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Category: Health and Wellness

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Best Practices Growth Health and Wellness

Thought Leader Resources – Future of Meetings

Inside the Mind of a Meeting Professional

As a thought leader, you may not even know what is going on during a “normal day of a meeting professional let alone a “new reality” day.

 

The initial question to ask is – Is this planner dealing with an event that has been previously booked, planned, and contracted or a brand-new event?  Recognize if dealing with a previously booked event they may still be working within the confines of that event contract.

 

As a thought leader, you may be dealing with many titles acting as meeting professionals attempting to analyze an event before, during, and after.  From each of those vantage points, the questions begin.  Before deciding whether an event should be in-person/face to face or virtual, review the following complex arrangement of questions and decisions.

  • What do I do before the event? (face to face, virtual or hybrid)
  • What do I do onsite at an event? (face to face, virtual or hybrid)
  • What do I do after an event? (face to face, virtual or hybrid)
  1. Who are my attendees? (demographics)

What industry does the attendee represent?

What are the health, age, considerations of the attendees?

Are there travel bans in place for the attendee?

Are there travel bans in place for the host organization/company?

At what level are the attendee’s technology-enabled?

At what level is the organization technology-enabled?

  1. Where is the meeting located?

State, local, national, international

  1. Transportation to the meeting?  Transportation once on-site at the meeting/event?

Car, plane, train, uber etc.

  1. Hotel/Venue

Are there geographical restrictions in place for the venue?

If relocating/changing dates, Does the venue have new dates available?

Is meeting space available based on social distancing guidelines?

Are sleeping rooms available?

Can the venue accommodate the new group if larger or smaller?

Can the venue accommodate additional technical requirements?

  1. Why are we having a meeting/conference/trade show?

What are the goals/expected outcomes of the events?

  1. Does the event already have risk management, insurance, and mitigation?
  2. Does the event warrant the risk management, insurance, and mitigation?
  3. Additional concerns:

Meeting Room Configurations

Food & Beverage Service

Financial Minimums / Attrition

Audio Visual Budgets

Onsite – Touching/Physical Contact (Surfaces, Materials, Giveaways, books, pens, etc.)

Attendee contact tracing

Attendee health records/temperature checks

Meeting Insurance – Take this into consideration when deciding whether to move forward or cancel your event.  If there is insurance meeting planners may be forced to wait to meet contract terms.

How you can be supportive as a Thought Leader

  • Have compassion/empathy for meeting professional/planning team
  • Have compassion/empathy for attendees
  • Ask more questions
  • Listen more
  • Collaborate with all parties
  • Be Flexible
  • Evaluate the event within the context of the greater goals of your organization/industry.

 

Resources planners are referencing:

 

Event Industry Council (EIC)

 

 https://www.eventscouncil.org/

 
Professional Conference Managers Association (PCMA)

 

 https://www.pcma.org/

 
Meeting Professionals International MPI

 

 https://www.mpi.org/

 
HSMAI

 

 https://global.hsmai.org/

 
Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) https://www.siteglobal.com/

 
National Speakers Association (NSA) https://www.nsaspeaker.org/attend/influence20/

 
IAEE https://www.iaee.com/

 
ASAE https://www.asaecenter.org/

 

 

 

Media Partners:  https://www.g2planet.com/blog/the-24-top-industry-event-publications

 

Smart Meetings https://www.smartmeetings.com/

 
Meetings Today https://www.meetingstoday.com/

 
Meetings Net https://www.meetingsnet.com/

 
Northstar Meetings https://www.northstarmeetingsgroup.com/News/Industry/Future-Meetings-Events-Industry-CEO-Predictions-Coronavirus-Impact

 

 

COVID: Specific Reports

 

Events Industry Council (global) https://insights.eventscouncil.org/Full-Article/eic-connects-covid-19-resources-for-global-members

 
US Travel Association https://www.ustravel.org/toolkit/covid-19-travel-industry-research

 
Coronavirus Recovery Resources: https://www.pcma.org/coronavirus-business-events-professionals-need-to-know-faq/?utm_medium=top-cta&utm_source=pcma_homepage&utm_campaign=covid-19

