Refresh: Recharge your battery

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For several organizations, every number of years they perform what in the IT world is called a PC Refresh which involves replacing all the computers that they have had and used after a few years with a new one. This does not mean that the old computers do not work, it is just that as one uses these computers and keeps installing new programs they slow down. It is also the case that the manufacturers of the computers bring newer versions into the market that may be lighter, sturdier to meet the new demands of the customers in the market.

The word refresh is not only used in relation to the computer world, some use cases in our day to day life with different meanings include

• Refresh our Memories
• It is so refreshing
• Refresher training
• Refresh the page (Internet)
• Refresh your settings (Computer)

The definition that we want to work with here is “to restore strength and animation to someone”, another phrase that is close to this in meaning is the term recharge your batteries.

Very often in this very busy world, we keep working hard in order to fulfill the day to day tasks of putting food on the table, managing businesses and organizations that eventually one burns out. Taking the time out to refresh and recharge your batteries will help you to get back your A-game, get more creative and energetic as you continue with the journey. This allows you to bring back relevance and attraction to your brand as an individual since you will most likely come back with new perspectives and energy.

The type of refresh may happen when you take a pause and there are different thinks you can do depending on how much time you have. This could be in the evening, over the weekend or when you can take some good number of days off. Some of the activities that you can do to refresh yourself include

• Sleep – it is recommended to have at least 8 hours of sleep every day. This improves our cognitive abilities and improves memory. People who consistently sleep less than the recommended number of hours find that they are mentally exhausted and very irritable.
• Nature Walks -Walking especially amongst nature helps in energizing people. It also allows for creativity.
• Meet new people and new interactions. Meeting new people helps create new perspectives that is if they have different background and experience from you. This allows you to look at how to do things in a different way.
• New training – going through a training to learn a new skill or new knowledge that you did not know before helps to renew the mind and add excitement to your life.

As long as we are alive, we need to keep on taking a pause and refreshing ourselves so that we can recharge our batteries, gain new perspectives, learn so that we can get reenergized and continue growing. This allows the mind to keep active and protect you from different issues later in life. We all need a refresh to keep on being motivated to fulfil our purpose in life.

Sawubona (I see you)

 

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The one greeting I have been quite fascinated by, is one from one of the communities in South Africa(SA) specifically the Zulu community. Each time I have been to SA, we get a quick briefing on the security that covers where to go and not to go and the greeting. The greeting that is also found on the cover page of the South African Airways inflight magazine is Sawubona. This is one word in Zulu but when translated into English it means “I see you, you are important to me and I value you”, the response to this is Shiboka” which means “I exist for you” or “Yebo, sawubona” which means I see you seeing me . This greeting is quite rich and to an extent poetic as compared to any English greeting. Growing up, as a child whenever I visited my parents at their workplaces, they ensured that I greeted everyone from the gentleman cleaning the office to everyone we met in the building before getting to their offices. If you forgot to greet anyone you would be sent back to complete the greeting. This is something we continue to do today and are showing the next generation the importance of this

In African culture, greeting is very important as it humanizes people, especially in this world that is often see as impersonal. It is quite embedded in our way of life and sometimes may take the form of diverse rituals as seen from examples below

• In some cultures, the women do kneel to greet as a sign of respect. This is done by some communities in Uganda and is reserved for especially one’s parents, aunties or uncles and elders in the community;
• Others hug and the level and length of the hug depends on how long you would have taken before seeing the person. I remember my first session in my teens of Buhoro, Buhorojye Keija, Agandi from a family friends’ grandmother in Rwashamaire, Ntungamo;
• Some culture especially in west Africa the corners of the forehead are made to touch as they greet. I get very fascinated with this and see these with people from Togo;
• A group in South Sudan touch the shoulder as they greet as they greet;
• Some communities in Africa also kiss on the cheeks, this is especially for those who adapted the French culture.

Greeting in itself is very important, however there are also good reasons as to why you should do this especially in the morning with a “Good morning”, Wasuze otya nno(Luganda), Iburu aber (Lango\Luo), Oraire ota (Ankole). It is important to greet friends, family, co-workers, business clients and visitors to your home or workspace and even strangers. Some of the reasons why you should greet may include.

