Problemtunity.
I wish I could take credit for having coined this term. But it’s the genius of Anne Helen Petersen and Charlie Warzel, co-authors of the new book “Out of Office.”
Next week, I’ll write a full newsletter about the book because I have seven pages filled with excerpts and big ideas from its pages.
For now, I want to spend a little time on the notion of a Problemtunity: something that doesn’t go as planned but opens up new possibilities as a result. Such an apt descriptor for the world right now.
It’s odd to be towards the end of my career and realizing that everything I learned and did and thought for the last 30+ years is up for grabs. As my friend Kai Lawson said the other day: “all the experts are students.”
As a creative person I find this exhilarating.
As a tired person I find this horrifying.
There is so, so much work to be done.
Everything is interconnected. Decisions about remote work are not just about where people take calls and answer emails. It calls into question everything: how much we work, how we’re valued/paid, whose efforts are visible and whose are invisible, which tech products emancipate us and which merely surveil us, whether to talk/text/email/video chat, and how hobbies and caregiving fit in to the mix.
The work my team and I have been doing for The 3% Movement has been spotlighting the interconnectedness of systems for a decade, yet the front-burnering of ALL of these issues — simultaneously and with urgency due to the Pandemic — takes my breath away.
My hunch in times like this is to get very quiet and pay close attention. This is a moment for synthesizing, not springing into action. So all I can offer are observations from my time here at Eleven, echoes I hear from a decade of diversity work, and hunches I have about what might come next.
In no particular order…
Mental Health Is Job One
Now is a good time to revisit how you support people’s mental health and how you talk about it. Less is not more right now. More is more. Talk openly and often about how hard and destabilizing world events and health concerns are. If you have good medical insurance that covers therapy, go the extra step and research in-network therapists that can actually take on new patients (many are overloaded right now).
If you have meditation apps or yoga classes or other stress-management benefits, see if people are using them. If not, consider whether people are so at their limit that they can’t even find time to seek the pause that might actually help. Self-care is only useful if people can actually find a moment to turn their care inward, away from deadlines.
Talk openly about your own self-care rituals. Put therapy on your public-facing calendar. I recently tweeted to the company Mint that their budgeting software doesn’t list therapy as a default category for spending in the drop-down menu. My tweet was about a suggested product fix, yes, but it was also a public way for me to normalize that I see a therapist (and do Reiki and grief counseling, too, for the record.) When senior leadership openly shares their own struggles, it goes a long way to helping others realize there is zero shame in prioritizing mental health.
Courtney (Eleven’s CEO) and I talked about this recently and he wondered if the topic might warrant standalone workshops akin to the wonderful ones they’ve hosted through The Mosaic Collaborative. Not only did I think that was a great idea, but I underscored how it’s a build on the foundation that The Mosaic Collaborative provided. Cultural competence spans many, many issues: understanding how to recognize and combat racism, sexism, ableism, ageism are main pillars but not the only ones. Mental health awareness is 100% part of the curriculum of being a human in today’s world and intersects with inclusion in powerful ways. When the world wasn’t built with you in mind, stress multiplies. So prioritizing and normalizing mental health is an act of self-care, yes, but can also be a powerful form of allyship to communities that have been marginalized. As another wise friend, Amy Small, said recently to me: “Compartmentalization is privilege.”
Check your vendors
I spoke recently to a friend who’s a senior HR leader who shared how vendors and insurance companies vacillate wildly. Some start from a posture of “we’re going to make it hard to say yes to your claim” to “we’re here to help you get all the care you need.” This is especially true for people seeking medical leave or treatment for addiction.
Who manages your company’s care? How responsive and supportive are they of your people when they most need it? Find out by asking folks who have filed recent claims or paying close attention to how you’re treated the next time you do so yourself.
Knock first
Being reachable all the time can be a drain. Just because you can show up unexpectedly in someone’s ear or the palm of their hand at any moment of day or night doesn’t mean you should plow right ahead.
Assume people are busy when you’re trying to reach them because, in all likelihood, they are. Show them the courtesy of asking when they might have a moment to discuss something. Good leaders are deeply respectful of people’s time and boundaries, even more so now that we have more ways we can interrupt one another and are often doing so in their home environment. Heidi Taglio, Eleven’s Head of Employee Experience, mentioned to me that she’s noticed an uptick in this kind of respect among Eleven’s leadership team. Here is a text she shared with me from another partner at the agency to show how it looks in practice. It’s a small thing, except it isn’t.
And while I’m on the topic of niceties, can someone at Google Meet and Zoom invent a way to track who “raised hand” first? Thanks.
Wise Reminders
Two of my favorite Twitter friends posted cautionary words this week. Take heed.
See you all next week with my book report on “Out of Office.” Until next time, remember that culture is the new creativity.
Problemtunity, that's a new one for me. Thanks for sharing! I love Vikki Ross's tweet - I always advise my clients to literally hold time on their calendars at least 2 months in advance to give strategic thought around these events. It's good stamina practice -( equity and inclusion takes stamina!)