Month: June 2020

The Covid-19 crisis and its fallout — including recession, layoffs, and uneven economic pain — as well as recent protests over police brutality and demands for racial justice have presented many of us with challenges that we’ve not encountered before. The high-stakes and unfamiliar nature of these situations have left many people feeling fearful of missteps. No one can reduce mistakes to zero, but you can learn to harness your drive to prevent them and channel it into better decision making. Use these tips to become a more effective worrier.

Don’t be afraid or ashamed of your fear.
Our culture glorifies fearlessness. The traditional image of a leader is one who is smart, tough, and unafraid. But fear, like any emotion, has an evolutionary purpose and upside. Your concern about making mistakes is there to remind you that we’re in a challenging situation. A cautious leader has value. This is especially true in times like these. So don’t get caught up in ruminating: “I shouldn’t be so fearful.”

Don’t be ashamed or afraid of your fear of making mistakes and don’t interpret it as evidence that you’re an indecisive leader, or not bold, not visionary. If you have a natural tendency to be prevention-focused, channel it to be bold and visionary! (If you struggle to believe this, identify leaders who have done just that by figuring out how to prevent disasters.)

Use emotional agility skills.
Fear of mistakes can paralyze people. Emotional agility skills are an antidote to this paralysis. This process starts with labeling your thoughts and feelings, such as “I feel anxious I’m not going to be able to control my customers enough to keep my staff safe.” Stating your fears out loud helps diffuse them. It’s like turning the light on in a dark room. Next comes accepting reality. For example, “I understand that people will not always behave in ideal ways.” List off every truth you need to accept. Then comes acting your values. Let’s say one of your highest values is conscientiousness. How might that value apply in this situation? For example, it might involve making sure your employees all have masks that fit them well or feel comfortable airing any grievances they have. Identify your five most important values related to decision-making in a crisis. Then ask yourself how each of those is relevant to the important choices you face.

Repeat this process for each of your fears. It will help you tolerate the fact that we sometimes need to act when the best course of action isn’t clear and avoid the common anxiety trap whereby people try to reduce uncertainty to zero.

Focus on your processes.
Worrying can help you make better decisions if you do it effectively. Most people don’t. When you worry, it should be solutions-focused, not just perseverating on the presence of a threat. Direct your worry towards behaviors that will realistically reduce the chances of failure.

We can control systems, not outcomes. What are your systems and processes for avoiding making mistakes? Direct your worries into answering questions like these: Is the data you’re relying on reliable? What are the limitations of it? How do your systems help prevent groupthink? What procedures do you have in place to help you see your blind spots? How do you ensure that you hear valuable perspectives from underrepresented stakeholders? What are your processes for being alerted to a problem quickly and rectifying it if a decision has unexpected consequences?

Broaden your thinking.
When we’re scared of making a mistake, our thinking can narrow around that particular scenario. Imagine you’re out walking at night. You’re worried about tripping, so you keep looking down at your feet. Next thing you know you’ve walked into a lamp post. Or, imagine the person who is scared of flying. They drive everywhere, even though driving is objectively more dangerous. When you open the aperture, it can help you see your greatest fears in the broader context of all the other threats out there. This can help you get a better perspective on what you fear the most.

It might seem illogical that you could reduce your fear of making a mistake by thinking about other negative outcomes. But this strategy can help kick you into problem-solving mode and lessen the mental grip a particular fear has on you. A leader might be so highly focused on minimizing or optimizing for one particular thing, they don’t realize that other people care most about something else. Find out what other people’s priorities are.

Recognize the value of leisure.
Fear grabs us. It makes it difficult to direct our attention away. This is how it is designed to work, so that we don’t ignore threats. Some people react to fear with extreme hypervigilance. They want to be on guard, at their command post, at all times. This might manifest as behavior like staying up all night to work.

That type of adrenalin-fueled behavior can have short-term value, but it can also be myopic. A different approach can be more useful for bigger picture thinking. We need leisure (and sleep!) to step back, integrate the threads of our thinking, see blindspots, and think creatively. Get some silent time. Although much maligned, a game of golf might be exactly what you need to think about tough problems holistically.

Detach from judgment-clouding noise.
As mentioned, when people are fearful they can go into always-on monitoring mode. You may have the urge to constantly look at what everyone else is doing, to always be on social media, or check data too frequently. This can result in information overload. Your mind can become so overwhelmed that you start to feel cloudy or shut down. Recognize if you’re doing this and limit over-monitoring or overchecking. Avoid panicked, frenzied behavior.

On its own, being afraid of making mistakes doesn’t make you more or less likely to make good decisions. If you worry excessively in a way that focuses only on how bad the experience of stress and uncertainty feels, you might make do or say the wrong things. However, if you understand how anxiety works at a cognitive level, you can use it to motivate careful but bold and well-reasoned choices.

Source : https://hbr.org/2020/06/how-to-overcome-your-fear-of-making-mistakes?registration=success

The traditional 9-5 work system is dying fast. Come 2021, most professionals will insist on working remotely, and companies won’t have any other option but to adapt. Many businesses have already started introducing this new system to their employees, as it has proved to be more beneficial. In this article, we discuss whether there’s still hope for the 9 to 5 jobs and how remote work will dominate and be more preferred in 2021. So, read on to find out.

The Major Factor Affecting Remote Work
Most employees around the globe have realized that working from 9 to 5 is old school, hence moving on to companies that allow remote work. Technology has been the biggest factor in helping people see that they can do the same professional jobs online and still make a living.

There are many websites where companies advertise work opportunities, and employees submit their resumes. So, getting contracts from such sites and using advanced apps like Google Hangouts and Microsoft’s Office 365 make it easier to work remotely and still hit all the targets.

Although technology is the most vital factor affecting online work, professionals also have a huge say in how things work. Most professionals prefer following their unique schedule hence determining when to deliver the assigned projects. Therefore, companies have to be flexible to accommodate such changes.
What Do You Think About Companies Eliminating Remote Work?
Yahoo, IBM, Bank of America, and Aetna are all huge and popular companies. So, they have many employees who’ve been working remotely for a while now. However, these companies recently eliminated the work from home policy hence forcing all employees to be reporting to work daily.

Forcing employees into the 9 to 5 system is not the best way to go. Why? Most professionals who are already used to working online won’t be willing to change their lifestyle. Therefore, forcing these employees to work at specific hours might make them look for jobs elsewhere. Consequently, these companies lose great talents.