• It helps improve and boost your interpersonal communication skills which is very important. It is easier for you later in the day to go communicate face to face with a person that you have greeted earlier as opposed to doing this through the email
• This is a great way to start a conversation, if someone greets you and you complete the response part you can go to the next level to discuss the business at hand. It helps to set the tone of the conversation and would lead to a positive engagement.
• This sets for a great visitor experience especially if someone has come to your home or business premises. The way a visitor is greeted provides for a great experience about how they feel about you and your organization long after they have left. It could make them bring their business to your organization.

Greeting can be applied to all our spheres of life and with all the people we interact with. Sometimes people’s ability or willingness to greet is dependent on their moods, but It is a good and right thing to do enthusiastically. It is may things, good manners, courtesy, connection and shows care amongst other things.

Racism – What time is it (Kam assaa’ah)?

A friend narrated to me, that several years ago when he had just arrived for his undergraduate degree in Algeria, whenever he was walking on the streets, he was frequently stopped by especially the youth and a few elderly people who would ask him “Kam assaa’ah?”. Which meant what time is it?  Coming from an African country it was always common to be stopped on the street and asked what time it was, so he always looked at watch and told them the time. What later he noticed was that this seemed to be happening every fifty meters. If this had been in Europe almost everyone would have had their watches and not been asking about time. At the time, one thing he and most of the new students in Algiers had not noted, since this was considered a basic function and good for society was that most of the people asking them about time were actually wearing watches.

He later confided in the students who had been there longer who told them it was a form of racism. By looking at the watch you also looked at the color of your skin.

The world has been awash with the issue of racism and has been brought to the fore due to the issues of police brutality. For most who travel this is something that you may have encountered at one point or the other. It also happens in some establishments in Uganda and other African countries when you go to an establishment like a restaurant or hotel and the African waiters take longer to serve you as compared to the other non-African patrons.

A number of questions that we should ask is how we deal with racism if you encounter it, how do we prepare our children to face and handle this vice that at one point in their lives they may encounter.

Most of the time we expect racism to be blatant but sometimes they are subtle, and you can miss it. Examples of Racism\racist statements include I do not like cocktails, I like my drinks pure; You must be the best soccer player, you must be the best entertainer; At airports you get selected for random checks of your documents of baggage; No one seats next to you on the train\bus.

There are different ways the individuals get impacted by racism or develop mechanisms to deal with it and this includes:

• Developing a thick skin and ignore it and thereby not be impacted.
• Some become emotionally damaged and this can be seen as weakness.
• Mental health issues come up.

As Africans silence about this vice should not be an option, several people who encounter it whether at their places of work or on travel need to address this and call out on it if it is happening to them or another person. Other things you can do to respond to this or mitigate against this is include:

• Recognize that racism is due to ignorance by the perpetrator
• Discuss about this with your friends and family. When children grow older have age appropriate discussions about this
• Educate ourselves as an African about this. Most imagine this is something that is foreign, but it is good to read about it.
• Go with company so that you are not impacted especially if going out when on travel

I did ask a few friends whether the have experienced racism and a few of them were ladies and what they mentioned surprised me. They mentioned that they encountered some form of “put down” but they could not tell if it was because they were black, or a woman or of a lower position in the organization as the person who was dismissing their views.

This brought to light that along with racism in our society, there are other ills which include tribalism, xenophobia, discrimination against people with disability or of different castes etc. which should not be condoned.  

All need to stand for what is right and not accept any forms inequity in our society.

Enjoy the Journey

This past weekend after several months I decided to take a quick trip to the village in Apala that is approximately 390 KM from Kampala to check on how everyone was doing after the long lockdown. My worry was taking COVID from Kampala to the village in case I had gotten it from the trip and if the people back home would be anxious when we got there. To avoid traffic, we planned to use the Kiwatule-Kira-Kasangati-Matugga road We stopped by a market along Najera and picked up a few bunches of matooke and found the prices of the bunches of matooke that would have been between 25,000 to 30,000 shillings going for 10,000 shillings each. The next stop was Wobulenzi where we finalized with market shopping. The next stop for some coffee that is popular for some people going on the northern route that is a good place to take a break is the Kabalega diner that serves a variety of items ranging from Rolex to Pizza for all who can eat these. The journey to Lira and then Apala continued. We eventually arrived at our final destination in Apala at 4:00PM after leaving Kampala sometime after 9:00 AM.

In the recent weeks we have come across a number of metaphors of a journey. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary a metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them

A journey has been used as a metaphor while explaining communication, success, learning and life in general. This means there is a lot we can learn as we take our simple everyday road trips.

