Author: Stephen Drain

Hi everyone, I am a Partner in PwC in Auckland New Zealand. I lead PwC Forensics Services and support PwC Partner Leadership Development. My particular area of focus in leadership is Authenticity.

Day 19

Day 19

It was a day of Nineteens. 19 new or probable infections of COVID-19 on day 19 of the Lockdown. Another death bringing the reported COVID-19 related deaths in New Zealand to 5, although we don’t have any information to know for certain the underlying cause of death in each case, but you could probably guess it wasn’t COVID-19.

It really did feel like Summer was over today. Maximum temperature 19 (really!) and squally winds on the walk. Now the real test of walking and keeping the chain going begins. It’s all well and good to walk when the weather is agreeable, but with daylight saving gone, walking is likely to be in the dark and possibly cold and wet at times. I’m up for it. Just don’t catch a cold – it’s going to be the most unsociable thing you can present with for the foreseeable future. And that’s a good thing. I very much consider that if you’ve got a cold then you STAY HOME! Some good might come from all of this.

It was nice having this long weekend, despite no ability to go away – it was good to have a break from an intensive period at work – made more challenging by working from home so intensely. Colleagues reported they were exhausted at the end of the week. The video conferencing seemed to be the common theme.  At one stage during the weekend I got excited that the end of Lockdown might be in sight, then I felt that I’d miss the new way – it’s added a lot of different energy to work, then this afternoon if felt like a grind again. Tintin in The Crab with the Golden Claws helped. If you’re a scholar of Tintin you’ll know that this is the story where he meets Captain Haddock. Blistering Barnacles!

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For most if us we’re not meeting anyone at the moment and there’s massive uncertainty for some. What does a person on a work visa do, when their job is a risk? How do they repatriate to their home country? Do they want to? How many people are getting laid off right now? It’s pretty grim for many folk and it brings into perspective my reality.

I’m privileged in that it actually hasn’t been too bad for me so far. I’ve been able to try and imbed some new structures in work practices that I’m finding useful. My shiny boots and business clothes – well they’re taking a big break! STAY IN THE WARDROBE! Will we have changed the way we do business permanently? Or will we get back to the norm and wonder why we were being so dramatic over a few weeks of disruption.

We were told today that we’ll get told next Monday – a week away – what the new level and restrictions will be at the conclusion of the 4 weeks. Of course nothing might change, but I think it’s inconceivable on the current trajectory that we stick with the status quo. The economic and social imperatives, when cases are so low and connected deaths limited to the main vulnerable demographic only so far, must move us forward.

Well let’s hope so. When power is held by any one leader, it must only be used to the absolute minimum necessary, regardless of how well intentioned the use of that power is.

Enjoy the short week!

Stephen

Day 18

Day 18

Jerry Seinfeld attributes his success as a comedian to one particular habit. As he was developing his career, every day he wrote jokes and when he’d written the joke or jokes, he crossed the day off on his calendar.  Seinfeld called it “not breaking the chain”. No day missed.

Last year, having retired from running a couple of years before, I got more serious about walking for fitness. When I got to the end of the year I noticed on my app that I’d done about 325 walks in 2019. So close but yet so far to one a day. So I decided to make a go of it in 2020.

I’ve been asked why I’m so particular about logging every walk on my app. It’s the crossing off thing. I make a habit of it and the little sense of achievement drives a behaviour that keeps me walking. A quick overnight to Wellington? Pack the shoes and clothes and I’ll almost always find the time for few kilometres around the Capital. The benefits are obvious, but benefits alone don’t create beneficial habits.  I “bank” some days by walking more than once a day- although I don’t allow a longer walk to be split – no gaming the system! And there’s a minimum walk distance too. I can use those banked days when it’s just not possible – unexpected travel, long working days and so on can occasionally get in the way. So far that’s been only twice this year and I’m well ahead.

So the Lockdown has fitted very well into this routine. In fact, out and about walking these last couple of weeks has brought another dimension to the habit. Everyone seems to be in the habit all of a sudden.  Regular walkers, like runners and cyclists are a  friendly bunch and you can always count on a greeting being exchanged. When the Lockdown started, the newbies didn’t seem so certain. There was the two metre thing of course, but also could the ‘rona fly if you said Good Morning.  I noticed this weekend it’s become friendlier and more relaxed. As we head down towards freedom again, wouldn’t it be great if some of those families, couples, singles and groups who’ve made a habit, kept it going? They won’t unless they have a system.