Although some employees might accept to work from 9 to 5, their productivity will reduce greatly. People who are used to setting their schedules might not produce the same results when working in the office since they feel more pressured and under different environments.
When Will Companies Completely Allow Remote Working?
There is no exact time that we can say all companies will have shifted to working remotely. However, the top professionals working remotely right now will definitely be the CEOs of most organizations around the world in the future. Such people already know the benefits of working remotely both for employees and the company. Therefore, there are huge hopes that such people will introduce remote working in most companies globally in less than 5 years.
Companies That Might Get Disrupted if They Don’t Shift to Online Work
Staffing firms, F500 companies, and agencies might be the most affected if they do not allow remote working soon. Active organizations in online marketplaces are more likely to hire top professionals and at a lower cost since they deal with people directly. This explains why you see most hiring managers insisting on working with freelancers and not staffing firms. Therefore, if staffing firms don’t evolve soon, they’ll experience a huge decline in their number of clients in the future.
Benefits of Working Remotely to Both Businesses and Employees
1. A Happier Workforce
Allowing your employees to work from home will make them happy since they operate under flexible schedules. That way, they’ll be dedicated to their projects hence delivering better results. A happy workforce is also vital for any company as it guarantees that employees will always treat clients professionally. Doing this leads to long term clients, thus more income overall.
2. More Profit
When all employees are working from the office, you have to pay more rent since you need a bigger space and also meet other daily expenses. So, allowing people to work from home ensures more profit because you mostly spend on salaries only.
3. Less Time Wastage
Working remotely allows employees to reduce the struggles of commuting to work every day. So, employees don’t have to worry about daily traffic, which is usually a primary cause of absenteeism and reporting late for work. That way, even if they are still following a specific schedule, they can always start their projects on time hence ensuring better results.
4. Improved Productivity
Business owners should be ready to trust their employees to complete their assigned tasks at home as that can help boost productivity. Working online allows employees to choose the most suitable environment. That way, they can work from a quiet and less destructive place compared to the office, thus enabling them to do their projects more effectively.

Allowing employees even to choose their working hours also plays a huge part in increasing productivity. When employees feel free, they create a schedule that will enable them to relax and do their job when they are feeling fresh. That way, they can work even faster and deliver better results compared to working in the office where they must follow a specific routine. Using time tracking apps can help to make things much better.
5. Reduced Turnover Rate
A company’s turnover rate might be hugely determined by the amount of flexibility it allows workers. Most professionals today, especially those in sectors like writing, designing, and transcribing, prefer working remotely. Therefore, such employees can easily quit their 9 to 5 jobs if they are offered a remote working opportunity elsewhere. So, allowing employees to work online can help to reduce the turnover rate since people feel they have all the flexibility and freedom they need to work more efficiently.

The 9 to 5 work system is not yet dead, but the possibility is still there in 2021 if companies don’t make a quick shift. Working online has become the new normal, especially since even highly skilled professionals prefer it most. Therefore, offering that flexibility will allow businesses to benefit more from such professionals. So, companies need to wake up and start allowing employees to work remotely before 2021 if they don’t want to be left behind.

Source : https://www.hr.com/en/magazines/all_articles/is-the-9-to-5-job-already-dead-the-rise-of-remote-_kbtdky3j.html

When searching for talent, sometimes the best person for the job is a machine. Robots make sense for repetitive and dangerous tasks, but they also work well as a check against bias.

Artificial intelligence already outperforms judges in choices about setting bail because humans on the bench tend to overthink the defendants’ demeanor, a poor predictor of flight risk. Likewise, hiring algorithms do better than recruiters at screening resumes because humans in HR show too much favoritism for traditional applicants.

Unfortunately, smart technology also has blind spots. Computers don’t care about things like race or gender, but they rely on inputs that reflect past correlations based on human actions. Some biases get baked into the data.

People who Google black-sounding names, for example, see more ads for criminal background checks. And keywords like “healthy complexion” mostly produce images of light-skinned women. “You won’t see a man for pages,” says Deb Raji, a tech fellow at the AI Now Institute at New York University.

USCIS Estimates H-1B Visa Numbers But Ignores Green Card Problem
Want To See Your Therapist In-Person Mid-Pandemic? Think Again
Amazon and IBM initially dismissed her 2018 paper, co-authored with Joy Buolamwini at MIT, on bias in facial recognition software. But both companies announced a pause on police use of their products in the aftermath of George Floyd’s slaying in Minneapolis.

Nationwide protests since then have focused on racial prejudice, but any type of false assumption can lead to costly errors—even in contexts detached from thorny social issues. The good news for leaders who must operate in a world of bad information is that data-based decision makers can overcome bias through conscious commitment and action.

 

Data Have Baked-in Bias

The first thing to understand is that algorithms make predictions and facilitate decisions based on existing patterns, which are shaped by human behavior. Crime statistics, college enrollment figures, market trends and other datasets do not emerge from nature in a neutral form. They reflect thousands or millions of individual decisions, aggregated to show trends.

Facts in isolation are not the problem. Biases emerge—usually by accident—when people combine information in a particular order and draw conclusions. Some details get omitted, while others get emphasized. Some questions never get asked at all. People tend to see what they look for.

Smart decision makers do not throw out the data just because of the potential for bias. But they interact with the information carefully, recognizing that generalities do not apply in every case. Above all, they continue striving to eliminate bias. The process is not a once-and-done proposition.

Along the way, people who make decisions based on the best available data remain kind to themselves and others. Armed with a commitment to objectivity, they pivot when conclusions prove false. But they don’t beat themselves up or get consumed with blame or guilt. Such responses are not productive.

People May Have Agendas

Although bias often happens unintentionally, my coauthors and I explore a different scenario in our new research. People in many situations withhold or distort data intentionally to rig outcomes in their favor.

Aside from social issues, this happens in many business circumstances, such as when policyholders file insurance claims or when job applicants submit resumes. Even if they don’t outright lie, people with agendas emphasize positive details about themselves while strategically hiding weaknesses.

Web content writers do something similar with search engine optimization. They try to trick Google algorithms to drive traffic to their sites. Applicants also have incentives to game the system at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the subject of our study.

Whether or not these applicants deserve a patent, their goal is to win one anyway by showing the novelty and “non-obvious” nature of their inventions. Many applicants insert irrelevant information, omit citations or assign new meanings to existing words to disguise weak claims.

The distractions often work due to something called “salience bias.” This is the human tendency to focus on more prominent information while overlooking or downplaying less prominent information.

