, beer and toilet paper.

The discomfort you’re feeling is grief

By Work

“The discomfort you are feeling is grief” – this is the title to a recent Harvard Business Review article in response to the coronavirus – and when I read it, I felt an immediate feeling of … relief.

I guess for me, it was actually putting a word to a set of jumbled feelings that weren’t making sense to me. The article goes on to explain the various stages of grief and gives examples of the things we might be thinking and experiencing in our day to day lives in response to the coronavirus.

It ends with some practical examples of what we can all do to help navigate our sense of well-being, with four actions:

  • Find balance in your thinking
  • Stay in the present
  • Let go of what you cannot control
  • Stock up on compassion.

I thought I’d summarise the article in the attached drawing, as a visual reminder of what I can do every day.

Harvard Business Review has made all its coronavirus coverage free for all readers. You can find the original article here – it’s well worth the read.

Social distancing inventions

By That's life

There are some pretty creative solutions people are resorting to in response to protecting themselves from the coronavirus.  Mixed messaging continues around the need for the public to wear face masks. However, in one area there appears to be alignment – masks are not a substitute for social distancing and staying inside. I think my invention has potential merrit.

Chinese whispers

By That's life

google translate

Google translate is a wonderful tool,

…especially when travelling or simply having a bit of cartoon fun.

I used Google translate to see what would happen if I entered a simple english sentence into Google translate and then take it through the 103 languages on offer.

I started with the cartoon whisper of, “What would happen if we were to put this whisper into Google translate?” and then translated it in alphabetical order, starting with Afrikaans and ending in Zulu. I checked the english translation each time so I could see the jump for each language and took the best ones for cartooning purposes – English, Arabic, Dutch, Lithuanian and Zulu.

If you’re feeling inspired as to what else Google translate can come up with, why not watch YouTuber Google translate sings, singing Africa by Toto. Enjoy!