The Future of Work 2023
We’re not “post pandemic” just because we want to be.
(And yes, it’s the same sad story from last January, and the year before. I have been early and sadly accurate on this pandemic.)
So - 3 years in- in our life-work environments how do we deal with this new hybrid state — this state of limbo — of being weary of the public health safety protocols and wary of the consequences at the same time?
“As we look at 2023, how do we deal with our new hybrid state: weary of pandemic protocols, wary of the consequences?”
As the new year starts, how do we, all of us, everyone really, but in this case businesses, and in particular company boards and the board directors deal with our not-even-new reality, and our insistent future?
“Would you rather have a hybrid or virtual meeting that is quorate and high attendance, or would you rather risk apologies from directors unable to attend meetings face to face if they are forced to commute?” asks my longtime board journey mentor Shefaly Yogendra in her year end wrap up.
Read it here: Boards and governance: Lessons from 2022
Meanwhile, a future of work inspiration of mine, Budd Caddell who credits Kevin Kelly for the term ‘Protopian Organization’ and offers this one prediction for 2023 from the wreckage of 2022: there is a vacuum for a new kind of organization that takes the future seriously, and creates real change with its people and communities.
With trust in institutions waning, employees disengaged, consumers looking for meaning, progress stalled both at the org- and systemic-level”, a new, more mature organization can emerge, Caddell says.
I immediately recognize this is an opportunity for businesses that take living with the pandemic seriously - to offer the people they work with a baseline of health and safety - by upgrading their ventilation systems, and allowing hybrid work and virtual meetings as Yogendra mentions above, but I see companies failing to do this more often than not. Even companies that pride themselves on futurism, like Google.
“It’s time for organizations that take the future seriously and work for mutual enrichment of their people and communities”
These new protopian organizations he describes, “they don't just paint an optimistic picture of tomorrow, they respect the problems that come with trying to make anything better. These orgs won't just slap "we make the world a better place" on their label and career site and ignore the unintended consequences of their business model and culture.”
We're not 'learning' pandemic life well or fast enough
We’re not learning. The tragedy of this pandemic has been laced with ignorance and neglect of science and public health education from the start. Our pandemic world needs education, and a new ability to learn science and adaptation.
“Cruise ship docks and brings virus to SF? What year is this? Oh right, it’s today. ”
2022. 2 years into the pandemic.
Schools are reopening and still haven’t addressed ventilation. The hospitals are already filled with children.
Fog brained Long Covid sufferers may count into the millions in Florida alone?
“The cost of not learning pandemic life - well, fast, or at all - is immense.
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We were already challenged in the cognition department before this point.
In “Making Early Sense Of The Pandemic”, I refer to the February 2020 cruise ships - just like the one this week pictured above - that disgorged 2,500 virally infected people into San Francisco while people on the street assured me they didn’t need my leaflet of public health warnings about a damaging virus because they ‘don’t live here’.
The tragedy of this pandemic has been laced with ignorance and neglect of science and public health education from the start.
“A pandemic world needs education, and a new ability to learn science and adaptation.”
Yes, you can learn adaptation.
Making early sense of the pandemic
“I saw the coronavirus coming in January”
I saw the coronavirus coming in January and have been tracking the pandemic ever since. It’s been uniquely disturbing to see a mysterious wave of illness and death surging toward us, with far too many people refusing to face it.
~ Andrew M. Slavitt (former Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)
“A wave of illness and death is surging toward us with far too many people refusing to face it”
I’d been looking to see which flus were coming out of China as my family members and business associates were heading to CES in Las Vegas in mid January. I wanted to know which bugs they might be dealing with at the massive consumer electronics trade show.
I’ve been highlighting points made on Twitter by various sources about the COVID-19 pandemic — and the antivax movement, which as it happens will be even more destructive a force in society with this true-blue no-vaccine killer virus on the loose.
So I found the pandemic in January. In February I found the general response we’d need to preserve our medical system and suppress the spread of the virus.
I'd discovered the below graph of Philadelphia vs. St. Louis deaths from the Spanish Flu, showing how social isolation helped depress the infections and deaths in one town while the other’s lax policy resulted in a spike of unnecessary deaths.
A response blueprint in February
I saw a German computer scientist share this Spanish Flu example of what we need to do as a society to flatten the curve of COVID
Correct public health policy saves lives
A French multinational biotech company shared this study of how public health decisions saved citizens and flattened the curve of the Spanish Flu
It was great to see a Bloomberg deep dive on the same example when it came out a few weeks later, and the term “flatten the curve” make its way into public health communications on COVID.
Collecting resources for all in March
Click through to reach my list.
I also follow these COVID lists, click on their names to see: Kim Mai-Cutler and Brian Koppelman.
I started a Twitter list of COVID-19 expert sources in early March.
It seemed especially important to gather my own science and public safety sources (and follow other lists compiled by early pandemic watchers) at a time when the president and far too many government leaders were ignoring or downplaying the disastrous and monumental impact of this virus on the planet’s human population. The disinformation campaign against early effective action will go down in history as a genocide.
“People said “I don’t need that leaflet - I don’t live here.”
That’s ok, viruses love to travel! ”
In early March I was activated by the Fire Department as an emergency response worker for disaster preparedness. SF had declared a health emergency the prior week. The activation meant passing out coronavirus health department leaflets downtown (wash your hands, don’t touch your face [impossible for humans I believe], elbow cough, make plans).
Handing out public health COVID preparation leaflets on that busy Financial District street corner was brutal. People didn’t want to hear it.
Some people laughed, some people said no!, some people said “I don’t need that - I don’t live here.” I thought, That’s ok, viruses love to travel! A handful were grateful and said “hey thanks for doing this.” They knew we’re all in it together and with 2 community transmission cases in SF that very day, the virus was already here, and also waiting in a cruise ship off the Golden Gate.
To be continued…
Ghost kitchens: In the news for fraud, and as a good VC investment?
I went out to dinner 2 weeks ago and ended up talking to a TV reporter for an investigative segment he was working on about the ghost kitchens of GrubHub. That particular restaurant’s owner was shocked to find his establishment being advertised on GrubHub since he does not have a listing there, and doesn’t even do delivery. So who made the food that the online delivery customer ordered? And who received the customer’s cash for it?
This brand hijacking system needs an immediate revisit.
I saw that a week earlier, a local blog reported the poor conditions at a ghost kitchen.
Read broke-ass Stuart’s reporting on ghost kitchens in San Francisco’s SOMA district.
And yet today, an industry intelligence newsletter says that "ghost kitchens are red hot" today because they let restaurants operate without brick and mortar dining locations. That’s PitchBook Data.