Machines Can Help, But They Need Support

Biases baked into the data create problems. So do assumptions based on salience bias, especially when people with agendas strategically manipulate the data. Both of these challenges make the job harder for the patent examiners in our study, who must sift through ever-expanding amounts of “prior art.”

Fortunately, smart machines can help. Their processing power, combined with their immunity to boredom and fatigue, allows them to identify the most relevant matches at breakneck speed with staggering precision. This can backfire, however, when inputs are strategically entered to direct machines in the wrong direction.

To overcome biased predictions, artificial intelligence must learn to treat certain information as adversarial. In effect these programs must overcome the first law of computer science: “Garbage in, garbage out.”

They must take unreliable inputs and turn them into reliable outputs. Usually this requires human assistance.

Allies Complement Each Other

The best results come when people and machines work together as allies. Teams that complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses gain a collaborative advantage, a key differentiator when tackling complex problems.

Humans who work best with machines to detect and eliminate bias tend to have relevant domain expertise, which refers to the skills and knowledge accumulated through prior learning within a specific field.

Patent examiners looking at mechanical inventions, for example, need a theoretical background in engineering as a baseline. But they also need real-world experience sifting through prior art, seeing the tricks that applicants employ and learning to counteract them. Our study shows that machine learning tools sometimes make worse predictions than older technology when paired with improperly trained humans who take inputs at face value.

People protesting in the streets do not care about bias at the patent office. Many business operations lack social urgency. But the same principles apply when confronting big issues like racism.

Algorithms can move fast, but they need people with the right skills to make sure they move in the right direction. Bias will not disappear, but decision makers who stay vigilant can take solace in at least one objective truth: Machines can learn, and so can humans.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rajshreeagarwal/2020/06/23/overcoming-bias-in-a-world-of-bad-information/#5a23718c5496

According to the Mayo clinic, COVID-19 has created increased stress levels in how you live your life, different daily routines, financial pressure, and social isolation. Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, The American Institute of Stress reported in 2017 that 77% of the U.S. population reported regularly experiencing physical symptoms caused by stress. In order to minimize stress and anxiety, mindfulness is being taught and practiced in organizations worldwide to increase productivity and overall effectiveness. Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Centre for Mindfulness in Medicine, defines mindfulness as “paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.” Organizational Development specialists conclude from the research with leaders worldwide that mindfulness can improve mental awareness and focus, increase attention span, assist in keeping organized, managing time and setting priorities, improve mood and emotional stability, and toughen the immune system. Since there are many benefits to practicing mindfulness, how could the practice of mindful coaching benefit both the leader and the client?

Studies show that mindful leaders bring greater understanding for change, are resilient, and bring wisdom into their work. When leaders are not on “autopilot,” they can reduce stress, unlock creativity, and boost performance. Leaders bringing mindfulness into their coaching are fully present, engage with their clients at an intimate level, and find the interactions “energy-boosting.” The more encouragement that leaders can offer when coaching, to foster curiosity in the client, the greater the ability of teams and organizations to create possibilities and vision for the future.

With COVID-19, businesses are plagued with decisions on how to compete and address ways to stay in business or adapt to a new way of doing business. How can leaders seize opportunities? How can they know that they are making the right decisions? How can leaders choose when to lead and when to follow industry trends? Now is the time to focus on building human centric organizations that deliberately develop their workers. Through coaching, leaders can cultivate the capabilities of their teams and build a culture that realizes both human and organizational potential.

In order to be prepared for work that will require a new set of skills, Passmore and Marianetti (2007) in the article The Role of Mindfulness in Coaching, concluded that leaders trained in mindfulness are better prepared to coach. Through the practice of mindful coaching, clients can be taught mindfulness. Thus, mindful coaching can build a resilient workforce and organization prepared to deal with change in this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment.

With his decades of experience in Silicon Valley, Eric Schmidt is regularly tapped for his views on the future of technology and how the latest disruptive innovations in areas such as artificial intelligence could shape the world. Yet he’s quick to point out that it’s the people behind the technology who make the difference, a sentiment he admits is oft repeated yet still somehow underestimated. Developing young talent into the inventors and leaders of tomorrow is a major focus of Schmidt’s philanthropic efforts—and Rise, a new joint initiative between Schmidt Futures and the Rhodes Trust, embodies that mission.

At the recent McKinsey BLINK Conference in the United Kingdom, Schmidt spoke about the dizzying speed of disruption, as well as how to nurture and position people to harness technological dynamism for the greater good of organizations and society. An edited version of his remarks follows.

Talent: Where incredible meets profound
We’re at the beginning of another golden age. When I think about the next big tech innovations, I like to distinguish between those that are incredible and those that are profound. Self-driving cars could be incredible. They can potentially save hundreds of thousands of lives. But new technologies that allow a paradigm shift in the way we solve problems would be profound. Many of today’s toughest problems exist because we are at the limit of what we can understand.

The former chairman of Alphabet describes how a new golden age of technology is upon us.
In synthetic biology, for example, we’re only just beginning to understand how to make the changes that are necessary to stop and start biological processes that are beneficial to humans, animals, and plants. That field is about to explode.

When it comes to climate change, batteries look like they might be part of the answer, in combination with solar and wind. Developing longer-lasting organic batteries, however, requires a better understanding of their material properties.

Wouldn’t you like to have a drug that would cure whatever disease you have? The easiest way to achieve that is with drugs that figure out how to build the correct protein in your body to stop a virus from replicating.

All this progress is underway, thanks largely to techniques in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and generative design. Collectively, these technologies will allow the discovery of new solutions to important problems at a rate we’ve never seen before.

But when I think about how we’re going to solve the problems ahead of us, the answer is people. We need to acknowledge how powerful people are, particularly those who are willing to take risks and drive societal change. Exceptional people are the ones who change society. They’re just born different and are insanely capable—and they’re rare. Yet they don’t show up just in the elite organizations or the cities of the world. People confuse elite with exceptional; the elite are self-proclaimed, while the exceptional are identified. Thanks to the internet and the fact that about half the people in the world have a smartphone, we can reach these people in a way we couldn’t before.

