Four Powerful Mindsets to Deploy in a Crisis
Los Angeles went into lockdown on 19 March 2020. Each morning feels a bit like Groundhog Day....all over again. I went back on my calendar and marked the first day our Governor Newsom enacted California's safer-at-home order because I was losing track of time. I woke up last Thursday and thought it was Sunday(?!).
To add structure and progress to my weekdays (are there still week-ends?), I decided to think with the recovery in mind and ask myself a series of questions:
Where was my head? Did I stay positive? What were my priorities? Where was my focus? Where did I make progress? What could I have done better?
What follows is an outline of four mindsets I’ve chosen to deploy. They’ve helped me stay focused, productive, and positive.
The First Two Weeks
Safer-at-home started on a Thursday. I spent the weekend wafting between shock, disbelief, confusion, and concern. Before diving too deep into this pandemic, I took a step back to research disasters. Perhaps I could determine the best way to assess this crisis by starting with a birds-eye view. From a peer-reviewed quarterly publication aptly named Disasters, crises are “composed of three main components: (i) consequence(s); (ii) complexity factor(s); and (iii) gravity factor(s).” Looking at the COVID-19 pandemic through this lens, it was clear this was a calamity of unequaled proportion.
The breadth of uncertainty was paralyzing. How to reduce it? Consume information from trusted sources. I could spend every waking hour pouring over the flood of articles, opinions, and infection rates so I created this Medium page to drop in my breadcrumbs. I hit a point of diminishing returns after three or four days.
Enough information. Time to act. But how to act?
1) Choose How To Respond
Notice I use "respond" over "react". “React” implies an emotional instinct decided for us. (The reason there seems to be no toilet paper left in the world.) “Respond” implies our conscious brain is fully engaged and our self-awareness is high thus yielding the best long-term outcome. With that said, there are three "response buckets" we can choose to step into: (1) curl up in a ball, (2) stick our head in the sand, or (3) take action.
If there is one thing working my entire career as an operator inside high-growth product startups has taught me, it's how to take action under pressure with limited information. However, I’m used to dealing with internal problems such as a warehouse system failing or an overwhelming surge of holiday orders -- not a global health emergency that puts the economy and businesses in free fall.
For additional guidance, I looked at my Circles of Control. I shifted from my Circle of Concern (the pandemic) to my Circle of Influence (my network and community) and Circle of Control (my health and business) where I could take action. This kept me focused and working on problems that I could solve.
Now as a consultant, I sit at the intersection of business owners, operators, and service providers. Therefore, I reached out to my network to see how others were feeling and what they were planning. Armed with information from multiple sources, I could distill it down and begin to help others analyze their situations and make preparations for what appeared to be a prolonged economic coma.
2) Lean Into Weakness
Weaknesses are easy to hide under twelve years of economic prosperity and a magically consistent stock market. However, there's nothing like the lockdown of a global pandemic to pull them out from under the rug for all to see. Taking stock of my consultancy, Bluprint Partners, I felt vulnerable and uncertain. Over the past few months, I had focused too much of my time working in my business (clients and deliverables) and not enough time working on my business (development and growth). Faced with the prospect of current projects drying up and no new work in the pipeline, where would that leave us?
I had to push through the discomfort and lean into these feelings of weakness. I didn’t want to look back on this time and see that I had succumbed to rubber-necking CNN and binging on Netflix. Surely, there was opportunity amidst the chaos.
“If I really want to improve my situation, I can work on the one thing over which I have control - myself.”
― Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
In normal times, I build upon strength, but in times of great crisis, I must improve weakness. If I’m standing in front of a dam that has sprung a leak, I need to first plug the holes. Only then can I build it higher and stronger.
3) Build Systems
At the root of all great achievement is strong habits defined by robust systems. WFH;NL (work-from-home; never-leave) creates an unstructured environment that saps productivity. Having systems to follow and manage my daily life has never been more important.
John Wooden, arguably the greatest basketball coach of all time, had ten NCAA Men's Basketball Championships. Seven of them were in a row. Hello, trophies!
Being the best team in basketball each year was his annual achievement, but it was his amazing system, the Pyramid of Success, that got his teams there. He had the highest winning percentage of any coach over 40 years. His success was the result of a never-ending pursuit of excellence via his system.
“We don’t rise to the level of our goals; we fall to the level of our systems.”
― James Clear, author of Atomic Habits
Using Coach Wooden as inspiration, I took time to review the many repeatable tasks I tackle throughout my day, week, and month. I outlined everything from Client Onboarding to Prospect Outreach to Morning Routine. My favorite so far? Focus Mode. It contains the thirteen steps I take to conduct deep work (like writing this article). It eliminates distractions and allows me to get one important thing done. Using documented systems creates an environment of habit and consistency inside my Circle of Control that will go a long way towards achievement no matter how unbalanced my Circle of Concern becomes.
4) Get Better
As an operator at high-growth startups, I was constantly fighting fires and rarely made time for long-term planning and strategy. This occurred for two reasons: (1) I enjoyed the challenge and immediate gratification of solving complex day-to-day problems and (2) I was naive to how important focusing on getting better and not just being busy was to my success.
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
—Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States
Without the interruptions and time killers of noisy office life, long travel days, cross country conferences, client lunches, and networking events I can schedule time to focus — focus on the important not urgent. Those of you familiar with Eisenhower’s Matrix will know what I’m talking about. Quadrant 2 is where the real work toward your long-term success gets done.
Taking my commute time and reallocating one quiet hour per day to think and get better will build a habit that will carry through the recovery.
#AloneTogether
We’re in the largest shared human experience since World War II. That is one huge Circle of Concern. I intend to keep my focus inside my Circle of Influence and push forward through to the recovery. Within this small circle, I will choose how to respond, lean into my weaknesses, and build systems to get better.
So far, this has worked for me. What has worked for you?