Pocket Change: When disruption gets personal
Pocket Change is a monthly series of notes on disruption, authored by 18 Coffees co-founder Caleb Gardner. Be the first to read Pocket Change — subscribe to the email newsletter here.
The past few weeks have been disruptive for the Gardner family. After the release of No Point B, in the subsequent whirlwind of promotion, we decided that was the perfect time to close on a new house and organize a move for our family of five.
Was it worth it? Definitely. Would I want to do it again? Absolutely not.
Meanwhile, despite these two rare-but-major disruptions, “normal” life went on. School started. Client projects continued. The Gardners said to the universe, “Sir, we’ve got a lot going on,” and the universe replied, “The fact has not created in me a sense of obligation.”
And I suppose that’s always the case. We stretch our capacities to meet disruptive moments as much as we can, and sometimes our quality of work/life suffers. And we let out a major sigh, and move on. This dialectical exchange teaches us what we’re capable of—and where our limits lie. And if we prescribe for ourselves a healthy amount of grace in the process, we discover things about ourselves that change the way we approach those limits in the future.
We are constantly changing systems, and we interact everyday with others who are also often in the process of discovering their own limits. Together, we form systems of people trying to make teams, within systems of teams trying to make organizations. We can never forget that we both operate in complex environments—and contain complexity within ourselves.
Easier way to think about it: when you or your coworkers are stressed out or distracted, the system breaks down. Our team’s capacity is only as good as the mental health of each person, so we should respect the complexity of each person’s situation.
Our disruptions were stressful and mostly self-inflicted, and ultimately I benefited from the 18 Coffees team’s support. We should all be so lucky to have adaptable and supportive team members.
Keeping an eye on:
EVERYWHERE AI – AI is dominating the news, winning art competitions, illustrating news articles, predicting your risk of certain diseases. Is it getting too good?
CLIMATE PAYOUTS – We’re feeling the effects of climate change, with no end in sight. Do the most culpable countries owe the countries most affected? Denmark thinks so – to the tune of $13 million.
GROUNDED TRAVELERS – Will business travel ever bounce back? Two in five former travelers think they’ll never travel for work again.
DIVERSITY BS – Corporate diversity and inclusion work has a long way to go to gain employee trust. Most workers still think their employers’ policies are just performative.
GIG BENEFITS – A new proposal from the Labor Department would lower the bar for employee classification for contractors, potentially opening the door to new required benefits and protections.
MORE KINDNESS – New research shows just how powerful random acts of kindness to strangers can be. What small gesture can you do today?