Competition: Will people win over data?
Disruption is not going to slow down. If you entered a market last week, you have disproportionally greater economic gains than if you entered this week. One of the rules in my world is that it’s hard to catch up, and even harder to get ahead, once you fall behind. Time and again today, we see industries that were relatively static that are now drastically changed by digitization and the reimagining of their products. Winning companies are building software platforms, they’re interacting with customers online. There’s a proliferation of innovation and new design techniques, which some industries have been slow to take advantage of, that either a traditional company or new entrant can utilize to seize the moment and reimagine products or entire industries. You see finance being reimagined, even fashion. In the next ten years, we will likely see this happen to most everything companies do.

Diversity of talent is key to innovation, but there’s more to be done, stresses Eric Schmidt, former chairman of Alphabet.
But, again, people are the answer. If you care about winning, you want to make sure you provide them with the right coaching and structure and ensure plenty of diversity. Throughout my entire career, I’ve always had the opportunity to work with people exceptionally smarter than I and to help them be successful. We are producing a new generation that’s going to be smarter than previous ones, because its members are growing up in a more sophisticated, digitally native, and intense world. Part of a leader’s job is to be a magnet for such people and to get them to be the best that they can be. Four in ten people in the world are under 25 years old. This next generation is going to change the demographics of the workplace in a profound way. They have enormous energy but lack business experience. Business leaders should embrace being educators and mentors for these people as part of their everyday role. It’s both good for business and personally satisfying. When I look back, people development is probably one of the things I’m most proud of.

There are also studies about innovation that indicate that diversity is critical for driving innovation. With a blend of different points of view, you’re much more likely to get the kind of innovation that pushes things forward. So not only is it morally good to support diversity but it’s also good for your business. The supply of diversity is getting better, even though the pace of change has been frustratingly slower than any of us thought it would be. The proportion of women in computer-science programs historically has been in the area of 18 percent but is set to increase. There are similar gains expected among underrepresented minorities, although at a much lower level.

New technologies that allow a paradigm shift in the way we solve problems would be profound. Many of today’s toughest problems exist because we are at the limit of what we can understand.

With the right people, both large and smaller businesses can continue to thrive. There’s an argument I hear all the time: that, in the future, only large companies will exist, because they have access to the most data, and he or she who has all the data has control. While it’s true that centralization in certain situations has provided economic power, it’s much more likely that there are new sources of power. Consider, for example, the power of an online minority to spread misinformation, to make something seem more important.

Further to this point, in artificial intelligence and machine learning, there’s a great deal of research on how to build algorithms using much less data than is currently required. This notion that he or she who has the most data wins is ultimately going to be a temporal phenomenon. I think what we’ll discover is that he or she who has the smartest engineers developing the smartest algorithms is the one who will win.

Source : https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/in-disruptive-times-the-power-comes-from-people-an-interview-with-eric-schmidt

Before he became a guru on company culture, Eric Farber’s life was very different. As a lawyer and advisor to athletes and entertainers, Farber represented high-profile clients including the Tupac Shakur estate for the better part of two decades, traveling some 200 days a year. Farber made the decision to leave this world behind after rupturing a disc in his back while in Buffalo in the dead of winter. “I was in a rehab facility after surgery and my cell phone didn’t work well. I was there for two weeks and a client fired me because they couldn’t reach me on my cell. Not exactly a great culture I had built for myself.”

Headshot: Eric Farber, Founder and CEO, The Lawyers for Injured Workers (Pacific Workers’), and author, The Case for Culture
Eric Farber, Founder and CEO, The Lawyers for Injured Workers (Pacific Workers’), and author, The … [+] PACIFIC WORKERS’
Image of book: The Case for Culture: How to stop being a slave to your law firm, grow your practice, and actually be happy, by Eric Farber
The Case for Culture: How to stop being a slave to your law firm, grow your practice, and actually … [+] LIONCREST PUBLISHING
Today, from its offices in Oakland (and, temporarily, from home), Farber is a lot more relaxed and centered as he helms one of the most thriving workers compensation practices in California, a practice he’s built up over the last six years. He runs his firm (Pacific Workers’, The Lawyers for Injured Workers) and his own life far differently from how he managed his previous life–a difference he credits to the building and nurturing of a human-centered company culture.

 

Farber has captured this transformation in his new book, The Case for Culture: How To Stop Being a Slave to Your Law Firm, Grow Your Practice, and Actually be Happy, published earlier this year by Lioncrest Publishing. (Despite the inauspicious timing, which made a live book tour impossible, the book reached #1 on Amazon in its category.) I caught up with Farber to get the scoop.

Micah Solomon, Forbes Senior Contributor and customer experience consultant: Lawyers aren’t generally known for being culturally sensitive. Is this a bad rap they’re getting?

 

Solomon: In fact, personal change is an important theme in The Case for Culture.

Farber: Absolutely, with myself as an exemplar of the need. For many years I felt like I was a good boss when I was actually far from it. When I started discovering what it took to be a great boss, I had to completely shift my thinking–which is a very difficult thing to pull off. There is, inevitably, much resistance to your old patterns and your old way of thinking, but you need to push through.

Solomon: You already had a busy life without adding “author” to your duties. What prompted you to carve out the time to create The Case for Culture?

Farber: Once we transformed our business culture at Pacific Workers’, I was stunned at how many people I ran into from other firms wanted to hear more about it. Happily, at the time, things at the company were taking shape to the extent that I could step away for a bit, so I used the time to write the book.

Solomon: I like the distinction your book makes between stakeholders and shareholders.

Farber: More than anything, this is the distinction that built our company. In just under six years, we have gone from four people to close to 50, serving thousands of clients over that time. We could only have gotten there through the focus on customer service and employee wellbeing that our stakeholders provide.

Today, many CEOs focus solely on quarterly earnings to (in the case of a public company) bolster share prices. But companies need to shift from short-term thinking about such targets to the value a company can provide to the customer and the wellbeing they provide to the employees. This creates a long-term sustainable model.

Solomon: And you’re opposed to the idea that employees should leave their personal lives at the office door.

Farber: If you ask for 100% effort from people, this also means that you must accept them as multi-dimensional humans and understand that reality, through whatever they are going through. We’re not hiring robots; we’re hiring people. People have emotions, as well as events in their lives, some good and some bad. I’m not saying a company needs to put up with “reality show drama” from employees, but I am saying that life will sometimes be challenging and a company needs to be understanding of this. Consider how most companies have a 3-day bereavement leave policy–sometimes paid, sometimes unpaid. This is patently inadequate in most circumstances, as you can imagine. We [at Pacific Workers’] generally say, “how much time do you need?”

Solomon: Hiring for culture is also an important theme in your book.