As one prepares for and goes on a journey, they need to ask themselves a few questions that includes but is not limited to below

• What time do you want to start your trip and what time do you want to get to your destination?
• What will you use for travel?
• Which route will you use to get there?
• Will you make stops along the way?
• What will you do when you get to your destination?
• Will you be travelling with someone or alone?
• How long will you stay?
• How much money do you want to spend?
• If you using a private car is it in good mechanical condition?
• Have you packed all the essential items you need for the trip?

Some people as they go on a journey are focused mainly on the destination that causes them to miss out. Others enjoy the experience of journey along with scenery and the company as they travel. Do plan for, learn from and enjoy the experience from every trip you make.

Transforming Client Complaints into Opportunities

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning” – Bill Gates

Benjamin had recently subscribed for internet with a new internet company in Kampala and for the last one month the internet service had been great in terms of speed and had also been quite reliable and only failed twice. This failure had been resolved quickly after sending a chat to the technician. When it was two days to the end of his internet subscription, he decided to pay up on time and ensure that he does not get cut off. He loaded MTN mobile money and tried to pay, but an error was displayed on his phone screen. The field technician had told him that there were three options he could use to easily make payments and these included MTN Mobile money, Airtel Money, and using the Pay way machine. The pay way option was a longer process that required him to go to the ATM machine and withdraw money, find a pay way machine and pay up. He opted to send the money to his wife’s Airtel money line and was able to pay. This however took 24 hours before it was reflected on his account. He decided to call the Internet\Pay TV company to request them to get the issue of MTN mobile money option resolved, but the client agent seemed to be distracted and not acknowledging the issue. This interaction dampened the otherwise good internet service experience he was having.

Most people and organizations do not like to receive complaints as they view it as an attack on them as opposed to feedback. Complaints are a great opportunity to learn from clients about the quality of service or products given to them and one needs to be thinking of how to get the most out of our client’s complaints. When a business gets a complaint, the person receiving the complaint on behalf of the business needs to

• Listen and acknowledge the problem by checking out the issue that the client is complaining about and see it from their perspective and if it is something that needs to be resolved.
• Admit the mistake and apologize immediately and they should not start making excuses. They should also be empathetic with the client complaining and, in most cases, acknowledging the mistake helps start the problem resolution process.
• While resolving the issue, go the extra mile and exceed expectations while providing the solution. From the example above the internet service provider could have followed up the issue with MTN and quickly provided a response. They could also have upgraded the internet speed for Benjamin for one month.

It is important to note that that very few clients complain, while others just demonstrate with their feet and take their business elsewhere. Part of the reasons for why people do not complain are

• It is hard to complain, since in complaining one has to reveal a piece of their emotional selves. People need to be quite comfortable before they are able to do this
• Society tends to frown upon people who complain since employees view it as an attack on their self esteem

Forward looking businesses need to

• encourage complaints and feedback from their clients,
• make it easy for their clients to make complaints (by providing different channels to the clients for clients to use e.g. Telephone, email, suggestion boxes),
• provide all the necessary information to their clients with respect to the complaint.

They should aim to turn a client complaint into opportunities through improved client service and thereby generate a positive repute. Client complaints can be used to the businesses advantage if dealt with correctly and handled properly.

Africa Day 2020 – I am an African

“I am not African because I was born in Africa, but because Africa was born in me.” ― Kwame Nkrumah

May 25^th came and went like any other ordinary day for most people. Unknown to many in Uganda, it is the day designated as Africa Day that is commemorated annually on the founding of Organization of African Unity on May 25^th, 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This was what became the African Union as we know it today. However, to some individuals in Africa, it is viewed as a day to celebrate the men and women working to unite Africa.

 This year the theme for Africa Day was “Silencing the Guns in the context of the COVID19” which was a virtual event. Several conflicting parties in some African countries like Cameroon, Sudan and South Sudan unilaterally declared ceasefire to allow the fight against COVID-19 to proceed.

A few years ago, while watching one of the major shows across Africa (Big Brother Africa) a discussion came up as to who was an African. At the time it was my belief that an African was any black person who was born on the continent and whose parents were from the continent. As the debate continued my view did change as I realized that there were other races who also viewed themselves as Africans. Around that time, a video extract of a speech by ex-president of South Africa Thabo Mbeki entitled “I am an African“ was continuously being shared in the media and further ignited the interest on what it means to be an African.

