Friday Faves - What We're Reading This Week - Ripple Effect Group

Friday Faves is our weekly blog series highlighting a few select pieces from the REG team’s reading lists. You can catch up on past Friday Faves on the archive.

Remote Working Meetup Group

We have setup a Remote Working Meetup Group to build an international community of people who are working remotely, whether remote work is old news for them or they are #suddenlyremote. The community aims to support one another through these challenging times, and to share and discuss challenges and strategies to work remotely effectively ourselves and support our teams and organisations in doing so as well.

All remote workers are welcome, wherever you are in the world – join our meetup group to RSVP for our weekly Zoom meetups and to access the resources and notes we’ll share from each meetup. We’d love to see you online at our next meetup, 26/27 March (details at the meetup link below). For our international friends, please note all meetups are running in English.

Join: https://www.meetup.com/Remote-Working-Meetup-Group/

Cartoon of the week

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From Tom Gauld in one of his comic collections (for sale on his site).

Anne says: I particularly love this cartoon at the moment – when we’re being flooded with COVID-19 news stories, updates from experts – some real, some not so real – it makes me think about my own reading habits and how I apply each of the practices illustrated by Tom Gauld. How many of us fall into these traps as readers? And as writers? Perhaps we need this cartoon posted somewhere close by to remind us of how people interact with our content.

How to Not Completely Hate the People You’re Quarantined With

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Anne says: As someone that’s used to working remotely and also at home, I saw the headline, smiled and nearly applied a number of the tactics in this week’s cartoon!

But – as someone currently in Barcelona, Spain, where we’re entering our 5th day of total confinement, I’m starting to appreciate the challenges of being confined. The article says we’re going to feel:

… bored, frustrated, lonely, angry, and stressed. Humans don’t like to be thrown out of their routines, particularly when the changes leave them feeling trapped.

Let me do a check on those feelings. Bored – nope, plenty to do. Frustrated – mmm definitely, but not sure why. Lonely – definitely. Angry – not yet. Stress – totally. Trapped – absolutely. We’re only allowed to leave our apartments for food, pharmacy or to walk our dogs around the block (we were confronted by the police today for being 2 blocks from home). My typical routine included a number of daily excursions to cafes, or a glass of wine in the later afternoon where social interactions were varied but always engaging. Now we cross the road rather than walk past someone. You turn away – or wave from the other side of the road if you know someone. But essentially, this intentional avoidance of contact is so foreign to me, it’s disturbing. We have a terrace that allows us to get fresh air and sunlight – I’m not sure how I’d survive without that.

We’ve also set-up exercise routines and targets, reduced our food intake (but definitely savouring an evening G&T on the terrace), eating super healthy foods and inventing new games for the dogs to keep them entertained. I can’t imagine what challenges having a household of school children would be like!

What the article doesn’t mention is hostage mentality. We have developed a sense of connection with people across the road – at set times we wave and say hi. Some kids across our internal courtyard set up daily signs. Some younger people have a nightly song and the entire block gets into a singing moment. And then there’s the 8pm celebration of health workers where we all go to the street balconies and clap, cheer and generally make noise – lasts about 5-10 minutes, but I wouldn’t miss it for anything!

The strategies outlined in this article are important – we need to cut a little space for everyone. We’re all feeling a bit tense and of course worried how long this may go on. For us, with no light at the end of the tunnel, we need to try not to dwell on that. And as my Sydney yoga teacher just reminded me – remember to breathe!!

Stay safe, stay home!!

Read: https://www.wired.com/story/coronavirus-surviving-quarantine-without-killing-partner/

Staying sane in lockdown (voluntary or otherwise!)

Teddy bear wearing a surgical mask in the foreground with a bottle of disinfectant in the background

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Jakkii says: While we’re not (yet) in total lockdown in Australia like we’re seeing in some other countries, for many of us, working from home and practising appropriate social distancing means we’ll be spending a lot more time at home, especially with so many things closing around us. Fortunately, for when we’re not singing with our neighbours (or doing aerobics with them), there are a lot of organisations and people out there making content available online to keep you entertained – and help prevent us all getting cabin fever.

I’ve put together a few I’ve seen in the list below – if you’ve come across others you like, please share them with us in the comments or on social media!

Plus – a dystopian reading list. You’re welcome!

And, let’s not forget our need to stay sane during remote meetings. Try this:

humorous bingo card where each square is something you might hear on a conference call

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Or this:

humorous bingo card where each square are things related to working from home during a pandemic

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Stay safe everyone – and wash your hands!

Social Media Friday Five

Sydney Business Insights – The Future This Week Podcast

This week: the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, and what it means for the future of business. Sandra Peter (Sydney Business Insights) and Kai Riemer (Digital Disruption Research Group) meet once a week to put their own spin on news that is impacting the future of business in The Future, This Week.

The stories this week

03:05 – How to think about the plummeting stock market

07:53 – How will the coronavirus shape the future?

Other stories we bring up

McKinsey executive briefing on COVID-19 and implications for business

‘Cancel Everything’ and social distancing

Cancelled events, conferences, festivals games and classes

Facebook tells employees to stay home and cancel any trips

Coronavirus will bankrupt SMEs

Sharp declines in the global oil price as a result of increased supply

Supply chain dependency on China

University of Sydney and NSW Health have grown the live coronavirus