The Work In Progress Report

Global disruption has created the opportunity for a Great Reset. Gary A. Bolles, Chair for the Future of Work at Singularity University and Co-Founder of eParachute.com, believes we can redesign our business systems to be optimized to help people learn needed and evolving skill sets and develop agency.

For individuals, he explains the new rules of work require constant self-inventory, experimenting to match skills, needs, and interests, and the benefits of identifying a personal Northstar.

How organizations communicate about the COVID-19 crisis can create clarity, build resilience, and catalyze positive change during uncertainty and emotional disruption.

A look at which sectors will be severely impacted and how to create work-from-home jobs for people who have lost their jobs or taken an extended unpaid leave.

The answer: create a robust network of teams that is empowered to operate outside of the current hierarchy and bureaucratic structures of the organization.

WHERE ARE WE GOING? We are finally being allowed to take a foot of the brake and push down on the gas, cautiously. But, in which direction? How fast should we reasonably advance as regions open up at different rates in different ways?

CONSIDERING CONTEXT. Continued uncertainty slows recovery, requires contingencies, likely revisits restrictions. An open mindset is essential to explore and assess the range of business and operational possibilities that are becoming available as conditions evolve.

FUNDAMENTAL FRAMEWORK. What is the appropriate framework with which to assess options as we explore possible scenarios? An inflection point is a moment that facilitates change, while a period of extraordinary disruption provides the chance to reconfigure fundamentals.

PRIMED FOR PROGRESS. Faced with harsh economic disturbance, we are prompted to adopt inclusive strategies that recognize changing dynamics—both business and employment challenges—across our ecosystems.  What are the viable options for all stakeholders among our inter-related businesses? How and how often do we need to morph to advance with updated, sustainable models?

REVIEW, RESET: Click here to listen to my new podcast with Gary A. Bolles, the Chair for the Future of Work at Singularity University, and Co-Founder of eParachute. Gary predicts and urges a GREAT RESET of our working landscape to enable companies and workers to progress and succeed.

What this writer learned after taking UC Berkeley's Empathy and Emotional Intelligence class, created by two doctors who study the science of happiness.

Japan has earmarked hundreds of billions of yen of its coronavirus stimulus relief to go toward helping its manufacturing companies move their production plants out of communist China and back to Japan or to other countries.