Farber: A company’s mission, principles, and values are the core of the organization. To keep them intact, you have to bring in people who believe in all of those things. Our mission at Pacific Workers’ is to fight for justice for injured people. This often requires drawn-out wrangling with defense attorneys and insurance adjusters. We need employees who believe in the cause and are empathetic and care about people; otherwise, the fight will burn them out.

Solomon: I love the idea of your Failure Log.

Farber: A key role of management is to create a safe environment where people don’t feel they will lose their job if they make a mistake–or get someone else “in trouble” if they call out a co-worker’s mistake. In this spirit, the Failure Log is a log everyone keeps at their desk and when they see a mistake they write it down, so it can be discussed and addressed, systematically and without blame.

Solomon: Discipline is an important theme in your book.

Farber: Too many people think of culture as something soft and fuzzy, but that could not be further from what it is. Culture is a way to create an environment of people focused on a mission, with shared values, doing things the same way, with a human side. It is the discipline of habits, process, and thought.

Solomon: To what extent do you consider your ideas on culture applicable to all types of business? To what extent are they specific to law firms?

Farber: Any company in any industry can benefit from a better focus on culture. I believe in “writing what you know,” so I focused my book on my niche knowledge, but I offer it as inspiration and a playbook for anyone in any industry who wants to consider following a similar path. I promise them: It will make all the difference.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2020/06/15/bestselling-company-culture-guru-how-to-transform-your-own-company-culture-starting-today/?ss=small-business-strategy#37f6dabb2a88

As we continue to face unprecedented challenges in our lives and at work due to the impact of Covid-19, we are all looking for ways to reinvent how we get the work done. It is becoming clear that we will be increasingly reliant on the tools and technology that keep businesses connected to its customers and stakeholders. Now more than ever, communication is vital.

While we find new ways to stay connected, companies are finding ways to speed innovation and rethink business-as-usual. Over the past couple of months, many companies have pivoted to figure out how to keep essential operations moving forward, such as global workforce training, through the use of technologies like augmented reality (AR). One company doing this well is Aggreko.

With more than 200 locations of its own worldwide, Aggreko brings power, energy storage and heating and cooling to sites around the world. The company’s Head of Talent and Learning Technology, Walter Davis, is constantly looking for new ways to build expertise across the company’s workforce deploying Aggreko products – wherever and whenever their customers need them. Given the current limitations to travel, the need for delivering digital training knowledge has gone from a “nice to have” to ‘mission critical’ from an operational standpoint. He has been a champion at the company for the use of AR to train employees on its 1600 CFM diesel compressor – a massive piece of equipment that weighs 12 tons and is 20 feet long.

Aggreko built an AR training program to create a virtual, full-sized model of the compressor. “They can do a full walk-around,” Walter said, noting the experience is an “immersive training on a life-sized, full-scale model of our product.” Employees can get familiar with controls, key features, and components.

The AR experience also shows how to turn on or decommission the equipment, as well as how to conduct essential maintenance procedures like changing out fuel and oil filters. To deliver the AR experience, they are using devices their workforce already carries – like smart phones and tablets – so no additional hardware investment is needed.

This means training is now available wherever their workers are. As an added bonus, physical equipment does not have to be taken away from a job site, which is a huge cost savings for Aggreko.

Here are three takeaways Walter said he learned from this initial AR deployment that might resonate with other businesses considering using AR as a reliable and scalable way to train and share expert knowledge amongst their workforce:

AR reinvents and optimizes an essential process. To train its workers on the 1600 compressor, Aggreko used to fly them to training centers all over the globe to get face-to-face and hands-on training with the equipment. This model is costly and inefficient. AR can bring distance learning to the workforce, not the other way around.
AR helps unlock tangible ROI. To train in-person, Aggreko has to ship its massive compressors to training centers. In addition to considerable shipping costs, they cannot use that equipment out on a customer site. Walter estimates that they would be saving $500K if AR was used in place of physical products for all current technical programs.
Companies can help speed innovation across their business. Walter notes that while the plan was always to scale from the 1600 compressor experience to create training experiences for other pieces of Aggreko equipment, the challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic have definitely accelerated this process. As the company has currently banned all non business-critical in person training and business travel, they are quickly building processes and creating content to distribute worldwide so that employees can continue to receive the training and knowledge they need to deliver an optimal experience to their customers.
Uncertain times like these spur innovation in using new technologies and how we do our work to keep things moving forward. Just as Aggreko is transforming its workforce training, we undoubtedly will see other businesses figuring out new ways to leverage technology to help navigate these volatile times.

Source: https://www.hr.com/en/magazines/training_development_excellence_essentials/june_2020_training_development/reinventing-global-workforce-training-with-augment_kb1zdzlk.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=essentials-traininganddevelopment&utm_content=reinventingglobalworkforcetrainingwithaugmentedreality-email&uid=4342678879

As we look towards a gradual opening of the lockdown, it appears almost certain that the multi-week lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19 has come at an economic cost. In the wake of such an economic crisis, a cost-cutting reflex is a natural response of heads of businesses as they are required to make responsible decisions to keep their companies afloat. And as has been historically seen, whenever businesses face turbulent times, layoffs and salary reductions or a combination of both are recourses that employers and businesses seek to explore.

Most companies have had negligible revenues since the commencement of the lockdown and the companies expect that even after the lifting of the lockdown by the authorities, businesses will open only in a staggered manner. Further, companies are now facing different problems including the government restrictions due to which they can only operate with a limited capacity, supply chain issues, excess inventory, unavailability of labour due to health concerns or absence of public transport. Therefore, while industries are technically “operating”, the path towards becoming fully functional and operational seems to be a long and arduous one.

Depending on the extent of financial distress, some companies are considering laying off some of their existing workforce. But the question remains, can financial distress be a ground for initiating layoffs in the wake of a pandemic?

It is commonly believed that such situations would trigger a “no work – no pay” situation. However, judicial precedents on the principle clarify that the same would apply only where the employee is unwilling to work, and not where the employee is willing to work but the employer is unable to avail his services or provide him work.

Having said that, the above-mentioned aspects are to be assessed in light of the extant lockdown in the country, against the backdrop of which specific government notifications have been issued by both the Central and state governments requiring commercial and industrial establishment not to deduct wages of employees despite the absence of employees from the workplace. It would, however, be interesting to note that the Central government, too, has taken a step back in enforcing this mandate. In its latest lockdown extension order dated 17 May 2020, the Central government has expressly provided that the order dated 29 March 2020 of the National Executive Committee (which directed such payment) shall cease to have effect from 18 May 2020. State governments may follow suit.

