Message of the week 11 - 15 March 2019

Load shedding and the 4th industrial revolution

The month of March is not only theofficial beginning of autumn in South Africa, but it also seems to be the start of a long load shedding period for all South African’s.

I’d had a hectic day at work and hadn’t gotten around to answering my emails, so I had planned to do them after dinner at home. At 8pm, the lights went off and the familiar beep of the alarm signalled a power cut.

My mind went into its own darkness then. I thought about all the challenges that South African’s are facing and the trouble that may come. I thought about all the talk of embracing the fourth industrial revolution because at that moment, my wifi wasn’t working and my laptop battery was about to die. How a revolution was to take place on a mass-scale
was something I couldn’t answer.

For all my thinking, I finally realised that we cannot control Eskom’s operational inefficiencies. We can however control our attitude and tailor our actions to make the most of a situation.

In an article I found it suggested that because we’re told when load shedding is going to happen, we can plan ahead. If it happens during critical working hours, which has been the case so far, here are a few ways to remain productive      

• Download industry research or legal changes in your industry (obviously
        download these before the power cut) and use the downtime to familiarise
        yourself with trends or changes that can make you more competitive.
• Do follow-ups. Speak to debtors and leads.
• Work through your priority back office admin.
• Visit your clients during a power outage,or find an area with no power
        cut and schedule a coffee or lunch with them.

Most importantly, I think it’s incredibly powerful to embrace the idea of “opting out and saying no” as Professor Svend Brinkmann, the author of the Joy of Missing Out, says in an
article in the Financial Times. “Less delivers more in terms of meaning. If we  want to be friends with everyone, we cannot truly have a friend. If we want to  do something well, we cannot do it all,” he says. 

Essentially load shedding holds an important lesson – embracing limitation. In an information-overload world,  where superficial connections are made and deep work is never achieved, isn’t this a gift?

Here’s to light in the dark and power to you!

Yunus Docrat - Service Operations Manager - KYOCERA Document Solutions South Africa