As we stay home and do our part, we are doing more things at home. We cook, exercise, care for our bodies and groom our looks. Some started growing fruits or plants, others sewing their own masks with materials at home. Home schooling boomed. Why not? Anything you need to learn about any topic is available online. You may not find the “best” solution to everything, but you will find something that works for you.
At Home, sufficiency means having all the fundamental needs for survival – shelter, food, energy, etc. at home. Some you stock up, others you conserve or let go.
For a community or company, sufficiency means continuity – having supplies (like PPE), resources (including people), and plans to continue operations regardless of circumstances. Do you have critical materials, equipment, and parts to operate? Do you have the skillsets inhouse to maintain work and respond to shocks?
At the country level – are we reliant on other countries for essential materials, energy, capabilities, know-how, to survive or thrive? Can we adapt to generate our own growth?
Globalization 1.0 was not that “sustainable” after all. A global supply chain optimized for cost (but not time, externalities or knowledge) lacks resilence for any organization and country to respond to shock and adapt. It’s not that globalization is wrong. As consumers, we benefited greatly from the best of price and quality, but the image of a small packet drop-shipped from across the world on an impulse purchase or fast, discounted, “disposable” fashion has lots of external costs.
Sufficiency will be a theme for this decade.
Let’s come back to you – What can you do to be self-sufficient at work?
Own Your Career! Bet on yourself and create your own opportunities.
Don’t wait for others to give you work. Seek ways to create work and add value.
Don’t wait for permission to lead. Too often we hesitate and later look back and wonder what if we actually drove that initiative we believed in .
Don’t say no to ourselves. We may be conditioned to think more about limitations than possibilities, but what if we focus our “what ifs” on the best case scenario and not just the worst? What if 10% of your proposal is wrong, and you inspired others to take action and fix the plan, vs. what if you are right, but you stopped yourself at the tracks?
Create our own luck and show up! Reach out and make / build that connection.
