Dear Friend:
I have learned through personal experience that there are two things that are the key to making it through a crisis: realism and hope. You must be realistic about the nature of the challenge you face, but at the same time you can never give up hope.
In my discussions with colleagues, with clients, with friends, and even with family members, what I hear is fear, anxiety, exhaustion, and with some, depression. This pandemic and the on-again, off-again, on-again lockdowns have sapped people of their vitality.
Returning to my two lodestars — realism and hope — while recognizing the grim realities of this pandemic that still confront us (and may continue to confront us for years), I wanted to offer you what I trust you will receive as powerful words of hope.
It’s been almost one-and-a-half years since the lockdown in March of 2020. During most of this period, I worked from home 100% (for 67 consecutive weeks), and not once did I step into my office, which is only a 10-minute drive from my home.
Then, almost a month after my second Sinovac jab, I went to the U.S. for a two-week holiday. On the 24 hour journey (including lay-overs) from Manila to Colorado Springs, Colorado, I triple masked (with my N95, a surgical mask, and a black cloth sports mask), wore my easy flow, and wore a face shield. I probably looked like someone from Mars!
I was shocked on leaving the Denver airport and seeing nobody wearing a mask or a face shield. It took me a few days to get used to this sense of normalcy and to not having to wear a mask or a face shield on golf courses or hiking trails or in restaurants, grocery stores, shops or malls.
I definitely conquered my fears during this trip. On the way home, I put my easy flow in my check-in luggage and was quite comfortable wearing only a surgical mask. Once back in the Philippines, I decided to return to the office (after my mandatory 7-day quarantine), and I have been working at the office for almost two-and-a-half months now.
I’ve been happier since I started going back to the office. I have requested all of our employees to come in at least once a week even during ECQ and MECQ. Although working 100% from home was working very well for us, I think it is very important to engage with employees and colleagues face-to-face every so often in order to build a stronger relationship, develop a sense of belonging in an organization, and align with the culture of the organization. In addition, going back to the office has helped employees get over their own fears and possibly even depression and loneliness.
When I returned to the office, I wanted to accomplish three things: First, get all of our employees vaccinated by the end of August. To date, 96% of our employees have received one vaccine, and 70% have been completely vaccinated. We are now working towards getting our almost 1,000 outsourced employees vaccinated. So far, half have received at least one vaccination, and 25% have been fully vaccinated.
My second objective was to get all of our employees to come in at least once a week. I have to say that it has been a bit of a challenge with varying levels of success. We’ve had to figure out how to work in a hybrid setup, since some are working from home and some are working at the office. We’ve had to make sure that we have the technology and tools to make this work. It is much harder than you can imagine. When using an online meeting service, we couldn’t hear each other clearly when speaking while wearing masks, so we had to purchase microphones. During a hybrid meeting where some employees are working from home and some are working at the office, everyone still needs to have a laptop or iPad and connect to a communications tool such as Zoom, Webex, or Teams.
For my third objective, in June, I enrolled in an 8-week HBS virtual program on “Competing in the Age of AI”. It was a very interesting program, and midway through the program, I decided to share the weekly learnings with our leadership team so that we collectively could figure out how to apply the leanings to our organization. After our 7th module, we finally signed up to do a pilot artificial intelligence program with an organization in Europe. Our hope is that by being forward looking — even in the midst of pandemic gloom — we will position John Clements Consultants to be a more vibrant organization that is at the top of its game once the pandemic eases.
So at John Clements Consultants, we’ve been trying to move beyond fear, take care of the health of our employees (both physical and mental), and position the company for the future.
Thankfully, things have been looking up for us at John Clements: We just completed our 1st semester review, and we have reason to believe that we are on the way to recovery. We may even have a better year than 2019!
Tough times force a choice: We can either live in fear, or we can make the most of the present moment. As I told our team during our recent first semester review, I learned a lot of lessons from dealing with cancer 25 years ago, which I have applied to the current situation. This has helped me cope with the pandemic. When I was ill with cancer, I could have given up and just sulked with self-pity. After all, I had found myself in a grim situation: I had been diagnosed with cervical cancer. The treatment involved a radical abdominal hysterectomy. 6 months of chemotherapy, and 30 days of external and internal radiation. Then, three months after my last chemotherapy, my doctors found a nodule on my left lung, which turned out to be a metastasis to the lung. So next I had thoracic surgery, during which surgeons removed the lower lobe of my left lung. At that point, I wondered if they would just keep cutting off my organs that had been affected by cancer. Poor me! But then I started to think, “What if I survive for many many years? What would be the point of continuing to behave as though I was dying?” If I did that, I would not have lived life to fullest. I would have lived my life in fear — just like most of us have lived during the past one-and-a-half years.
So, returning to my twin lodestars, realism and hope, I’ll start with the hard reality: Unfortunately, I think the pandemic is here to stay, and we have to learn to live with it . We just need to understand the risks we are willing to take and mitigate them. Otherwise, we will miss living life to the fullest. Most of all, we will miss out on opportunities to help other human beings, to mentor and inspire others, to help build our economy and country, and to have a positive impact on the world.
While confronting the reality of the moment, let us not be afraid to live life fully and freely, knowing that, at the end of the day, it is uplifting the lives of others that matters the most.