Until now the industry was grappling with different state notifications, but now starting this week the lockdown is being lifted gradually and some industries may have the capacity to function with limited workforce. Therefore, companies are now going out of the purview of these government orders and the companies and their employees would be subject to the terms of their employment contract / applicable labour laws such as the applicable Shops and Establishments Act, the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 and the applicable industrial standing orders and the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (ID Act). In such a circumstance, companies may take a decision as they would under normal circumstances in case of being faced with a financial crisis.

Situations like the one we are presently witnessing bring in the concept of ‘lay-off’ which, depending inter alia on the nature of the establishment (non-seasonal factory / mine / plantation employing a specified number of non-managerial employees or commercial establishment), would determine the rate of lay-off compensation payable and the process of lay-off depending upon the applicability of the provisions of the ID Act. For example, generally a manufacturing unit having more than 100 workmen may be required to pay its workmen layoff compensation at the rate of 50% of the total of the basic wages and dearness allowance for the layoff period, which may not exceed 45 days in a period of 12 months. However, prior to effectuating such ‘lay off’ provisions, an employer is required to examine the terms of the standing orders (if any) along with the terms of employment contract. While a statutory layoff may not be legally permissible on account of financial stringency, a layoff on account of a natural calamity is permitted. The present circumstance of the widespread COVID-19 outbreak, it may be argued, would fall under the ambit of “natural calamity or for any other connected reason” as stipulated under the ID Act. In this regard, reference may be made to an office memorandum issued by the Deputy Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, Procurement Policy Division to the Secretaries of all Central Government Ministries/ Departments wherein it was inter alia clarified that the current situation due the widespread COVID-19 should be considered as a case of natural calamity. While the office memorandum may be indicative of the official thinking, however, ultimately what view the judiciary will take will depend on the facts and circumstances prevalent at the relevant time.

Any proposed action effectuated by the employer on account of financial distress should contemplate that an employer retrenches any workman for justifiable reasons, it should ensure that all statutory (retrenchment compensation) and contractual dues are paid to such workman to avoid any adverse litigation claim. Employers should err on the side of caution at this juncture and not resort to retrenchment to reduce fixed payroll cost, given that governments have been advising against termination of employment during such unprecedented times.

Having said the above, while cost cutting measures appear to be the need of the hour, governments and economic experts have urged companies to adopt a humane approach in rationalising their expenses before announcing across-the-board pay cuts or layoffs. Even though legally the option of layoffs and salary reductions may be available, challenges by labour unions and actions by labour authorities may ensue.

Source : https://www.peoplematters.in/article/wellness/increasing-importance-of-workplace-immunization-26143

Number crunchers are coming up with an increasingly downbeat outlook for the global economy. In May, the IMF offered a contraction of 3% for the global economy this year. But since then, the outlook has worsened. The World Bank’s latest forecast calls for a contraction of 5.2%, which was outdone by the OECD’s projection of a heart-stopping contraction of 7.5%. The expected V-shaped recovery is also being gradually modified to look more like a U-shaped one.

Five members of the Forbes Asia Panel of Economic Commentators shared their insights from a broad range of interconnected perspectives on how the world may have been changed by Covid-19. The perspectives covered include undimmed prospects for emerging markets, Asia’s successful strategic responses, the emergence of stronger China-centric supply chains, government interventions in Japan, and Hong Kong’s abiding strategic importance. Together, they form a surprisingly positive take on the post-Covid-19 future.

Suman Bery: Is the Party Over for Large Emerging Markets in the Post-Covid-19 World?
Suman Bery
Suman Bery
China’s explosive growth in the first decade of this century stimulated expectations that its trajectory could be duplicated by other large emerging markets. Goldman Sachs famously coined the acronym BRICs in 2001, which argued that the world’s economic future would be determined by four large middle-income countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China (joined later by South Africa). These expectations were largely met until the crisis of 2008. In the second half of the decade that followed growth in China, India, Russia and the major Latin countries all stumbled even as the advanced economies, notably the U.S., recovered some of their verve. The Covid-19 shock has made their outlook even murkier. The rough-and-ready guidance provided by the Coronavirus tracker of the Financial Times newspaper suggests that Brazil, India and South Africa are yet to flatten the curve of new cases. While it is too early to comment on the economic consequences of these medical trends, it is difficult to believe that these economies can fully restore domestic supply chains until there is a widespread sense that the epidemic is under control, even if lockdowns are eased (as in India and South Africa) or avoided (as in Brazil).

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These domestic difficulties are compounded by a less supportive external environment. The crisis of 2008 originated in the financial markets of the Atlantic economies, who were therefore prepared to be generous to their poorer companions in the G20. Much has happened in the intervening decade, particularly in G7 attitudes toward China and Russia, which are far less genial. In the current much wider crisis, the G20 countries appear to be more tight-fisted toward the large emerging markets. The uncertainty on international liquidity, coupled with significant capital outflows and reduced remittances all will tilt the balance in these countries toward adjustment rather than financing. This time round, perhaps with the exception of China, the advanced economies may lead the recovery.

Many of the big economic, diplomatic and security bets of the last two decades have been driven by the conviction that there was an unstoppable shift in the world’s economic center away from its traditional home in the North Atlantic toward what is now called the Indo-Pacific. These judgements in their turn were based on expectations of an expanding labor force in the South operating at rising levels of productivity, based on better education and improved access to modern technology and management through deeper global integration. Led by the U.S., this global economic model was under attack well before the pandemic. As Dani Rodrik predicted a decade ago, similar tensions also arise in the poorer democracies in trying to reconcile democratic sovereignty with the impersonal demands of global integration. The demand by the Trump Administration of symmetric market access further intensifies these political tensions. This was all before the highly regressive impact of Covid-19 was added to the brew, in both rich and poor countries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s May 12 speech in which he articulated a vision of a self-reliant India can be seen as a political response to these stresses.

The painful economic contractions and job losses of immense scale have understandably created great pessimism about the post-Covid-19 world. But Asia has been here before. During the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis (for those who are old enough to remember), it seemed at the time as if the world was crashing down on Asia. But even the worst affected Asian economies returned to stability and solid economic growth within a few years. This is not to downplay the headwinds that Asia will face, only to say that with the right strategies, those challenges can be overcome and new opportunities exploited profitably.

