Eggshells
When is too much information simply too much. I’ve written in the past about a balanced news diet; I’ve also written about going on a news cleanse and just turning it off. At the same time reviewing a variety of inputs has always helped me ‘read the tea leaves’ — it’s actually somewhat easy to understand the direction of travel by taking in a lot of inputs and synthesizing and sensing what it all means. I’ve done it my whole life. But what if too much of a good thing — information — isn’t so good after all?
I’ve been talking to CEOs who are struggling with this feeling that their organizations are on eggshells, reeling from too much information. People are stressed. Wound tight. Tense. Feeling like something is about to blow. They are wondering how they keep people engaged after a pandemic, story after story about inequity, debates or even battles around return to office approaches, inflation, a slowing economy, two wars, or polarized positions?
In the US let’s throw in a presidential race where our two leading candidates are awful choices. Consumers are waking up each day to higher interest rates, student loan payments, the ‘run’ on salary increases cooling, and the reality that the promise of EVs and so much more are just not there yet while the climate boils over, ice sheets melt, and a level 5 hurricane travels over mainland Mexico — something that is so out of the norm it’s another wake-up call.
And let’s not even begin with the excitement and challenges of AI. It’s energizing and terrorizing all at the same time. What jobs will be lost, what new ones created, what retraining is essential, what guardrails are necessary? Suddenly change management from the next wave (tsunami) of digital transformation is on our doorstep and it’ll make the internet look pale in comparison. Leaders are wondering how to get team mates to embrace it rather than feel threatened. It’s scary for a lot of people because change doesn’t come easy to most human beings — in fact they don’t like it or resist it unless they are at the very tip of the innovation curve on the spectrum of early adopters — most people aren’t!
How do we keep the rails on our businesses when team members are tired, scared, and each ‘wave’ builds on one another. We are in overload. We are living under this cloud of ‘doom’ brought on by media, traditional, social, fake — with no let up.
Think about it — since winter of 2019 it has been an onslaught with little reprieve. Do we shut off the news — too much of a good thing? Do we keep blinders on like we would a racehorse and ask our team to focus? Do we talk about it and ‘air the topics’ — soft skills are never our first place to go — ride the wave or get crushed? It’s exhausting to do it 24 x 7.
We must focus and keep going AND we have to talk about these realities and how we can face what we know today. Then tomorrow we talk about what we know tomorrow. We have to tell the truth, adapt with the times ,and recognize the times are fraught; we must stay agile and have multiple contingency plans. We can also turn off the litany of negative info periodically. Give ourselves white space. But we have to recognize our teams may be feeling like they are on eggshells, and we all have to keep going even in the face of this and especially because of it. We certainly have to talk about it.