 
Novel Coronavirus Resources https://www.mpi.org/tools/coronavirus
Official Statement from IAEE https://www.iaee.com/covid19/

 
HSMAI Global Coronavirus Resources https://global.hsmai.org/insights/coronavirus-resources/

 
Meetings Mean Business https://www.ustravel.org/programs/meetings-mean-business-coalition

 

 

 

About Holly Duckworth:

 

Founder of the C-Suite Network Mindful Leadership Council the premiere community for where mindfulness and leadership connect. The council she leads creates, contributes, and advances mindful leadership as a practice in the workplace. This is an elite group of professionals dedicated to the application of what mindfulness is, and the advancement of personal and emotional support for leaders to grow the income and impact of their businesses.

 

Holly Duckworth, CAE, CMP, LSP is CEO of Leadership Solutions International, is a trailblazer transforming businesses and industries as a contributor to the New York Times, Producer/Host of the Everyday Mindfulness Show with more than 150 episodes Holly has provides training programs on applied mindful leadership around the world.  Bring Holly to your company conference or event to educate, connect or inspire.

 

Categories
Growth Health and Wellness Management

The Importance Of A Work-life Balance In Uncertain Times

 

By Daniel Lohman, CPSA

The way we work changed dramatically overnight. We are all having to learn and adopt new ways of remaining connected to our world. The secret to making all of this work is having a connected community to rely on. 

Striking a balance between a career and a work-life balance is difficult for entrepreneurs without the complications of a pandemic. New stressors from working from home and having to completely re-think the way we connect with our teams, clients, and prospects while also being a teacher and daycare provider are having a profound impact on our sanity, health, and wellness. 

This describes the transition I made decades earlier when the company I worked for embraced telecommuting. Unilever was one of the first big companies to make the switch. The learning curve was steep for all of us- especially for this of us who were single parents. I found myself working at odd hours so that I could be a parent during the day. Meetings were scheduled around nap times and school schedules. I frequently found myself overwhelmed but I learned to adjust. This why I have insights to help those thrust into this new normal. 

My saving grace came years later when I found a connected community. Belonging to a group of like-minded high-impact professionals helped me grow and thrive across several roles. Before then, I had been on my own pushing myself relentlessly. I now had the support of a team that pushed me to new heights helping me become a respected leader in my industry. This benefitted us all mutually, we all thrived as a result.

There is an ancient African proverb that I love: “if you want to go fast go alone if you want to go further go together”. While inspiring, it overlooks the benefit of a mastermind style group helping you avoid the pitfalls most entrepreneurs fall into, like remaining focused despite all the distractions constantly trying to derail us and identifying the best resources for building and growing your brand. 

More importantly, the law of reciprocity is the key to successfully balancing work and life. I believe that generosity and an authentic commitment to being a trusted and valued resource to your community is the best way to get more and go further – my secrets sauce.   

The thing that makes natural, natural is our thriving connected community. There is an abundance of great mentors, thought leaders, and experts eager to help emerging natural brands grow and scale during even the most challenging times. This was the focus of my most recent Brand Secrets And Strategies podcast and YouTube video interview and why I am thrilled to be a part of the C-Suite Network: SECRETS 188 Jeffrey Hayzlett Chairman C-Suite, C-Suite Brand-Building Strategies For Natural Food Brands. We also talked about how C-Suite Network and C-Suite Radio is partnering with me on the free weekly webinar series I launched to support brands during these challenging times – the perfect example of a connected community empowering others. Empowering Brands | Raising The Bar.

Being part of a connected community can help you more effectively balance your personal life and your work life. It helps you remain focused while giving you the additional bandwidth where needed. It helps you proactively avoid pitfalls and distractions that derail others. It also provides a “safe place to land’ when things don’t go right along with a cheering squad to keep you motivated and on track. Similar to the C-Suite Network, the more you participate and give authentically, the more you get back. We are all in this together. Having a connected community can help you lean into the current storm and come out unscathed. This is the essential ingredient to a healthy work-life balance.  

* Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash.