First, let’s acknowledge the challenges. The sheer scale of the crisis will certainly cause households and corporations to adjust their economic behavior in ways that might slow global growth. For example, households in the most affected countries may increase their savings which would slow consumption spending. Global companies may reconfigure their supply chains and some may even pull back from their production bases in Asia. Governments burdened with higher debts but under pressure to spending more on health care and social welfare may cut back on productive infrastructure investment and raise taxes. Some governments may even succumb to the temptation of trade protectionism that ends up hurting everyone.

But there is another more promising side to the picture. Most importantly, policy makers in Asia appreciate these dangers and are stepping up supply side reforms to ensure their economies can continue to prosper. Leading the pack is China, which is stepping up major initiatives that will deliver higher quality economic growth over time. These include reforms of the hukou system, which will boost labor and housing markets, acceleration of investment in advanced technology to reduce dependence on the West (the U.S. especially), creation of mega-urban regions, and “new infrastructure” spending on things like ultra-high voltage grids and connectivity. China, with about 16% of world output will be a source of dynamism, with spill over benefits for the rest of Asia.

Despite having to cope with a very difficult Covid-19 outbreak, India has found a new zeal for some of the reforms that many observers have been recommending for a long time. Several state governments run by Prime Minister Modi’s ruling party have announced sweeping reforms of labor laws, addressing one of the major bugbears for foreign investors. Efforts will also be made to make it easier for investors to secure land needed for new factories, addressing another obstacle to investors. In addition, if the promised reforms in the agriculture sector are carried through, India could see a radical transformation of its farming sectors into a new engine of growth.

Indonesia is also pursuing labor market reforms which will enhance its competitiveness. Moreover, the infrastructure push started by President Joko Widodo in 2015 is being expanded, while his reforms of the bureaucracy have helped create a more welcoming business environment. These are just three of many examples. Vietnam and the Philippines are also embarking on major reform initiatives.

Reforming countries will also be better placed to leverage off some of the more positive trends in the global economy. One is that production will continue to be relocated out of China. This trend had begun earlier as China’s immense economic success allowed it to enjoy higher wages and to move up the value chain. Now with trade and technology wars afoot, this trend will accelerate. As the business environments become more welcoming in India, Indonesia and elsewhere, it is now more likely that production relocation will boost the manufacturing sectors in those countries. There is no question that the post-Covid-19 world will be a challenging one. But Asian policy makers are putting in place strategies that will enable the region to better cope with those headwinds, while taking advantage of new opportunities that are the emergent new drivers of global economic growth.

Fan Gang: How will the China-Centric Global Supply Chains be Reshaped after Covid-19
Fan Gang
Fan Gang PHOTO BY FEI LIN
Given the experience of supply disruptions, Covid-19 has compelled businesses to reassess their dependence on the China-centric global supply chains. The issue of supply diversification, including “risks” associated with foreign supplies, is seen as a key challenge that global companies need to address in the post-Covid-19 world. This is not only about medical supplies, which tended to capture the most media attention, but practically all industries that source components and inputs from the increasingly complex, but highly efficient China-centric global supply chains. The U.S. government’s efforts to deglobalize, and more specifically to decouple from and isolate China, has certainly accentuated this trend. There is little doubt that the China-centric global supply chains will be going through some adjustment in the post-Covid-19 world.

How will the China-centric global supply chains be reshaped? Is it a matter of just pulling out of China and relocate elsewhere? It turns out that it is not that simple. To begin with, relocating physical production capacity on the basis of geopolitics as opposed to economics could be very costly, typically involves writing off massive sunk costs. Instead of pulling up stakes to leave China, it is more sensible for global companies to pursue the “China + 1” option, which is to make their next incremental investment somewhere outside of China which could then serve as an alternative should the supply from China be disrupted in any way. And this means a very gradual process of incremental adjustments lasting many years.

Apart from concerns of over-dependence on China, some global companies will move their production capacity out of China anyway because of rising costs of production. Chinese wages are getting higher, which is a natural corollary of economic development and rising prosperity. Simply put, China today is much less competitive than it was even a decade earlier in low wage labor intensive manufacturing. Covid-19 will accelerate the out-migration of such jobs to lower wage economies like Vietnam, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and others. The China-centric global supply chains will be shedding production capacity in the low end.

For many global companies, the decision whether to leave China or not is also tempered by the fact that China is becoming one of the world’s largest markets in many sectors. Indeed, China is now poised to surpass the U.S. as the world’s largest importer. The priority to access the China market will weigh heavily on many global companies, even as they come under pressure from the U.S. government to disengage from China.

China will diversify its sources of supply too, and many Chinese companies may also want to decouple from the U.S. in areas where they are vulnerable to being “cut off” as a result of sanctions and other policy measures by the American government. Admittedly it is more difficult for Chinese companies to do without easy access to American high-tech industries; but the incentive is that much stronger to invest in R&D to become less dependent on foreign, especially American technology.

The bottom line is that the China’s supply chains will be reshaped in the post-Covid-19 world, becoming more high-tech and capital intensive, and involving more indigenous innovations. Global companies will continue to participate, not the least of which to gain better access to the growing China markets. In that sense, it will continue to be China-centric.

Yasuhiro Maehara: Greater Government Interventions in the Post-Covid-19 World–A View from Japan
Yasuhiro Maehara
Yasuhiro Maehara
“Black swan” was made popular describing the global financial crisis, but Covid-19 is a bigger black swan and is likely to have much more significant damage across the world. To deal with a more complicated post-Covid-19 world, the traditional economic model of capitalism where consumers and businesses seek to maximize their utility and profit, where the invisible hand allocates resources efficiently, and where the government acts as the last resort when markets fail, may well be inadequate. The government will have to intervene in the activities of private sectors more intrusively to safeguard public health.

In Japan, the government has called for “a new lifestyle”, urging people to adopt a “3 C’s” principle in daily life to avoid: Closed spaces, Crowded places and Close contacts. To contain the pandemic, we are being asked to change our daily interactions with each other, which define us as a community. Thus, the 3 C’s will change the behavior of both consumers and businesses. Consumers will not be able to dine with friends, go shopping and travel abroad as freely as they used to do, which means they are not able to maximize their utility. Companies will also need to change how they operate: more web meetings and video conferences and less in-person contact, and more flexibility for employees to work both from home and at the office. Even then there are challenges. For example, how can companies in manufacturing conduct their production efficiently while complying with 3 C’s? Prioritizing public health and safety could curtail businesses’ ability to maximize profit. Furthermore, pandemic-proofing the post Covid-19 world involves coping with what is known in economics as Knightian uncertainty – a lack of quantifiable knowledge of possible outcomes (unlike risks, which can be quantified). In this context, the social cost of safeguarding public health could be quite high and the market mechanism may break down. Simply put, invisible fear paralyzes the invisible hand.

