Teaching has been around for as long as humans have been. Even after a worldwide shock (!), the appeal of learning from effective trainers doesn’t diminish. In fact, existential change can increase the need for good trainers.

The role of a trainer is to establish a clear process for achieving an outcome, and then to explain that process in a step-by-step, easy-to-understand methodology.

The value of a good trainer, beyond their ability to explain content, is the ability to gauge progress and comprehension.

Good training sessions result in an identifiable change in the “before” and “after” knowledge of the participants.

A job description that didn’t exist a generation ago, but which is a valid role now, is that of “Facilitator”. A facilitator is the independent ‘director’ of a meeting or workshop which needs a specific conclusion or output.

The value of the facilitator is their ‘helicopter’ view, shining a light on the process, more than the content.

The role of the facilitator is to create space and manage the energy and engagement, making it easier to reach a conclusion.

In the end, though, it’s not about the facilitator. Good facilitators are hardly noticed; what’s noticed, rather, is the result.

Technical experts working in or consulting to a business are intricately focussed on doing rather than showing knowledge.

The technical specialists contribute to the business by doing tasks such as writing documents, creating designs, preparing justifications or checking the work done by others.

They use their deep technical knowledge to create a better business. This is different to excellent managers and leaders, who rightly spend more time showing and helping others succeed.

Sometimes it is difficult to convince management of the value brought through that technical expertise. Technical leadership is different to team or personnel leadership, but no less important.

Work done in the built environment space gets done because details have been written down. Design companies, at the base of it, produce just pictures and words.

And so, it is so very important those pictures and words are clear, concise, and correct. Just because we have the ability to write long (long!) documents, that doesn’t mean that we always should.

Written communication forces higher precision in our critical thinking skills. A well-written document carries more weight than a verbal conversation, and that written document is also more permanent. Good writing goes a long way also to amplify leadership ability.

I make time for something called “uno time”.

“Uno time” is different to just time alone. “Uno” here is a shortened version of the word ‘unobligated’.

Sometimes even when we’re alone, we’re still obligated to be ready to converse with others, simply because they are in the vicinity and might talk at any time. Or we are obligated to follow the road rules or make small talk. So that’s not ‘uno’.

Being totally unobligated to others provides another level of freedom for thinking. Real “Uno Time” means you can wander free in your thoughts without being ready to be interrupted.

“Dunbar’s Number” emerged more than 10 years ago. It postulates that humans can only cognitively keep track of about 150 contacts in their community or sphere.

This is a useful number for office spaces, residential communities, marketers, and perhaps wedding planners.

This output was being presented and discussed 10 years ago, lamenting the increased use of screens and growing ‘followers’ for socialising.

The research also identified the importance of human touch, pointing out that while screen-based communication serves to ‘prevent the decay’ of an established relationship, it is still crucial to meet up at the pub to fully appreciate it.

Back in February (an age ago), I mused about the role of consuming and producing in our economy: we’re always either consuming or producing.

The next step in that thinking is about the economic sectors, which are:

• Primary: Natural resources

• Secondary: Manufacturing and processing

• Tertiary: Services and distribution

• Quaternary: Knowledge and information

The current scenario has us very focused on all those sectors, probably with a different view than we had six weeks ago. And the question I keep wondering, along with others I’ve spoken to, is –the money circulating furiously six weeks ago, I wonder where it has gone.

A good quadrant model can simplify, clarify, and organise scattered thinking. The best-known quadrant model these days is credited to Eisenhower; his “Important / Urgent” quadrant model. The four quadrants categorise the handing of information, based on importance and urgency, resulting in quadrants labelled “Do/Decide/Delegate/Delete”.

When I wrote the date for today’s post, I couldn’t get past “fool”; the date and label were inseparable. So, I just had to go with it.

Fortunately, I remembered I have developed a quadrant model for comparing different levels of knowledge versus thinking style. It’s clear which quadrant we don’t want to be in.

There’s no shortage these days of offers for newly minted free options for developing skills and gaining knowledge. In the current circumstances, the perceived ‘free time’ that people might have is being rapidly filled by offers of free training, free webinars, free (for now) streaming services.

Identifying the relevant, valuable, useful skills that will help in the future is a valid chore right now. Some of the opportunities that might be of interest are:

Drawing (including in particular, technical, architectural, electrical, scientific), photography, meditation, languages, programming/coding, public speaking, writing, and the old (new to me) chestnut: “Learning how to learn”.

I have an ‘electronic pile’ of email newsletters dating back to last July, which I’m finally working through. The first thing I did was sort them into categories of similar topics: for example, three of my many areas of interest (besides risk/quality/competence) are productivity, writing skills, and entertainment (bring on the funny dog videos).