Categories
Best Practices Body Language Entrepreneurship Health and Wellness Human Resources Women In Business

THE NEW NORMAL (First in a Series)

 

Covid-19 is the elephant in the room. The underlying zeitgeist and angst that colors everything we do…or don’t do. We’re all infected with it to some degree: whether you have the virus, know someone or just worry about it. In the coming days and weeks, I’ll be posting a daily blog with my friend and colleague, Steve Lance. We’ll be offering tips and strategies that can “lower your emotional thermostat” and manage remote work more effectively. Steve is a best-selling author and Creative Director whose firm does Corporate Process Interventions. Our hope is these daily notes give you tools that can turn your elephant into, say, a zebra. (Yes, it will still be the exotic animal in the room, but it might be more manageable.) If you have helpful tips you’re using, please comment and we’ll include them in subsequent blogs. In the meantime, stay safe. Stay smart. Stay apart. Tina (and Steve)

Categories
Best Practices Body Language Entrepreneurship Health and Wellness Human Resources Management Skills Women In Business

The New Normal (TNN) #2:Managing Your Stress Levels

(Stay Safe. Stay Smart. Stay Apart.) What can you do with today’s added stress? Tina defines “stress” as the amount of control we think we have over a situation (which, right away, puts the idea of “stress” into a scalable, manageable perspective). Take a deep breath and exhale fully before you read on. Really. We’ll wait. Okay, did you notice a change in your thoughts, feelings or body? That old cliché, “take a deep breath and count to ten before you respond” still works. Whenever you notice your mind drifting over to the aspects of the pandemic you don’t have any control over, take a deep breath and count to ten. What do you do to get your stress level under control?

REMEMBER: Stay Safe. Stay Smart. Stay Apart.

Categories
Growth Health and Wellness Management

A Normal Response to Abnormal Times

The current state of affairs – locally, nationally and globally – are testing everyone’s “window of tolerance” for their ability to manage stress 1

What is happening today is certainly not in the scope of our everyday lives – which for many, are already stressed beyond this zone of tolerance. We are being challenged to the max!

In order to get a handle on how to best manage ourselves, let’s start with a definition of stress. The definition that I find most helpful, is “the PERCEIVED amount of control we think we have or don’t have.” The operative word here is “perceived.”

The reason that natural disasters (abnormal times) cause us so much distress is because we have very little control over external events that are happening to us. Our anxiety level naturally goes up. With the Coronavirus (COVID-19) we have, at this writing, many of the same feelings.

There is a plethora of conflicting information and not enough data to make good informed decisions based on facts. This situation leaves each and every one of us left to our own devices as to how we, historically, manage uncertainty and the unknown.

The question becomes, how can we increase our own “window of tolerance” so that we can “receive, process and integrate” information and function effectively in these challenging times?

Once we can do that in this high-stress situation, we should be in great shape when the crisis dies down and the unknown becomes more known. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Stress affects both the mind and the body

Therefore, the remedy must include an antidote for each.

Earlier this week, I was acutely aware of how anxious I was. The muscles in my neck and shoulders were tight and I was having difficulty concentrating. I had a wedding celebration planned for my son and daughter-in-law and the daily news was letting me know that I couldn’t wait much longer to make the decision that I didn’t want to make.

Wanting to calm myself down, I thought, “Let’s go to that 7 am yoga class tomorrow.” Lo and behold, I had a terrible night’s sleep and the thought occurred to me to skip the class and stay in bed, come morning. However, that wise voice crept in and reminded me that yoga has never disappointed me. I always feel better after a class than before.

I dragged myself out of bed, went to the class and the intense physical and mental symptoms of stress were greatly alleviated for the rest of the day.

Managing our thoughts

This is another key ingredient in managing our stress.

I just got off the phone with a colleague whose mind was sending him into a near panic attack. He makes his living speaking and traveling. Having to get on three planes in the next week and the fear of losing his income, was beyond his nervous system’s “window of tolerance.” He was freaking out.

I gave him a few tips that you can use when you find that your “monkey mind” has taken over.

1. Become aware of your thoughts. You can’t change anything if you don’t know how you’re talking to yourself. Our unconscious programming runs in the background. And if you haven’t trained yourself to manage the wild nature of your mind, it will run you.

