There was a very interesting article in the Sab Bee on 9/25 about the banking industry preparingfor a disaster such as a pandemic.
-- Unfortunately, (in my opinion) the Sac Bee website sucks so bad I can't find a link for the article even though I have the ripped out section in my hands....
But anyway, bans and other financial systems are preparing a 3 week long disaster scenarion to prepare resposes in case of emergency. These exercises include:
Coping with absenteeism: The over 2700 finnacial institutions recieved instrcutions that included assuming that 25% of the work force cannot comne to work. They were given certain letters to ID last names to ensure that the "hypothetical flu" could hit the bank president as well as the teller or janitor. In week two the scenario requies that the absentee rate be 49%
The planner have also proposed deling with shrinking bandwidth as more people try to conduct business from home, tring up the efficiency of transactions, possibly worldwide.
They expect cash withdrawals from ATMs to increase dramatically and considered how to get those machines re-filled with $$ as people are gone. Other interesting stumbles are considered as well.
This all just highlights the need for all of us do give some time and energy to thinking about how to be less caught off gard when something happens. Flood scenarios, home fires, etc. they are all hard to think about, but with some minimum consideration you could save you comany or family some of the pain and headaches of not having food, cash, communications, rendevous sites, etc. planned in advance.
http://www.sba.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/sba_homepage/serv_disaster_ap051707.pdf
http://www.sba.gov/services/disasterassistance/disasterpreparedness/serv_disaster_inthenews.html
Crisies are a lot less devastating when they aren't a total surpirse.
Showing posts with label decide. Show all posts
Showing posts with label decide. Show all posts
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Monday, October 8, 2007
Decide
“Love God and trust your feelings. Be loyal to them. Don't betray them.” Robert C. Pollock.
Certainly, to a great extent, your feelings about things – your children, your dog, your job – motivate your willingness to engage. However, many of us today have come to speak of “trust your feelings,” as if -- if it felt good it was good, if it felt right it was right.
This is not at all the real experience of those who create. Whether entrepreneur or weaver, for most people who create there is a lot of indecision, embarrassment, fear, uncertainty, doubt -- costs in money, time and energy involved. Moving into the unknown is tough – and it often does not “feel” particularly good.
One of the difficulties of generating new ideas, plans, products or paintings is that to make a decision to pursue something new necessitates the leaving off of something else. You’re 49; do you become a choreographer instead of a dancer? Travel the world but not put down roots? Marry Larry instead of Mary? If it’s a hard choice it’s likely that your desires are fairly well matched and yet in conflict in some way. If you could do both well, why would you be deciding?
When deciding, much of the bad feeling has its foundation in the fact that by simply choosing one you have to turn away from another. I read recently in Rolling Stone magazine that Johnny Depp took up acting as a way to pay the bills while he worked for a deal for his band. He says that he doesn’t take acting seriously, even now. I’m not saying that he ever regrets his choice, it’s just that on the days Johnny Depp experiences that he is an actor now and not a musician (starving or otherwise) he must wonder about the something lost, the thing not chosen.
Interestingly, it is said that the word “decide” comes from the Latin word, decider, meaning to cut off or cut away and, the suffix, --“cide,” meaning to kill -- related to the words, suicide and homicide. To decide means literally to cut off and kill something. Ever been in the position where you’re deciding to quit your job and take a mortgage on your house so that you can start that design firm or open that shop?
The new feels bad – the fear, risk, embarrassment, financial failure; the old, it feels bad too – the sameness, the boss, the regret. Knowing that a scary, sad, uncertain feeling about moving in a new direction is ordinary and literally, an experience of loss, can help you focus more on gaining the knowledge you need to make smart decisions and the self awareness to make values-based ones.
The fact that a decision feels bad does not help inform you of which direction to go. Don’t let fear be the thing that arbitrarily dismisses you choices. Everyone feels the fear of the new and the emptiness of the lost.
So, what’s left? Well, of course there is good fact gathering. Are you purchasing that building armed with information about ratios and market trends? Does that new product fit into your marketing image? Do you have good community involvement, do you know your banker, have you come to understand your company’s agenda, do you have good boundaries and chip in when appropriate?
And, yes, maybe some of the other emotions, are you excited about one option, does that give you energy for the struggle that either one would be? Do you feel hope, instead of stymied? It is as hard to pick between two magnificent, inspiring and life-changing events as two terrible ones. Don’t let the fact that it feels AWFUL to think about leaving your job of 20 years and becoming a children’s advocate be the reason you don’t do it. I’m not saying do it, either, I’m just saying that all decisions involve a loss and all loss feels bad. Acknowledging that factor in the equation
Certainly, to a great extent, your feelings about things – your children, your dog, your job – motivate your willingness to engage. However, many of us today have come to speak of “trust your feelings,” as if -- if it felt good it was good, if it felt right it was right.
This is not at all the real experience of those who create. Whether entrepreneur or weaver, for most people who create there is a lot of indecision, embarrassment, fear, uncertainty, doubt -- costs in money, time and energy involved. Moving into the unknown is tough – and it often does not “feel” particularly good.
One of the difficulties of generating new ideas, plans, products or paintings is that to make a decision to pursue something new necessitates the leaving off of something else. You’re 49; do you become a choreographer instead of a dancer? Travel the world but not put down roots? Marry Larry instead of Mary? If it’s a hard choice it’s likely that your desires are fairly well matched and yet in conflict in some way. If you could do both well, why would you be deciding?
When deciding, much of the bad feeling has its foundation in the fact that by simply choosing one you have to turn away from another. I read recently in Rolling Stone magazine that Johnny Depp took up acting as a way to pay the bills while he worked for a deal for his band. He says that he doesn’t take acting seriously, even now. I’m not saying that he ever regrets his choice, it’s just that on the days Johnny Depp experiences that he is an actor now and not a musician (starving or otherwise) he must wonder about the something lost, the thing not chosen.
Interestingly, it is said that the word “decide” comes from the Latin word, decider, meaning to cut off or cut away and, the suffix, --“cide,” meaning to kill -- related to the words, suicide and homicide. To decide means literally to cut off and kill something. Ever been in the position where you’re deciding to quit your job and take a mortgage on your house so that you can start that design firm or open that shop?
The new feels bad – the fear, risk, embarrassment, financial failure; the old, it feels bad too – the sameness, the boss, the regret. Knowing that a scary, sad, uncertain feeling about moving in a new direction is ordinary and literally, an experience of loss, can help you focus more on gaining the knowledge you need to make smart decisions and the self awareness to make values-based ones.
The fact that a decision feels bad does not help inform you of which direction to go. Don’t let fear be the thing that arbitrarily dismisses you choices. Everyone feels the fear of the new and the emptiness of the lost.
So, what’s left? Well, of course there is good fact gathering. Are you purchasing that building armed with information about ratios and market trends? Does that new product fit into your marketing image? Do you have good community involvement, do you know your banker, have you come to understand your company’s agenda, do you have good boundaries and chip in when appropriate?
And, yes, maybe some of the other emotions, are you excited about one option, does that give you energy for the struggle that either one would be? Do you feel hope, instead of stymied? It is as hard to pick between two magnificent, inspiring and life-changing events as two terrible ones. Don’t let the fact that it feels AWFUL to think about leaving your job of 20 years and becoming a children’s advocate be the reason you don’t do it. I’m not saying do it, either, I’m just saying that all decisions involve a loss and all loss feels bad. Acknowledging that factor in the equation
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