Time to Start Popping

If you know me, you’ll know that I’ve been talking about bubbles for a few years now. 

It’s not because I had a crystal ball and could see the future when bubbles would become part of our everyday vocabulary. It’s obviously because my company is called POP.

In the work that I do, I talk about how we often try to protect ourselves in bubbles when we feel threatened by challenges in our lives: 

  • when we face a career crossroads

  • when our self-worth has taken a hit

  • when we feel less than compared to others

  • when we feel like our true value isn’t being recognised

  • when we feel unfulfilled, unsatisfied and unsure about our future

That’s a long list. Which means there’s a lot of hiding going on.

As we now know, of course, hiding in our bubbles can be a reasonable response, but only in the short term. Because our bubbles can end up trapping us if we don’t have the courage to pop them when it’s time. 

These are the...

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Popping Bubbles

It is decreed. We’re allowed to hug again! At least a few people we know and love. I wrote in March about how big a challenge it would be for people like me to stop short of giving people we greet a quick squeeze. I vowed to hold back, and imagine a bubble around me. 

Little did I know bubbles would become a thing!

Now I’m wondering what the future might hold, beyond a hesitant hugs and handshakes. 

I’m still trying to catch up with everything we’ve been experiencing in the past few weeks:

 

Slow Start: our brains have struggled since the start to keep up with reality. We heard the news out of China, and watched it as if it were a movie. We still travelled, attended conferences, hung out in crowds. Then it finally started to sink in. A little late, but we got it just as it became clear that COVID19 was here.

Pandemic Perfectionism: not long after we started to wrap our brains around what being in a bubble would look and feel like, we were...

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Communication Conundrum

When I worked in the news business, I used to laugh when things went wrong because of a failure of communication. The irony!

However, communicating, especially under pressure (as newsrooms always are) is a continuing challenge. Right now, as we work remotely, in an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty, our communication skills are being put to the test like never before.

Here are some tips to minimise the mistakes:

1) Over-communicate: people can't hear as well when they're stressed. Make sure your messages are repeated. In the news, we'd say: tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them. Then the message gets through.

2) Keep messages simple: read and re-read and edit and re-edit what you write (and read it out loud, if you're going to deliver it verbally). Get straight to the point. Don't make it hard for others to understand what you want to convey. Don't waste their time.

3) Be careful with your tone: remember, short AND sweet. Start by...

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