2. Ask yourself “Are my thoughts are producing something useful?” I like to use the term, “productive thinking,” rather than positive thinking. If you notice your thoughts are taking you into a downward spiral, it’s your job to take charge and shift them.

Yes, this may be easier said than done, but, this next phrase may help:

3. “What’s in my control? What’s out of my control?

This is the key to beginning to find your way out of a stressful situation. People frequently believe that being in control means controlling other people or events. This is an impossible endeavor. Being in control of our lives means being at choice as to how we think and behave.

When things get really tough for me, I go back to Victor Frankl’s book “Man Search for Meaning. 2 Living through the worst of times in a concentration camp, he was clear that the only thing the Nazis couldn’t control was his mind. It’s a powerful reminder of how truly resilient we can train our minds to be.

This current crisis will pass. We don’t know how or when. And we know it’s extremely difficult to plan when we have so little information to go on.

But we can become much better at managing ourselves. When you notice that the fear within you is beginning to rise, follow the steps above. You’ll soon find that you are operating at a calmer level, like the great leaders, athletes, and performers you so greatly admire!

________________________________________________________________________________

1 Window of tolerance is a term used to describe the zone of arousal in which a person is able to function most effectively. When people are
within this zone, they are typically able to readily receive, process, and integrate information and otherwise respond to the demands of
everyday life without much difficulty. www.goodtherapy.org › GoodTherapy Blog › PsychPedi
2 Frankl, Victor. Man’s Search for Meaning. Beacon Press, Boston, 1946.

Categories
Growth Health and Wellness Leadership

The Business Case for Mindful Sales

 

No matter the size of y0ur company you are trying to sell something to someone for money.  Sales is, in fact, improving the lives of people no matter if you sell cars, technology, or food. In today’s instant economy that means both sales professionals and customers expect, us to sell more, faster than your competition.  As a sales professional that can mean higher goals, shorter time frames and hard to reach sales goals.  As these continue day after day it causes stress, overwhelm, turnover and burnout of an unmotivated sales team.  Or, worse such a highly competitive sales team there is no team morale at all. It means your company suffers from mind-full ness.  Mindfulness is expensive to your bottom line.

What is mindfulness in the sales process? Mindfulness is the practice of being present in the moment, without judgment. There are many definitions of mindfulness. Over the years this definition is starting to refine. Mindfulness is at its core awareness.  When you become aware your team is overwhelmed to the point of losing sales it’s time for mindfulness.  Simple, easy 2-5 minute questions, affirmations, and activities that can reduce the stress and regain focus on the sales cycle.

There are many ways to be mindful and techniques to bring you back to the present moment, to bring your brain, heart, and body back to focus.  As a sales professional, I like to use short, simple affirmations to re-set my brain in times of stress.

Mindfulness can be practiced no matter where you are selling, as an individual or as part of a group as part of a meeting or during a retreat. I have won client projects by taking a moment to be mindful with my clients honoring what they are going thru personally and professionally.  In fact, mindfulness is so easy you can practice it anywhere! Mindfulness can be practiced for the sole purpose of becoming more mindful and there are several mindfulness practices and organizations that are designed for specific groups of people.

We all take ourselves too seriously, with a fear of failure driving the daily regiment of sales offices. Whether you are a perfectionist who will not accept anything less than an A+ on your report metrics, or you are an average sales professional who does what it takes to get by each day, we invite you to become more mindful in every part of your day.  Don’t take my word for it, try it with your team and measure the results.

Excerpt from “Sell More Stress Less: 52 Tips to Become a Mindful Sales Professional” by Holly Duckworth & Eric Szymanski – Available at Amazon.com

To learn more about how Eric & Holly can help your organization, please visit www.leadershipsolutionsinternational.com or www.mindfulsalestraining.com

Categories
Best Practices Growth Health and Wellness

You are the Reason Your Most Essential Team Fails

A team is defined as a number of persons associated in some joint action. You drive on roads and highways with other vehicles around. Driving is the joint action you have in common with the other motorists which, creates a team. The team’s purpose is to land at their destination traversing safely through road traffic until reaching the target. This is your most essential team and you are the reason your team is failing.

