rethinking assumptions: redundancy

Being made redundant, as is happening to many these days, can be a huge and disabling shock if your life-style is based on a regular well-paying job with a pension. 

It's essential to keep checking the things we're taking for granted, and being aware that the only things you can really be sure of are "death and taxes." Older people in the West, who've been through changes like the Depression or World War 2, are probably more fitted to coping with the current changes because they've "been there before".

Time spent in revisiting our underlying assumptions, and in looking at what they're based on, can give us a better picture of the realities we're up against in our own lives. It may not improve our financial situation, but it will improve our emotional state and ability to cope.

How are people coping?

Family and friends are already very anxious. Self-employed people are feeling the pinch.
In a way it's a consolation to be a "poor old retired person" - less to lose, I guess, and I always expected to be poor when I was old (from having been a stay-at-home wife and mother for a number of years).

People are saying to me "What will it be like?" Us oldies can just about remember World War 2: now THAT would make you anxious. Sons and daughters going off to war, cities bombed, food rationed. Will this be worse? It may be. It could be as bad or worse as the prewar depression with huge unemployment and terrible inequality. In many ways in the UK we've grown up spoiled, let ourselves be convinced that buying stuff makes you a good person, and making huge amounts of money makes you a better one, and what's more an important person. I cant imagine what kind of transition it will take to undo those assumptions.

how tough will it get?

Here we are mid-January and things are looking even more difficult. Our attitudes to banks and other financial institutions are probably changed for good. It's interesting seeing how few senior people in those organisations have opened up and admitted what went wrong. I've heard a few lately who just sound furious at being unpopular and even despised.

more about transitions

Well I guess this is one of the biggest transitions for most people - I'm speaking about the Credit Crunch and the general collapse of the invented money pyramid system. My guess is that the main sufferers will not be the people who caused the catastrophe; that's life, I guess.

But whoever is to blame, and whoever takes the worst hit, it is an opportunity to review what we've been taking for granted, our dearest assumptions, and start over. What can we take to be the case? Where can we start with a new foundation? Is anything safe or firm? It feels like there isn't much, not in careers or income anyway.

Which brings us round to key things in our lives such as relationships and values. In times of worse disasters and deeper depressions, people have survived, and it has often been not only through perseverance and courage, but having a clear sense of values to hang on to. It's worth having a look at our own in times like these. Time spent working through your values is time well-spent. Choose something you really care about, and then ask yourself "Why particularly does that matter to me?" Write down your answer. Then ask yourself again "And what is it about that, that matters to me?" This technique is called laddering and comes from a theory about how we understand our lives and ourselves. It's not an easy process: it's worth exploring, though, because it can take you to a level where you are really clear about your deep-down priorities.

If your current transition is at work, you might enjoy the New Managers site

There is some good practical advice by Doug Picirillo at employaid

catching up

Nearly a year since I last posted here. Some big transitions (North Korea a nuclear power?): some inevitable ones (situation in Iraq worse and worse): and some personal ones to refelct on. More later

IBM cutting CO2 emissions - a new development?

from http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=28882.

This item of news really surprised me - something is clearly changing.

"IBM Cuts CO2 Emissions by More Than 1 Million Tons, Saving $115 Million
Source: GreenBiz.com
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30, 2005 - The World Wildlife Fund and the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions have announced that IBM, a participant in their Climate Savers program, has surpassed its reduction target and avoided more than 1.28 million tons of CO2 emissions since the company joined the program in 1998, saving $115 million in reduced energy costs.

Having already achieved an estimated 20% reduction in global CO2 emissions through energy conservation efforts from 1990 to 1997, IBM further reduced the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the company's annual energy use by the equivalent of an average of 5.7% from 1998 to 2004, exceeding its Climate Savers commitment of a 4% average annual reduction. This achievement is the result of energy conservation efforts and the use of renewable energy sources alone, and does not reflect additional CO2 emissions savings from consolidations and restructuring. Savings from IBM's efforts since 1998 equal taking 51,600 midsize cars that travel 10,000 miles per year off the road. Energy was conserved through simple efforts as well as more complex initiatives.

Examples of the projects implemented ranged from installing motion detectors in bathrooms and copier rooms and changing temperature set points in office areas to rebalancing heating and cooling systems and rebuilding and resizing high purity water pumping systems in semiconductor manufacturing lines......"

"A new era in management" - another formula?

McKinsey's are saying:
Companies have long used detailed organizational charts, fixed annual budgets, and top-down strategic-planning processes to make their organizations more efficient. For years, many prospered with this model. But now factors such as globalization and technology have fundamentally altered where and how people work. They, along with the rise of services, have led to the increased importance of the knowledge worker. Taken together, these changes mean that the old organizational model doesn't work anymore.

They reference a number of useful articles from the McKinsy Quarterly, including
The 21st-century organization The summary says:
"Professional employees, who create value through intangible assets such as brands and networks, now constitute up to 25 percent or more of the workforce in financial services, health care, high tech, pharmaceuticals, and media and entertainment.
Making professionals productive enables big corporations to be competitive, yet most of them do little to improve the productivity of these employees.
Corporate organizational structures—designed vertically, with matrix and ad hoc overlays—make professional work more complex and inefficient.
Companies must change their organizational structures dramatically to unleash the power of their professionals and to capture the opportunities of today's economy."

It seems to me good that they're saying this, and yet it's not entirely new. Managing creative professionals has been thought about for many years, and good processes developed.