Resilience is the ability to spring back into shape, the capacity to recover quickly from a challenge. The festive period is one such challenge due to the pressure (perceived or actual) that we can find ourselves under.
I appreciate that lots of you don’t celebrate Christmas, but hopefully there are parallels you can take away for the run up to any event where a large gathering of family, and a hyped-up meal, plus expectation of perfection – are at the centre.
On my imaginary resilience scale most days I score myself an 8/10. I know the things that gnaw at me, run down my energy, make me feel off my game. Where possible I put things in place to minimise the effects. Health worries – go have the conversations early, get the appointment booked. Spending a lot of time socialising – keep Sunday free for downtime before being back at work on Monday. They’re probably the big two. Food shopping is also in my top 5.
I love logical systems – so the car park design is often the first trigger point. Moving inside we have the illogical store layouts – personal pet hate (pun intended) is food stored on the same aisle as the cat litter. Then can you even believe how much the prices have shot up? I’ll generally make some bad food choices now, as I need a treat for even going there in the first place. Finally, I’m horrified by the total shopping bill when I’m convinced that everything I’ve bought was on offer. The till is wrong, surely?!
For some reason last Sunday, when I was already about a 6 after a good run of nights out – I decided to impose on my husband’s household task territory and go on a big shop with him.
I started to interfere before we left home – number of bags required. Continued with how we navigated the aisles (he’s too haphazard). I shoved goodies in the trolley which weren’t on the list (because it’s Christmas and I need those After Eights). Finished by pulling faces about how he was packing the bags (haphazard again). Unsurprisingly he laughed when some King prawns fell off the shelf unaided and the pack split open by my feet. Then just rolled his eyes when I ranted because the cream crackers weren’t the exact ones I had in mind.
I came home and ate two apple pies and a bag of crisps.
8 out of 10 clear-thinking me would have just left him to it, used the quiet time to do something else and get some energy back. Controller personality me wants everything to be ‘just right’ on the big day so thinks she needs to intervene.
So, I wanted to write about festive resilience but from a different angle. I’ve worked in IT services for a long time, and we have a concept of ‘designing’ resilience into our important systems. It made me wonder if there were any other lessons from the workplace that can be transposed into home life. Can you ‘design’ yourself a more resilient Christmas? I’ve come up with four which I realise I’ve been inadvertently using.
For those who generally hate (or fear) IT – I promise to make it more about planning and preparedness than devices and apps. For those around the industry – I hope it makes you smile!
1. The change freeze
A period of ‘protected’ time around certain calendar or business events, aimed to protect the service from unintended consequences of making changes, and keep things running smoothly.
It’s one week before Christmas and our neighbours are having their roof replaced, scaffolding all over the place, tiles all over their garden. If the thought of this over the holidays pushes your buttons, then consider a household event change freeze starting early December.
2. The roll-out plan
A planning exercise to minimise any issues ahead of a scheduled thing that needs completing. At its simplest level it’s a walkthrough of what needs to be done, who is going to do it, in which order, and how long it might take.
If your ‘thing’ is hosting 15 people and your walkthrough confirms you only have 5 chairs, not enough plates, and you’ve not catered for the vegan – then the plan gives you the chance to rectify things ahead of the day. It also gives you chance for a bit of task allocation and delegation, to share the load.
3. The post implementation review
A ‘how did we do’ review after the event, where you can learn your own lessons and make improvements for next time.
One particular year I made a note of all the leftovers and things we didn’t even touch (Yule log, too many sprouts, pork pie which no-one touched) and reviewed it again the next year to curb the spend, and the food waste.
4. The disaster recovery plan
Hopefully this one is self-explanatory in IT terms…
If despite all your best festive planning, the oven conks out, the meat doesn’t defrost, how are you going to recover from it? We already discussed it around the table last year and I had the plan signed off by my key stakeholder: my mother. Our recovery plan is baked beans on toast.
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