New effort vs Old effort
Here’s what you had to do to go to a conference in Toronto:
Get a passport • Register for the event • Pack • Figure out how to get to the airport on time • Navigate the TSA • Find a hotel • Get to the event • (I left out about a hundred steps).
Here’s what you had to do go to a meeting in your office:
Own a car • Maintain it • Deal with public transport • Risk your life driving to the office • Make sure the dry cleaning was picked up • Navigate evil Bob in reception • (I left out another 100 steps).
And here’s what you have to do to be a positive contribution on a Zoom call.
The difference is that the first two are expensive, complicated and difficult processes that we’re already used to, so they don’t count.
Part of the challenge of a worldwide shift is that all of us have to engage in new effort that we’re not used to. It’s nothing we asked for, and the old effort disappearing doesn’t feel like much of a benefit.
But, if new effort is required, we have the chance to do what we’ve always done, which is figure out what works and to commit to it.