My daughter started a pre-school a number of years ago to provide quality education for children in the inner Cape Town city bowl – an exciting and worthy project. The school has grown progressively, adding a new grade every year, I guess eventually to form a junior school. The staff complement, too, has increased to…
The dramatic and increasing COVID-19 pandemic’s infections and deaths across the world are causing unprecedented levels of anxiety amongst people in most nations. This is particularly true within businesses and other organisations as people get back to work when their respective economies open up following local lockdown strategies. Leaving the relative safety of home and…
In the early days of the pandemic, even before the World Health Organisation called it such, governments across the world started to be briefed on a potential, but looming, enemy that was approaching country borders – the corona virus, called COVID-19. Many government leaders took the threat very seriously, calling for lockdown, shutting country and…
“When the music changes, so must the dance” One of the many changes that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has initiated for knowledge workers is the ability to adapt effectively to the new rhythm of remote work. As the trend towards remote work grows, however, so does the need for effective virtual leadership. To grow the…
Have we not just been given a huge window of opportunity? Has God not just opened up a crack in the “what’s possible” door during lockdown? Have we not just been given another chance to rectify all the things that we have been doing badly that will ultimately destroy life as we know it? Many…
During this pervasive corona pandemic, there has never been a more telling moment for those working in the human resources field to care for their colleagues, many of whom are part of essential services and find themselves on the frontline of defence against the COVID-19 virus. Those in the human resources component of the business…
“Thinking collaboratively is not new. What is new is the increasing complexity of information flow in organisations that calls for high levels of engagement, innovation and collective problem-solving” (Bruce Wellman) COVID-19 and its debilitating effects, not just on people’s health, wellness and state of mind all over the world, but also on economies, businesses and…
I happened to be looking at the flight radar application on my mobile a couple of days ago, the same radar which indicates the positions of all airplanes with connected transponders all over the world. I noticed, with some degree of approval, the relative absence of flights over Africa, no flights landing or taking off…
In these extremely difficult times that the world is experiencing with the spread of the COVID-19 virus, populations have been asked to retain a physical distance between each other to prevent the transmission of the disease. The human being, however, is hot-wired for social interaction. It is a basic human need to feel loved, appreciated…
The word “snoop” means “to investigate or look around furtively in an attempt to find out something, especially information about someone’s private affairs” and conveys the image of someone prowling around looking for fault inquisitively or in a meddlesome fashion (sticking one’s nose into someone else’s business). Interestingly, in Dutch (snoepen), the word has the…
From the earliest histories of populations and cultures, walls have been built not only to support roof structures and other forms of shelter, but also, and perhaps primarily, as a form of defence – to keep marauding tribes and other instruments of hostility out. Walled cities were the norm and eventually walls were used as…
When having to go to the medical doctor for an appointment and upon entering the surgery, the door is shut behind you and all focus of the doctor falls on you – questions are asked about your condition, you are examined and a suggested course of treatment is offered. There are no distractions, no pharmaceutical…