Keep the daily walk going by not breaking the chain

This “not breaking the chain” is laid out in Cal Newport’s Deep Work that I read earlier and I’ve referenced a couple of times already during the Lockdown in the context of the Facebook amnesty and Deep Work.

When I combine a set amount of time for deep work with a daily “don’t break the chain” habit for that deep work, I’ve found a winning formula for doing what is meaningful. I realise this sounds quite obvious and it’s tempting to think “I could do that if I needed to” which is a little white lie I can tell myself. If you don’t need to do meaningful work – deep work – regularly, what do you need to do? It certainly isn’t clearing emails, filling in forms and signing off stuff – yes we need to do it, but it shouldn’t be a priority – which is where a habit for what matters comes in.

So when the Lockdown was about to start, I challenged myself to write each day on this blog. I’ve never been able to get regular with it, but I thought, make some good out of a situation and see if I can create a habit. The new insight about this chain I’ve noticed after 20 odd days, is the “skin in the game” principle that’s made it a decent challenge and kept me going. This is a blog that I try to keep authenticity in leadership at its heart – so it’s important for me that I stick to that principle. No abstract blogs, it’s my experiences combined with my own reading.  Put another way, no going through the motions. If it’s worthwhile creating a habit for, do it with integrity – some skin in the game – you won’t always get it right, but better to give something a crack properly than skim the surface. Save that for clearing the emails.

One chain we do seem to have broken in New Zealand, if we ever had it, is COVID-19. Eighteen cases on day 18. But there’s a new statistic – breaches! Hopefully that fades away real quick. And what about Iceland – they’ve tested a massive percentage of the population and found 50% of those with COVID-19 didn’t know! Asymptomatic, which begs the question about how widespread the virus is, and how really impactful it is on some people only. There’s a full story yet to be told.

But one story still going is my blog chain – unbroken for the Lockdown – although I could cheat and “bank” the three I wrote before the actual day (couldn’t I?) and  I’ve walked 122 times this year. I can’t tell you how many kilometres or the police might show an unhealthy interest!

Stephen

 

Day 17

Day 17

It was like I was in a scene from the charming British series Detectorists. I had been trying to get rid of some wasps that had made a couple of homes on my bore pump shed when I lost one of my Apple Airpods in the long hay. I’d already had to replace the entire set when it fell out of my bag dashing for a flight late last year. Hands and knees searching to no avail. I’d used the Find my Device function without success last time, but  as a last resort I gave it a crack. “Chirp Chirp Chirp“, GPS pinpointed the missing pod to within centimetres.

I’m a great fan of new technology. Watching the first two series that have been released on Netflix, Detectorists in High Definition with high speed fibre is a delight. Impatient for the third series I bought it on DVD. Great stories, but disappointing quality.

I love the countryside. I’m growing feed for the neighbouring farms on my bit of paradise and, armed with suitable documentation, I headed out today for essential maintenance. The motorway was clear and my journey there and back was uninterrupted and uneventful. I’d move out there tomorrow if the journey was that easy usually!

My earliest memories of farming life was staying on Uncle George’s dairy farm. He had me driving his Bedford Truck – I can still smell it – accelerator jammed with a 2×4 while he put the hay out and I steered. He was no doubt a beneficiary of the then government schemes that effectively subsidised dairy farmers but it appeared a charming lifestyle as a young boy looking on.  Sometimes you don’t realise who the influential people in your life were until way after you’ve lost contact.

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We now have four deaths said to be from COVID-19. I remember from my police days when you attended a sudden death (aren’t most deaths, like, well, sudden?), but anyway, if you didn’t have a doctor who could certify cause of death, then it was off to the Coroner. The training we had was that when the cause of death was certified without an autopsy, there was a high error rate.

To establish the cause of death, according to WHO, the doctor starts with the direct cause of death, then goes back to the preceding conditions until you get to the condition that started the sequence of conditions leading to death. This is said to be the underlying cause of death, which is described by WHO as ‘the disease or injury which initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death, or, the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury”. 

