Discovering New Opportunities

Being still is not something I am good at.  So dropping a heavy rod on my left foot was not a brilliant move.  The little toe is swollen, black and blue and painful.  Very painful if I try to put it inside a shoe.  That makes walking, working out—anything other than sitting—difficult.  And that makes me cranky.  Cranky Janet is not a pretty sight.

It wouldn’t be so bad if I had a lot of meetings—even over zoom.  But I always find this time between Halloween and New Year’s day pretty quiet.  And I don’t do quiet all that well.  

OK, I thought this morning when—to my distress—my toe had not miraculously healed, I have a bunch of things to write.  But I tend to think about what I want to write as I walk, and then sit down at my computer and bang it out.  Not being able to walk makes me feel that I am also not able to think.

Sometimes, an organization gets the equivalent of a swollen toe—something that prevents it from doing things the way they are used to doing them.  Covid certainly has been that; a job market where there are apparently more jobs than those willing to do the jobs is another kink.  

For the past almost two years, many organizations have had to totally change what they do and how they do it.  Many have performed brilliantly.  Others have lagged behind.  Most have coped, hoping for the day when things could return to normal.

But normal is not going to happen soon.  At least not if you think of pre-2020 as the way things should be.  So what now?  

Some of the organizations I worked with had cancelled their 2020 galas—replacing them with online events, hybrid activities, outreach to those who generally bought tickets and tables.  And found that at the end of the day, their net was higher than ever before.  That meant that they could provide more services for their clients.  And yet, as vaccines became available, many again considered doing what they had—less effectively-done in the past.  There have been similar stories with programs, meetings, staff.

Online, distanced-different— isn’t, of course, always better.  But considering all your options rather than simply sticking with what you do is a much better strategy.  By considering the things you can do you may discover new opportunities or better ways to do things you’ve always done.