For ages, man has been captivated by the issue of their identity, of who they are? Most people everyday struggle with who there are, is it the type of work they do, their roles like father, Mother, son, daughter etc., Is it by their race?

I asked my children how they could celebrate Africa Day, they said they could celebrate it the way they celebrate cultural day at school. This was enlightening since to them identity and culture is almost one and the same. Below are some of the activities they suggested as a way of commemorating Africa Day:-

• Dress up in African attire. There are many outfits that are easily associated with Africa, these include kitenge, kikoyi, gomesi, Suuka, Kanzu (Uganda), Kente (Ghana), Oshiwambo (Namibia) to mention but a few. The colors and prints on dresses easily identifies them as African.
• Dance is very symbolic in Africa, there can be no celebration without dance in Africa. There are different styles of African dances that range from jumping to shaking the waist usually to the rhythm of the African drum.
• Cook and eat African food. There are dishes that identify Africa from thieboudienne in Senegal, jolof rice in Nigeria, njera from Ethiopia, matooke and millet in Uganda. In Africa it was very common to share food with strangers. I recall on a visit in Omdurman market “Souk” in Khartoum, my host and I were invited to join a group of men eating food in a market, I almost declined  but my host advised me to eat since it was un-African to reject a meal.
• Watch African movies\films– This is something one can do, especially if you have a family friendly movie. A good number of us can remember the god’s must be crazy and not to mention all the movies from Nollywood or Ugawood. For some this is a daily thing but, on this day, one can pick a movie from any African country and watch.
• Read books and poetry by African authors and scholars – a good number of bookshops in Uganda now stock “African” books. I also try to make it a point to buy books by African authors whenever I travel as these help me learn about other African cultures. Some books in our home collection include Abyssinian Chronicles-Moses Isegawa, Purple Hibiscus -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, I write what I like -Steve Biko, Long Walk to Freedom -Nelson Mandela to mention but a few.
• Beat the drum – As a child, years ago we ushered and celebrated the new year wit the beat of the drum. There are different types of drums across Africa, but this is common and a good way to celebrate.
• Give in the spirit of generosity and ubuntu to the communities around us that lack the basic essentials of life.

A few have questioned why or how we can celebrate the day when other Africans have no water, food, shelter, medicines or clothing. Africa has faced its share of ups and downs, but we celebrate with a spirit of hope for a better Africa that can be accomplished through unity of purpose.

Africa day is a day to celebrate Africa’s cultural heritage, it is a hope for peace and unity across Africa. It is a day to celebrate its successes, diversity, and progress. The list above is by no means exhaustive on what you can do to commemorate the day but a snippet of how to celebrate the African in us. In case you missed the day you can have a belated celebration and don’t forget to commemorate it next year.

Child of God|Ugandan|African

Asking the Right Question

Several years ago, I was scheduled to take a bus trip back from Nairobi where I had been visiting family. A Kenyan colleague of mine at the time, who was also visiting family in Nairobi for Christmas holidays and was returning to Uganda, requested that I take the trip back with him and his friends and we could take turns driving. I agreed to this and when he picked me, there were three ladies on the back seat of his car. We then set off but stopped in Kikuyu just out of Nairobi to say hello to his parents and sisters and continued on our journey back. The attractiveness of this trip for me, was that we would use a route I had never used before that went through Nakuru, Eldama Ravine and then Eldoret (normal route that most traffic to Uganda uses is Nakuru-Eldoret-Malaba). Since I was the only Ugandan in the car, I would be doing the section from Malaba to Kampala. What eventually made the trip very interesting and memorable to this day several years later was the conversation that we had on that trip. I cannot recall the details, but my colleague then was sort of moderating and asking each one in the car different questions about themselves and their aspirations. On that day I learn ’t and appreciated the power of asking questions that caused people to reflect and connect.

Questions are used in different circumstance that range from job interviews, classroom questions to when you meet someone new. It serves the purpose of finding out ones views\understanding of an issue or subject, exchanging ideas, learning more about other people like I did in the case of my trip from Nairobi, getting more insight, building rapport and making a connection with people. There are different dos and don’ts as you ask questions, but I will highlight three of them.

