Vanishing Structural Supports
"LJWedding-1340149" by TheNoxid is licensed under CC BY 2.0
All of us count on structural frameworks that give shape to our day and traction to our task list. Like the poles supporting the canopy of a large wedding tent, structures provide a lattice to hang our commitments and obligations on. Your work habits and routines honed over years of practice provide the superstructure to meet obligations, fulfill commitments and create success through your professional day. Some of us rely on these structures more than others and when the structures are altered or vanish, Global Creatives can feel the absence more than our neuro-typical colleagues. Remove these key supports and our day can quickly look like a tent with no poles, flat and without purpose.
With the sudden emergence of our current public health crisis and the necessary distancing and isolation practices it brings, work and life as we know it, the structures we take for granted are no longer available. We can no longer rely on the supports an office environment can provide-just the mere presence of others modeling productivity is a powerful support structure and motivator. We are all reeling now and many of us are impacted much greater than others, especially those in the service sectors. Even remote workers are affected with the slow down of work and all of the trappings that go with that - remote work meetings, the high rate of ‘work production’ as we know it. The intensity of our regular work day has dropped off and with it the removal of said work structures.
Global Creatives have a unique additional challenge in losing those key structural supports. We tend to be great responders to structure but can struggle to create our own. In the podcast below, Shelly and I discuss the different scenarios our clients are facing currently. Now is actually an opportunity to identify some of the structural elements that are key to your success. Here are a few strategies to help identify key supports and create makeshift ones until normalcy returns:
Identify the structures that have been altered or removed. How is it impacting your day?
What is your response? A sense of freedom or a sense of dread? Is it feeling a bit like an extended snow day with a feeling of ‘waiting this out’?
Discuss this with a trusted co-worker or resource at home. How might you fabricate the structure in a temporary fashion?
Consider dialing back to half or three fifths time. What does going to 20 or 30 hours look like?
I rely on regular meetings with colleagues to get completion on my deliverables. Both the frequency of the meetings and the actual content have been understandably impacted with a focus on more pressing Covid-19 related priorities for all invested parties. Understandably, the planning of a new class needs to be delayed since demand for the class has diminished. So I am negotiating a new frequency of meetings but not letting them go away completely. I know well enough that without this structural support and social life-line my own tent would be flat as a pancake! I am evaluating my projects and focusing on tasks that are not dependent on the current situation - especially Quadrant II tasks that I had struggled to address prior to the pandemic.
Finally, hard as it may be, approach this exercise with curiosity and awareness. Uncertainty generates a fear response and we are getting served a whopper of uncertainty right now. Keep your focus just on the structural elements that, until this moment, operated quietly in the background. Build a reservoir of awareness and knowledge and don’t get hung up on the execution part (which is a uniquely ADHD phenomenon). Approach your day with grace and permission to experiment regarding being productive.