Unfortunately, some of your group is focused only on themselves. Their goal is to arrive where they want, not taking into consideration the team. They swerve between cars, tailgate the vehicle in front of them, and slow traffic by driving in the left-hand lane even though cars are trying to pass. Conversely, the rogue colleagues become frustrated when they can’t pass their colleagues. To accommodate these actions, other drivers must step on their brake.

Someone stepping on their brake signals they are reducing speed. Causes for that action are approaching an intersection, a slower vehicle, and of course, his teammate that just cut in front of him. The car behind who sees the brake lights come on instinctively presses on his brake. Consequently, this starts a chain reaction with other vehicles who also observe the brake lights. The name for this is a Phantom Traffic Jam.

Mysterious Phenomenon

The mysterious phenomenon occurs when you are driving in traffic which has slowed down. When you finally reach the spot where the traffic lets up, there is nothing there. The mystery developed by the car that originally stepped on his brake. The amount of distance the lead car broke the speed determines how far back it affects the cars behind it. Accordingly, the longer the depressing of the brake the farther back it will disrupt cars.

It became necessary for the lead car to hit his brake to avoid the vehicle that cut in front of him, making it appear that the backup is not his fault unless he didn’t have enough space between himself and the car to his front. Following too closely causes the need to step on the brake, creating the backflow. As the traffic slows ahead, the more space between cars will allow the driver to take his foot off the accelerator to slow down without necessarily stepping on his brake. Consequently, the vehicles behind will follow suit and reduce speed without braking.

Team Essentials

Back away from the vehicle in front of you, creating greater space so if a car does cut in it will not interrupt your speed. By reducing the number of times brake lights illume will create a steady flow that you and your team will benefit from. Smooth travel leads to safer driving. Believe it or not, tailgating is a ticket-able offense.  Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

Moreover, a team should allow their partners to proceed. Instead of being annoyed when someone wants to pass, let them go. You are partners with the same goal; arrive at your destination posthaste, not hamper your allies advance. Here’s an idea: when they pass, increase your speed and fall in behind them. If there is a speed trap ahead, your colleague will get busted not you. If that driver wants to travel at a faster pace, take advantage of it. (Surely, I jest?)

The Team’s Biggest Failing

Now let’s look at the biggest reason your most essential team is failing; driving in the wrong lane. The following is from the “Uniform Vehicle Code; Driving on the Right Side of Roadway.” (It happens to be Texas’ code, yet other states read similar to this.)

The code explains: a driver on a roadway shall drive on the right half of the roadway unless the operator is passing another vehicle, there is a hazard, or vehicles have pulled to a stop on the right-hand edge of the roadway. That explains when it becomes necessary to leave the right lane. The next part of the code is where your team breaks down.

An operator of a vehicle on a roadway moving more slowly than the normal speed of other vehicles at the time and place under the existing conditions shall drive in the right-hand lane available for vehicles, or as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway, unless the operator is:

(1)  passing another vehicle; or

(2)  preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.

The code goes on to state; “This law refers to the “normal” speed of traffic, not the “legal” speed of traffic. The 60 MPH driver in a 55 MPH zone where everybody else is going 65 MPH must move right.” Statutes of the State of Texas

The Left-Lane Driver

Let’s unpack this. A motorist moving slower than the speed of other vehicles is to drive in the right-hand lane. Slower traffic is to yield to the faster traffic by getting out of the left lane. Vehicles not passing anyone on their right start to back-up traffic. A driver approaches the slow vehicle so he passes on the right, reaches a slow driver in the right lane, and gets trapped between the left and right lane drivers.

Another car comes along trying to pass the slow car in the left-hand lane and gets stuck behind it. Consequently, more cars become buried. All at the fault of the left-lane driver who doesn’t migrate to the right lane, allowing them to pass. When in the right lane and you encounter a car moving slower, maneuver safely around them, and proceed back to the right lane. This is a reason your most essential team is failing. Change it by working as a team.

I know some of you are saying, that’s a hassle. Do you know what that is called? Driving. The definition of driving is, “to guide the movement of a vehicle; to go or travel in a vehicle.” It involves moving the wheel, using turn signals, being aware of what is around you, and changing lanes. If you are not doing these actions you are not driving; making you more likely to be the cause of an accident.