• Ask open ended questions – This provides flexibility and allows the conversation to flow in a direction that the respondent is comfortable with. One can adjust the type of open-ended question depending on what he or she may have picked up at the introductory level.
• Do use a friendly tone and demeanor as you ask questions for the purpose of making a connection or seeking to clarify. This allows the other party to get comfortable and be more open and trusting as they respond.
• Do not be too direct as sometimes this can seem intrusive. The questions should flow organically, and you can ask more clarifying questions after getting the responses.

Asking questions especially the right questions will go a long way in helping you connect with someone and learn a thing or two. Most people are not very comfortable asking questions when given opportunity. Do ask questions and make a connection and someone may remember you many odd years, like I do the people I made that journey with.

And to you I ask this question What is the most unforgettable lesson you learn’t from your Parents?

Did you understand what I said?

It was 6:00PM and the sun was setting when James decided to go for a walk to clear his mind from a hard day’s work. His wife had traveled for a two-week training out of the country and he was left home alone with his three children. While on his walk, he realized that the dinner needed to be prepared quickly so that the children could eat and sleep early in order to be ready in time for school the next day. He called his twelve-year-old daughter who had not cooked before and gave her the instructions for cooking rice, not forgetting to mention that one requires two cups of water to one cup of rice. After hanging up he recalled seeing that the stainless-steel container for the rice cooker had been washed and was out drying. He hoped his daughter would realize and place the container back into the rice cooker and pour the rice and water into it. When he got home, he found that his daughter had poured the rice and water straight onto the hot plate in the rice cooker. Were his instructions and communication clear?

This is a daily occurrence that happens in our everyday lives as we communicate. As we convey our instructions or ideas, do we miss out details that should have been included to provide clarity? Are we aware of the audience of the message, Is the context of the message clear?  This gets more noticeable when communicating across cultures with other nationalities. An American business executive who had traveled to Zanzibar for business told his taxi driver to come pick him at 9:00AM but instead he arrived at 3:00PM, for most Ugandans and Africans this mix up in time is understandable. This is because in most parts of Africa, the day starts at dawn 7:00AM and not at midnight (12:00AM) like in Europe. So 7:00 AM the first hour of daylight would be One, 9:00AM the third hour of daylight would be Three and 3:00PM would be Nine (“sawa mwenda” in Luganda or “cawa abongwen” in Luo).

Below are three ways that we can ensure that the message you are communicating is clearly understood by the recipient and not lost in between

• Communicating the message repeatedly in the same way helps ensure that the recipients understand your message. An example of this is from adverts and messages we have seen on TV and heard on radios that we should wash our hands for twenty seconds; the same message has been sent to WhatsApp using infographics. Eventually the message is understood by the intended audience.
• Metaphors and Analogies can be used to help communicate a big concept in an easy to understand way, thereby making an abstract concept clearer. One example used by technical people is when explaining internet bandwidth to people hearing about it for the first time, is to use the example the highway (road) to signify the internet pipe coming to their home. They further ask people to think of network congestion in terms of many cars when there is a traffic jam.
• Using questions, ask for feedback from the recipient based on the information you have provided. With their answers you can understand how well they have understood what you are communicating. In the example above James would have asked the daughter to explain the process she would follow to cook the rice and been able to identify gaps in communication.

It is very important for a leader to communicate their ideas in a clear way that is understood by the recipients of the message otherwise it then ceases to be communication which is a two-way activity. Communication is one of the areas that a leader needs to be able to do well if he\she is to succeed in sharing his\her vision and leading.

Survey of Technologies for use at Home

Webex

It was time for our weekly staff meeting, and this was something that was not too uncommon but the only thing that was different was that we would all be joining from our homes, and in this case, it was from over 50+ locations across Kampala. This was going to be quite a feat and I was looking forward to seeing how it would go. People would be connecting over different infrastructure (home fiber, mobile data and hot spots) and devices (computers\smart devices). At the end of the day we all came together and had a staff meeting albeit with a few challenges here and there but overall it was smooth. Fast forward to few weeks later, most people are now more comfortable with the technology and it has gotten better. There is even more punctuality to the meetings.

During the last few weeks this trend has been replicated across several organizations across Uganda and the world, with more people using and learning about different technologies to enable them function. Technology has been one of the winners across the world as the need for isolation has remained a normal way of life.

For today we will survey a few types of technology that are fulfilling the different needs with the “stay at home” situation.