So what? Well if you’re a keen reader of all things COVID-19 you would have seen articles in overseas newspapers that bring perspective beyond the “underlying conditions” that we know most victims of the virus sadly have. COVID-19 may be the direct cause of death, but on the research I’ve seen it’s unlikely to be the underlying cause of death.

So I think we need to be very careful about all of this attributing of cause of death to COVID-19. This isn’t some sort of alternative reality – it’s what WHO says – and explains headlines that describe almost all deaths in Italy early on as being of people with underlying health conditions. That’s not to make light of those deaths, or to underestimate the strain on any health system of so many occuring at once, but that’s a different alarm. Of course the underlying call to action – the 80,000 deaths if we don’t do anything – the medical crisis and so on got us moving, quickly.  Thanks to those government steps we don’t have a medical crisis which is great news and we have cause to be thankful.

Next step?  Daily updates on the economic measures being taken too. That’s got most people in New Zealand worried. The dire warnings spurred us into action that worked, but I think most people now realise we’ve passed that hurdle and we need to get onto the actual crisis we have.

shed2Otherwise we’ll all end up like Uncle George and subsidised by government for the foreseeable future. That won’t work. Although I could do with cheaper red paint.

But it’s Easter still! I think tomorrow (today when you read this) is the actual Easter Egg day and the first time in living memory we’re allowed to go the Supermarket. Such excitement, but for me having been at my land today, I have all things rural on my mind again. Love it.

Stephen

 

 

Day 16

Day 16

It was another gorgeous day today in Auckland so perhaps my welcoming of Winter was a bit premature. I had my 119th and 120th walks of the year today. Up Maungawhau (Mt Eden) that sits proudly watching over Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s the highest Maunga (mountain) in Auckland’s monogenetic volcanic range on the mainland. Each volcano erupts only once, as compared to polygenetic volcanoes, such as Whakaari White Island, or Mt Ruapehu.  The most recent one to erupt was Rangitoto Island, 550 years ago and it’s also the tallest.

The Tūpuna Maunga o Tāmaki Makaurau Authority is the statutory authority which co-governs fourteen of Auckland’s fifty-three Maunga with Auckland Council. Of those fourteen, in addition to Maungawhau, Maungakiekie (One Tree Hill), Ōhinerau (Mount Hobson), and Te Kōpuke / Tītīkōpuke (Mount St John) are within easy striking distance for walking during the Lockdown. Maungakiekie adjoins Cornwall Park, and is essentially one large park. Mount Hobson is very close to me and I often attend our weekly Consulting all-partner morning calls striking it up to the top, hoping that when I need to speak I’m actually at the top and not pacing it out upwards!

I feel very blessed to live amongst such beautiful form in the city, which has meaningful history and is ideal for walking for fitness. The variations in route, views, typography on any one walk are almost endless.

It really did feel like the city had cleaned out and gone to the beach for Easter. I think a few may have, but some got turned back – STAY HOME! – and no doubt reminded that it’s a staycation this weekend.

It’s still a great opportunity to do some cleaning out I reckon. Little projects that you can do at home in the garden or the house to clean out stuff you don’t need. Face it, we have too much. Clean some stuff off your mental or actual to do list too. Create a project list*. and if something doesn’t make it, it’s never going to be a thing. Maybe that physical photo album is not really a thing. Forget it, it’s clutter in your mind holding onto it and then clutter 30 minutes after it’s created.

I got cleaned out of someone else’s 2020 plans. Plans for a project were ended with “I’m bowing out“, without explanation. But I respect that. We’ve all got our own stuff going on and to clean out is refreshing for the mind, when needed. No-one wants to continue with something, when you’re only half-hearted, or something doesn’t feel right. But it was slightly jarring nonetheless. Not my call but you have to move forward for the next opportunity.

Maungakiekie/One Tree Hill

So a big question for Auckland will be when the next eruption might be.  When will the volcanic bed get cleaned out? The eruptions have generally been thousands of years apart, and scientists’ best estimate will be that the next one is off the coast near St Heliers, near Browns Island. LEAVE HOME! will be catch cry you would assume when that happens.

Almost forgot COVID-19. It’s still a thing alright, you can see that everywhere you go – which isn’t far – but we need to be patient.

Cleaning out and patience. Excellent leadership traits to practice during a long weekend confined to home. Patience is underused.

Stephen

*I’m reading Getting Things Done at the moment.