The Meat of the Uniform Vehicle Code

The next part of the Uniform Vehicle Code is extremely interesting: “This law refers to the “normal” speed of traffic, not the “legal” speed of traffic. The 60 MPH driver in a 55 MPH zone where everybody else is going 65 MPH must move right.” It doesn’t matter what speed you are going if vehicles are moving faster than you the code states you are to pull over to the right. Transfer out of the left lane(s) to the right lane, and let others proceed. This one change alone will transform how much time you and your teammates arrive at their destination. It takes a joint action of the team to make this work. My preference is, if you aren’t even going the speed limit on an open road, don’t leave the right lane. We collaborate to keep traffic moving.

Admittedly, when I drive my speed is “move out of the way,” which means I’ll be passing you on your left. The times when the left-hand lane driver doesn’t pull over, I pass on the right and usually wave at them. I like to let my teammate know that despite them I am making my way. (Believe it or not, passing on the right is legal; it’s just more dangerous.)

Team Insight From Failing

The most essential team you are on is driving and your meetings are held on the roadways. Everyone longs to achieve the same goal; arrive at their destination quickly and safely. The plan should be a coordinated effort on the part of everyone in your team, all drivers, for a joint coalition to enable the group to work smoothly. One person not willing to follow the plan will corrupt the system. Each accident delays you and no one likes being in meetings longer than necessary. To reach the team’s goal involves the realization that we are colleagues, acting in the interest of a common cause. Subsequently, the result will be everyone getting to their destination quicker.

Achieving the goal is possible, as long as the team pulls together instead of working to their advantage. Traffic jams are a problem we can all solve. Will the team succeed and make its goal or will it keep failing! That depends on YOU!

Categories
Best Practices Growth Health and Wellness

What Someone Else’s Sickness Costs You

It’s disturbing witnessing the number of people out and about who show signs of the flu. They cough, sneeze and look like they have been run over by a train. It’s not just the adults. A parent will be shopping with their child who’s wiping his nose, has a fever and coughs like it is coming straight out of his chest. Along with that, the child picks up everything in sight.

Why do they think this is acceptable! Today people have the attitude of taking care of themselves, not think about the effect on others. In the end, it hurts them too.

Influenza, (also known as the “flu”) is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses. Common symptoms are: comes on quickly, fever, aches, chills, fatigue, cough, headache, sometimes along with sneezing, stuffy nose, and sore throat.

The CDC estimates that so far this season there have been at least 9.7 million flu illnesses, 87,000 hospitalizations and 4,800 deaths from flu. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

This year, influenza B is predominant. The strain affects children more than adults. Usually, the season starts with influenza A, which affects older adults more than children.  With influenza B, the result is more cases of child flu and fewer cases of elderly adults.

With the perspective of lookout for your self-interest, people will show up to work even when they are sick. They believe others need to care for themselves, it’s not their concern. The outcome is that you are putting yourself in a position of risk that will cost you more than taking a day or two off work.

Let’s look at a scenario: You have the flu and don’t stay home on the grounds that you can’t afford to miss work financially. In your case, you bring the flu virus to the office and affect others. Probably okay for you since it didn’t hurt you.

Now reverse that. You can’t afford to take days off from work. Your coworker comes to work with the flu and you catch it from him. Now you are forced to visit the doctor, incur expenses, and miss a few days of work, causing loss of wages. Subsequently, his decision to come to work sick makes it your problem.

Even if you only have a cold, with a hacking cough, fatigue, and a slight fever. Your immune system weakens, making you susceptible to catching the flu from a coworker who didn’t stay home when they should have. Consequently, you catch the flu.

This is the same thing that happens with children. Your child is coughing, running a fever, feels achy, and has low energy, yet you take him out in public. He contaminates others, which causes an outbreak in his school, at his friend’s house, even in the community.

Conversely, your child has a hacking cough, sneezing, runny nose, and you have him out in public. His immune system is more susceptible to catching a virus. He becomes exposed to someone who did not keep their child home, so he catches the flu. Their selfish action caused your child to become infected. You’re now heading to the doctor’s office, and have no choice but to take a couple of days off to care for your child. This will continue unless people take into account both sides of the situation, and examine the consequences.