• Technology that bring people together – There is a human need for people to come together and thrash out issues through face to face meetings. Several technologies that mimic this are being used to have virtual meetings with people in different time zones across the world. Several meeting tools like Zoom, Webex, Houseparty, MS Teams, GoToMeeting have been used for meetings. Organizations like Rotary are using GoToMeetings for fellowship and this facilitates more members to attend as they can do so from the comforts of their home.
• Online schooling has also taken off with the use of google classrooms and google meeting that is face to face and interactive. Students can see their teacher and share their work interactively.
• Some Churches were already ahead of the curve with using technology to reach their community. Of recent the number of churches reaching their congregations through technology has increased with even some of the upcountry churches catching up with this. The popular mode has been through hosting of live events and church services on Facebook and YouTube.
• The new normal has seen proliferation of apps and hybrid systems for shopping and home deliveries from supermarkets. This morning I sent a WhatsApp with list of items to a designated person at Capital Shoppers Nakawa, paid for the items via mobile money and a boda-boda was dispatched with the items. I did the same for market items from Kirombe Luzira and a bicycle was dispatched.

There has been a dark side to some of these developments, as the popularity and usage of some of these social networking technology platforms have increased, issues of privacy and security have emerged. Intruders are known to have hijacked classroom sessions and some of the meetings posting offensive material. The online platforms sometimes give a false sense of security. The same caution we have in our day to day lives needs to be taken into the online\virtual world.

A downside to this is the loss of the human touch like exchanging a smile or a joke with a colleague, you can’t also clearly see the body language and will have to solely rely on the spoken words.

Much as technologies have been winners with more people using them to meet their different needs. Focus should not be only about technologies; it should also encompass how people and organizations are adapting to the new normal.

Business Unusual: Will working remotely become the new normal?

It has been more than a week or so since Uganda has been on a full lock down with minimal to essential movement only in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is not specific to Uganda only, there have been various responses to the COVID-19 crisis across the world ranging from the full lock down, partial lock down, suspension of flights into and out of the country, curfew and as a result, a new territory for most organizations that is being referred to as Home based work by its staff.

In order to have a clearer understanding of the two terms that we have all grown accustomed to hearing, we will use the definitions below

• According to the Cambridge dictionary a lock down is a situation in which people are not allowed to enter or leave a building or area freely because of an emergency.
• As stated by might hunter website “A home-based worker is an employee who performs his or her job from home rather than a designated workspace at an employer’s site. Home-based workers perform their responsibilities and tasks from home and usually stay in contact with the employer via phone or the internet”.

For some of the people who are novices in Home Based working, the days seem hazier and harder to tell which day of the week it is, but with a daily schedule work has to be done or as it is said in the entertainment circles the show must go on . This has required both a shift in mindset and working from a home environment using tools and technologies in new ways. This is possible when the enabling infrastructure, services and tools works well (UMEME\electrical power, internet, computers\laptops and smartphones).

During this phase of lock down and home-based working, several people have improved on their ability to use technology to function personally and professionally while juggling family on a daily basis.

There are a few basic tips that I would recommend that you follow to help you manage during this time.

• Try and keep a normal daily schedule that includes getting up at your set time and groom for the day.  I was told of a mishap that involved the video camera on a computer coming on automatically and the person on the other end was not very appropriately dressed.
• Maintain the time you start and end work. Most of the people that recently started home based work, are working extra-long hours which could be a psychological need to overcompensate for working from home. This could lead to burn out or take the time meant for your family.
• Do set boundaries, in the initial stage you may get calls at 11:00 PM from colleagues or during what would have been your normal lunch break.
• Use the headset for meetings to avoid distracting the rest of the people in the house.
• The possibility of distractions\disruption at home is quite high, a daily schedule for all the members for the family will help reduce this. Should you find yourself in the middle of an important meeting or presentation and your child waltzes in, do take in stride and not get stressed about it, this is part of working from home.
• Last but by no means least, keep a positive mindset and keep around positive spaces. Minimize access to content that can lead to anxiety or distress. If you or anyone you know requires psycho-social and mental health needs, it can be handled via virtual counselling sessions from your church or health professional.

Overall the working from home arrangement and this period of lock down will change the way individuals, organizations, churches and the country to name but a few operates by enhancing their use of technology, it will be business unusual. Office seems to have changed from a location in a building to where the individual is situated at a particular moment with all the necessary tools to function.