Our brains are amazing, but also lazy. Jumping from topic to topic, in hazes of clouded information, is not an effective way to absorb information. I set aside 20-45mins a day, and it’s more satisfying when the time is spent on one newsletter type or topic.

Being ‘in a groove’ is comfortable, easy, and unsurprising. It can also be useful, inspiring, and satisfying. When we’re in a groove, it feels right, and things seem to go our way. Problems get solved, and there is little conflict.

But at some point, it’s worth looking at that groove and trying to decide if, in fact, it’s actually a rut. Maybe that groove – or rather, rut – means that you’re no longer learning, no longer challenged.

Perhaps it’s worth a shake-up now and then, to shake us out of our rut, which we might have thought was a groove.

The opposite of uncertainty is, of course, certainty. The nature of the human mind is such that we struggle with uncertainty. When faced with uncertainty, we strive to reach certainty of some sort. Certainty is found – imperfectly sometimes for sure –through applying heuristics, stereotypes or generalisations. These shortcuts are applied for new situations, new experiences, or to pigeonhole that new person we’ve just met.

In times of uncertainty, especially when it’s multiple aspects, these shortcuts can be detrimental. The new situation, experience, or person doesn’t fit into those pigeonholes. Be forgiving, patient and kind. Those are easy shortcuts to apply.

Some of the work I do involves facilitating a group of people to agree on some tangible outcomes.

In my role facilitating risk workshops for the safety of our built infrastructure, we spend time trying to predict the behaviour of others. It’s relying on the behaviour of others – following procedures, doing the right thing – that can make or break the effectiveness of some of our risk control methodologies.

Prediction of human behaviour, or in a similar sense, of how an unseen infection may behave, is fraught with difficulty. I don’t envy those currently trying to determine the right next steps.

Never before have we paid so much attention to what is actually essential. And also, in the opposite: identifying what is non-essential.

In the times before these, everything we had, and everything we were doing, seemed essential. It was essential to make time to go to the café. It was essential to have friends over on the weekend. It was essential to hug a relative when we met after a time apart.

Giving up those essentials opens our mind to think about what is left. But on the other hand, in a modern society, enjoying life is an essential too.

I’m guilty of recently – like about 6 months ago – lamenting that the world needs ‘a reset’. I remarked that we as a society were getting too comfortable, too bored. We’ve had it too easy for at least a generation or two; many of us have never seen real hardship.

Well I guess we’re now having that reset.

But I’m oddly okay with it – because it tests fragility. This reset might, hopefully, clear out some shoddy practises, the nonjobs, and the focussed greed on always wanting to get more.

For humans and society to excel, we need to not be fragile.

Our ability to think and understand can get muddled when there’s an enormous amount of information coming in, especially when combined with uncertainty.

Analogies and metaphors are useful to quickly understand a complex issue. A good metaphor can clarify the intent or idea, by relating it to something recognisable or already known.

The Queensland Premier gave an excellent example of this for our current lockdown situation: We’re in a cyclone. Every day, for the foreseeable future. You wouldn’t go out in a cyclone, so, just imagine when you wake up every day, there’s a cyclone coming. And don’t go out.

When faced with a decision which is based on a piece of information that you don’t yet have, it seems that the human brain has a habit of shutting down; or being otherwise irrational.

What faced us last week was the question: when can we fly back? And the answer was: after the test results come in. When will that be? (Crickets.)

In the bigger picture, this situation is faced all the time in the arena of technical expertise. Managing – and supporting - the decision-making process in the face of lack of information, is the root of many stressful jobs.

Obviously, life has changed. What hasn’t changed is time: there are still seven days in the week, and there are still 24hrs in a day.

Time continues to tick over, whether we are commuting into an office or not. Calendars mark time, though those calendars may look a little different these days.

Revere time for what it is: it is something we all have in the same amount, no matter who we are.

Perhaps this is a good time for a pause, time to rethink about the important things, and a chance to spend some time with that reading pile.

It was a relief when the 14-hour flight landed in Brisbane this morning.

Airline travel has become a ubiquitous part of ‘doing business’ in many parts of the world. When I started working in Calgary in the early 90s, a business trip to Toronto was a “Big Deal”.

By the mid-2000s, business travel was a staple in many workers’ lives; I’ve been hopping up and down Australia’s east coast regularly and without fuss for 10 years. And for 20 years I’ve been doing an at-least annual trip back to Calgary.

I feel for the workers in the airline industry today.

The anxiety of the unknown is being studied and discussed in every corner of the connected world right now.

Another state of mind that would be interesting to study is when the unknown is resolved.

Because we all face that awakening about all this, at some point in the future – and won’t that be a grand feeling indeed.

The relief felt when things work out, like a negative covid19 test, is remarkable. Perhaps a few dances and jigs took place. We’re now bracing ourselves for the jump to the next spinning plate: getting our feet back on terra firma australis.