The moral of the story is, if you or your child are sick, stay home. Not for reason that it is the right thing to do, which it is; it’s the only way to protect yourself and your children. You will avoid trips to the doctor, paying for medications and feeling miserable. In the end, that’s what costs you more.

For your Information:

The Difference Between a Cold and the Flu

 

Signs and Symptoms Cold Influenza (Flu)
Symptom onset Gradual Abrupt
Fever Rare Usual; lasts 3-4 days
Aches Slight Usual; often severe
Chills Uncommon Fairly common
Fatigue, weakness Sometimes Usual
Sneezing Common Sometimes
Chest discomfort, cough Mild to moderate; hacking cough Common; can be severe
Stuffy nose Common Sometimes
Sore throat Common Sometimes
Headache Rare Common

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Categories
Best Practices Growth Health and Wellness Industries Management Technology

Take Your Biggest Problem…and Skip It

Every business runs into issues that can or will halt progress and cause the company to stagnate. These include slow cash flow, out-of-date technology, and long sales cycles; you name it, it likely exists. Often, when trying to “fix” the problem, the company gets even more mired in the challenge and can’t seem to get past the roadblock. They focus on the problem and either shift into crisis management mode, letting the problem dictate their every move, or perhaps they solve the problem, but in doing so, uncover that it was never the real problem. Either way, the company is being agile instead of anticipatory.

A Simple Solution

A better solution to solving those tough problems is to just skip them. I know skipping a problem completely sounds simple and almost daunting in nature; however, it is necessary.

How can this help? When you confront your roadblock by leaping over it rather than letting it stop you from reaching your goals, you see new solutions that you never realized existed. Keep in mind, this strategy is in no way meant to encourage you and your organization to procrastinate or pretend that problems don’t exist; they do. The strategy here is to realize the real underlying problem that’s causing your company trouble and making a conscious decision to find a solution to move forward instead of being blocked by it. When a company reorganizes everything, they’re about to solve an internal problem that isn’t the real issue at hand, they are bound to that problem.

If you think this solution sounds fanciful and idealistic, I assure you it isn’t. This strategy is actually a great way to free your mind and view the problem in new and more conducive ways. Consider the following real-life examples of how this strategy has helped companies overcome challenges and make smarter decisions.

A small manufacturing business started getting many requests for several additional products, but in order to meet the increased demand, the company would have to borrow the capital necessary for a major expansion. The business was relatively new, so without a large track record of successful sales and stability, its request for a loan was ultimately rejected by the bank. Instead of putting off the expansion of both the products and the company itself, they decided that the problem at hand could be skipped by way of pre-selling the new products. With those advanced orders in hand, they were able to secure the loan with the bank and proceed.

A company whose job is to solve scientific problems decided that in order to solve said problems faster and accelerate new product development, it would need to triple the number of R&D employees. Despite their career in finding solutions, the roadblock they faced in this situation was that employee costs would also triple, and at the moment, the company couldn’t afford that.

They chose to skip the problem of hiring expensive employees by creating an online R&D forum, wherein the company posts difficult problems needing solutions and offers payment to anyone who can solve the problem.

By making the site open to any scientist with an Internet connection and posting the problems in over a dozen languages, the company created a global, virtual R&D talent pool of independent help, which has found solutions to problems that have literally stumped its own internal researchers. One of the great beauties of this strategy is that the company pays for the virtual researchers’ time and effort only if they come up with a feasible working solution, the amount of money the company pays for a solution depending on the difficulty of the problem. In this case, skipping a problem has brought a company hundreds of solutions to more important problems; the ones they solve professionally as a company.

Every Problem Has A Solution

You must always remember that every problem has a solution, and some are better than others. The key to breaking through your problem is to realize that there are many paths to a destination. And as you pay attention to the Hard Trends shaping your industry, you come to realize that there are many problems that you can actually pre-solve by way of anticipation, allowing you to avoid reaching the point of having to skip the problem, as you will see it coming before it becomes a problem.

