Not sure about you … but our akhia quarantine – an akhiatine, so to speak – has now hit nine weeks. Needless to say, we’ve all learned a lot about ourselves. And we have had no choice but to engage in a little self-reflection.
 
Here are nine thoughts for nine weeks:
1. It’s a cruel irony that the period of life in which you will be more visible than ever before coincides with the same period of time in which (some of us) will look our worst. Nine weeks of quarantine? Try 13 weeks since my last haircut.

2. Facebook. Still a pit of divisiveness, partisanship, close-mindedness and despair.

3. My wife and I were never big on the ‘date night’ thing. But now that our ‘date night’ consists of a drive to the grocery store, we might be changing our thinking on that.

4. We have made a lot of strides in virtual entertainment, concerts, tours, etc., but there is NO substitute for the real thing. If I’m ever in a crowd again I won’t be complaining about it.

5. I’ve never waved to or talked to so many neighbors.

6. The birthday parades are awesome for the kids – heartbreaking for the adults.

7. Driveway drinking is one thing that I wouldn’t mind being with us post-COVID-19.

8. I appreciate restaurants talking about how much they’re going to clean, clean and then clean again. But … what was going on before all this? Never mind.

9. Kids need schools for more than learning.
 
Leaders are stressing people out. It’s not your fault though! A lot of it is by accident. Check out this read from HBR on five ways leaders don’t realize they’re stressing their teams out.
 
Puts a crimp in take your child to work day. Did you see the breaking news from Twitter today? They are going to allow employees who want to work from home to do so permanently. Do you think we’ll see more companies offer this up?
 
Not what the doctors ordered. Not that we needed one more reminder during COVID-19 that your crisis plan better be updated and accessible, but check out this selfie snapped by a doctor, on a plane with other doctors on their way to volunteer their time in New York. Yea, no social distancing. And not the crowd you want to offer that up to.
 
Aisle or window? Speaking of airplanes … if this is an indication of the future of flight, you won’t have the middle seat to kick around anymore.
 
Culture in a virtual environment. Culture still matters. And while it’s not up to the leader of an organization to direct that culture, it’s important to create one in which it can organically thrive. Here are three ways you can do that in a virtual way, courtesy of Forbes.
 
Thanks for reading!