Households have had a more difficult time in coping with Covid-19, and the Japanese government provided each person in all households with a supplementary income payment of 100,000 yen (a little more than $900) to these households. Similar income support policy has also been implemented elsewhere. It appears that the basic income approach has become more acceptable as a means to sustain social cohesion when society is under assault from Covid-19. In turn, the government is becoming more involved in managing affairs previously considered to be in the private domain.

Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, said “The global health crisis has laid bare the unsustainability of our old system in terms of social cohesion, the lack of equal opportunities and inclusiveness.”

And last but not least, Covid-19 demonstrated how globally interconnected we are. In order to cope with “black swan” like pandemic and keep ourselves safe, countries must cooperate. We cannot afford politicizing the pandemic. But there is more. The Bank for International Settlements in January this year warned the coming of “the green swan,” which are “climate-change black swans.” It is certain that they will come; their impact will be more damaging; and the way they affect us will be more complex. We will have to manage to live with the black swan, and Covid-19 is a wake-up call. We have no time to waste in preparing for the green swan as well.

Post-Covid-19, and despite its well-documented troubles, Hong Kong will continue to be indispensable to Beijing as a controlled funnel for financial flows both in and out of the mainland. It will also remain overwhelmingly the principal gateway for both renminbi trade settlement and offshore renminbi deposit taking, while dominating bond and equity trading in and issuance for mainland companies. Indeed, contemporary American legislative initiatives seem set to reinforce such trends. The renminbi’s role in international trade and finance, and increasingly as an investible currency, should continue to steadily expand, even though its full convertibility is far from imminent, further enhancing Hong Kong’s strategic importance for China. The fact is that Hong Kong remains unique in being able to combine an internationally top-notch financial and legal architecture with an un-replicable pool of talent with deep Chinese knowledge, connections and expertise. One has to assume/hope that the powers in Beijing recognize as much (See: Post-Coronavirus Hong Kong: Abiding Strategic Relevance)

Source : https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbes-personal-shopper/2020/06/05/best-fathers-day-gifts-for-every-kind-of-dad/#71f2bd111f68

 

We all know the typical ways to network: by attending industry mixers, business dinners, and conferences. But of course none of those have been possible over the past few months, with so much of the world in quarantine. And even as various regions start to open up, large gatherings will be slow to come back, and long-distance travel will be limited. How should you be making new professional connections during this time? And how can you strengthen relationships inside your company when many people are still working remotely?

As executive coaches who work with leaders across the globe, we’ve spent years helping clients learn to build relationships virtually. As in the past, it’s still useful to deepen existing relationships and cultivate new ones by engaging on LinkedIn or other social media platforms. But in this unique time, we’ve identified several other strategies you can use to create connections. Here are three to consider.

Turn canceled conferences into private networking opportunities.
Since the pandemic began, many conferences and other large gatherings have been canceled, but even in their absence, you can use them as a way to meet people. Take a look at the conferences scheduled for earlier in the year along with those that would have been coming up. Identify participants who were supposed to attend or speak or who came in prior years. (If you don’t have the list, you can often email conference organizers and ask for it.)

Choose five to 10 people you’d like to connect with, and find something you have in common that might make them interested in meeting you (for instance, you’re both involved in robotics research, or you’re alumni of the same university). You can email them or send a message on LinkedIn saying something like, “We were both planning to attend [conference] this year. I had been hoping to meet you there, because I saw that we’re both involved in robotics research and I thought it might be interesting to chat. Since the event was canceled and we’re all grounded for the moment, I thought I’d reach out virtually instead. Let me know if you’d like to meet for a coffee over Zoom.”

One of Alisa’s clients, the CEO of a media company, employed this strategy. After a major conference he was planning to attend got canceled, he reached out to some of the people he had wanted to meet there and convened a virtual cocktail party. He developed relationships with interesting new contacts and was invited to speak at a future event.

Rethink geographic boundaries.
Before the world went remote, most professionals’ standard networking impulse was to focus on the people around them. We experienced this ourselves as hosts of regular dinner gatherings in New York City. When creating guest lists, we’d think about local colleagues and would tell out-of-town contacts to “let us know when you’re going to be in New York.” Now those boundaries have receded, and as we’ve shifted to virtual cocktail gatherings, we’ve realized that we’re free to invite people from around the world with whom we wouldn’t have previously been able to connect. During one recent Zoom networking event we brought together colleagues from Boston, New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Austin.

We’ve noticed that our corporate coaching clients are applying the same principles and similarly taking a more expansive view. In the past, they might not have invited colleagues from different geographic regions to participate in a meeting if everyone else attending was in the same office. Now that so many of us are remote, they’re more comfortable inviting colleagues regardless of where they’re located.

Invite senior leaders to your online working group meetings.
The current crisis has raised a host of new issues for business leaders to consider, whether it’s the future of your industry, how your company is responding to particular challenges (from supply chain to marketing to employee engagement), or the future of global work. This presents a unique opportunity for you to proactively convene an informal working group to discuss these issues. In some corporate cultures, you can simply invite a few people and have it grow from there. In others, it may be important to check in with your manager first.

After gathering a group of peers a few times and establishing that the conversations are valuable, you can, where appropriate in your corporate culture, reach out to senior leaders and invite them to join a session, as either a participant or a guest speaker. A drop-by from a high-level leader may have been difficult, if not impossible, under normal circumstances — but with everyone working virtually (and the leader not traveling), a 15-minute appearance is often surprisingly easy to facilitate.

One of Alisa’s clients is the CHRO of the U.S. division of a Fortune 500 company. In the early days of the pandemic, she took the initiative to convene a regular call with her peers in other geographies. As the crisis has played out, she has invited multiple company leaders, including the global CEO, to take part. That got her onto his radar, and he now calls her personally to discuss how the various regions are doing.

Even though networking events have been canceled, there are many ways for you to build professional relationships. By employing these three strategies, you’ll emerge even stronger once in-person events start up again.

Source : https://hbr.org/2020/06/how-to-network-when-there-are-no-networking-events