However, some are unavoidable. But as I’ve written before, every problem is like an onion. You must peel back the layers in order to find the real problem, listing the components of the problem to reveal whether or not you are working on the correct issue and ultimately toward the correct solution. Always keep in mind that what you perceive to be your biggest problem may not be; so you can simply skip it.

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Health and Wellness Industries Technology

The Cybersecurity of Healthcare

Prior to 1992, the thought of cyberwar, cybersecurity and hacking was predominantly constrained to Hollywood fantasy. Fast-forward to present times, when connectivity is commonplace, and the level of data breaches and hacking has become horrifyingly real.

The reality is that every day, our data is used or even copied, often without us knowing. As a generation that willfully inputs their information on multiple websites, we seem to concern ourselves less with the concept of cybersecurity until disaster strikes.

Trust Must Be Earned

In contrast to not fully considering the importance of cybersecurity, we greatly consider our trust in a company with our data, like our bank, our hospital, our insurance companies, our primary retailer or even the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). We’re quick to assume that if they ask for our sensitive information, they must be taking security measures to prevent that data from being leaked into the wrong hands.

We can never be too sure that a company or even the whole industry is up to the cybersecurity standards that must be utilized in today’s ever-changing digital world. Shockingly, one large industry that suffers financially from data breaches and hacking is the healthcare industry.

Generally, one would think that healthcare and all the sensitive data involved should be buttoned up pretty tightly, but it is quite the contrary. The overall cost of a healthcare breach is about $408 per patient record, not including the loss of business, productivity, and reputation of the entity involved.

Annually, the healthcare industry sees $5 billion in costs to correct data breaches, hacking and all-around poor cybersecurity measures. In addition to the cost to find a solution to these errors, healthcare entities are being fined by the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights, sometimes as much as $28 million annually.

Why So Costly?

The steepness of these fines is the result of a lack of preventative measures. The severity of a data breach in the healthcare industry is immense, where once the damage is done, it is essentially permanent. So, who is responsible once a patient’s records have been breached, and what are the repercussions of this? Financial penalties are prevalent; however, what about breached trust? Is there permanent damage between the patient and the entity?

If a customer goes to a local store and the customer’s data is stolen, the trust the customer had is almost instantly gone, like in Target’s hacking issue, where customers ultimately boycotted shopping there as a result.

Now imagine going to your doctor about personal medical issues, only to be contacted later in the week about how all your personal information is in someone else’s hands now. You would feel incredibly violated and likely wonder if even your doctor was the reason it got out.

Hacking a School

Hackers traditionally target industries with a lot of data and very little security. School districts are examples of this in recent years, the reason being the lack of funds and tight budgets they have to spend on internal cybersecurity.

In contrast, the healthcare industry has a much larger budget in all capacities, making it questionable as to why they seem to be behind the ball. How can a hospital better anticipate what’s to come by realizing the Hard Trend of cyberattacks and pre-solve problems before they occur?

Finding a Solution in Anticipation

A cyber-risk assessment is an option, with many hospitals using a more cost-effective outside vendor to do the job. Preventing cybercrimes is a 24-hour-a-day venture with criminals pinging systems thousands of times a day, so it would greatly benefit healthcare entities to outsource this responsibility to a company with the capacity to monitor security around the clock.

As an entrepreneur, it is safe to assume that cyberattacks on sensitive data hubs in healthcare are a Hard Trend, with the cybersecurity market for healthcare being a burgeoning one with a greater purpose. But if cybersecurity is not your passion, cyber insurance is another option, where covered entities must conduct a thorough assessment of the threats and vulnerabilities, implement reduction measures, and ensure that any vendor or organization handling private health information is security compliant.

Both criminally savvy individuals and the rapid advancement of digital technology are Hard Trends; therefore, healthcare companies and outside entrepreneurs alike should pre-solve future problems before they become disastrous and use their anticipatory mindsets to help move the healthcare industry safely forward.

If you would like a free perimeter test to check for vulnerabilities in your cybersecurity defense system, please contact us. We have identified best-in-class cyber testing companies that will provide the results of their tests and recommend immediate actions that can be taken to stop any uncovered leaks in your system. 

Ask for your free perimeter test at: https://www.burrus.com/contact-us/