For the next few weeks, our #MethodsMonday blog posts will be about voting in the United States and the methods behind the scenes.

What we won’t be discussing: Opinions on who to vote for or against, and considerations of personality, character, personal history, and/or having a presidential manner. Although these topics are of interest in the 2020 election, the purpose of this blog is to focus on methods topics of interest.
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What we will be discussing: For our first week, we are covering some voting information basics in the United States. Week 2 we will be discussing the security methods our government uses to protect the vote, and for week 3 we will be reviewing the methods pollsters use to predict voting results.

​In 2020, it is important to make a plan to vote.  Https://www.vote.org is your one stop location for information on voting, regardless of where you live or your political beliefs. You can confirm you are registered, get election reminders, find your polling place, etc. The website is easy to use and intuitive. 

Although we certainly get information from watching debates, reading the news, and from social media, I find it helpful to have comparisons of the candidates on key issues from sources outside of their campaign websites.

Here are a couple that I found particularly useful: 

1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/trump-policies-vs-biden-policies/ - a high level comparison of Trump and Biden on key issues.
2. https://2020election.procon.org/ - a nonpartisan and detailed comparison of opinions on issues on the presidential candidates (includes Trump, Biden, and others).

Professionalism is Not the Most Important Thing in 2020
In business many of us look for a professional attitude and appearance as a measure of someone’s business acumen and ability to succeed. In a year with a global pandemic, locusts, floods, large scale forest fires, and now brain eating amoebas in Texas, it is a good time to focus on empathy. The need for empathy applies to our employees, customers, co-workers, friends, and family. In other words, everyone.

Awesome Business Resources on Empathy
There are a lot of resources on how to incorporate empathy into your business:

• A guide to empathy in customer resources
• How to show empathy to customers
• If you can’t empathize with your employees, you’d better learn to
• Why empathy in the workplace matters – I love this one. Includes statistics on how incorporating empathy can improve your bottom line.
• Empathy in the workplace: Top reasons why you need to develop it

​2020 Challenges People are Facing
Remember that people are still experiencing difficult life stressors having nothing to do with climate change or global pandemics, such as the death of a loved one, divorce, chronic illness, emotional problems, etc. Although you can argue every year has its challenges, I think we can all agree that we feel 2020 has had more than its share regarding natural (and unnatural) disasters.  Here is a list of just some of the challenges people are dealing with in 2020 around the world:

• Australian Bushfires
• Taal volcano eruption
• United States Wildfires
• Amazon Wildfires
• Siberia Wildfires (i.e., zombie wildfires)
• Puerto Rico Earthquakes
• Midland, Michigan Dam Breaches
• Yemen Humanitarian Crisis
• Venezuelan Humanitarian and Refugee Crisis
• Beirut Explosion
• Midwest Derecho
• Rohingya Refugee Crisis
• Monsoon Floods
• United States Civil Unrest
• Lightning deaths in Bihar, India
• Sudan Flooding
• Covid-19 Pandemic
• Atlantic Hurricane Season
• Locust swarms in Africa and the Middle East
• Brain eating amoebas in Texas
• Communal riots in Delhi
• Floods in Indonesia
• Gas plant explosion in Lagos, Nigeria

 
Walking in Someone Else’s Shoes in 2020
In 2020, I suggest that we consider the individual we are talking to may have problems far beyond our imagination (or not depending on how challenging your personal circumstances are).  Do they have a safe home to go back to? Financial security? Enough safe food and water? Remember Maslow’s hierarchy?  Just as a basic reminder, when people don’t have their basic needs met (food, water, sleep, safety) the base of their pyramid collapses and, of course, when their psychological needs aren’t being met, the pyramid collapses as well.  
This may be a good time to lower our expectations regarding how people are going to approach work, and to communicate more than is comfortable.  Quite simply, now more than ever, it is time to walk in other people’s shoes. What does this mean?  Consider their needs, their wants, their perspective, and try not to judge or weigh them against your own circumstances, or that of others.

​5 Simple Ways to Show Empathy in 2020

1. Pay attention to where your customer’s, co-workers, and employees live. Keep up on the news and know what is happening near them.
2. Lower your expectations for professionalism, speed of work completed, etc. this year.
3. Make walking in someone else’s shoes part of your company culture or personal experience.
4. Provide empathy training to your staff, or proactively take empathy training yourself.
5. Assume positive intent. Always start with the idea that the person meant well or is doing their best.

I had planned on a more traditional methods monday post this week on where to find Covid data for business planning purposes such as predicting supply chain impacts, however, the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg hit me hard this week, as it did many other women across the nation.

There are many tributes to Justice Ginsburg that are being published right now, which is both wonderful and fitting, but if you are looking for a tribute that tells you about the impact of some of her landmark cases, as well as providing sources for more information, then this blog post is for you.

Justice Ginsburg has improved the lives of most women in the United States, although relatively few can tell you how. She also fought for male equality, yet it is the simple fact that she always carried a pocket sized constitution in her purse that I find particularly endearing.

To honor Justice Ginsburg, I researched her landmark cases and put together a list of some of the most notable ones:

• Women make important contributions to juries and underrepresentation should be avoided (Duren v. Missouri, 1979).
• Women should earn the same wages as men for equivalent jobs (Christensen v. Iowa, 1977).
• Men should not be preferred over women to administer estates upon someone's death (Reed v. Reed, 1971). The impact of this case resulted in hundreds of laws that gave preferential treatment to one sex or the other being changed. 
• Women can get their own credit cards, without their husband's permission (impact from Reed v. Reed, 1971). 
• Women seeking and fit for military education cannot be denied (United States v Virginia, 1996). 
• Striking down a law that made pregnant women ineligible for unemployment benefits (Turner v. Department of Employment Security, 1975).
• Successfully challenging bans that excluded women from working on navy vessels in any capacity (Beeman v. Middendorf, 1977; Owens v. Brown, 1978).
• Persons with mental disabilities should be placed in the least restrictive setting where they can be reasonably accommodated, thus making it unacceptable to house people in state institutions who don't need to be there (Olmstead v L.C., 1999). 
• Residents have a right to expect waterways near them to be unpolluted (Friends of the Earth v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, 2000). 
• Widowed fathers deserve the same benefits afforded to widowed mothers. In addition, working women deserve the same benefits as working men (Weinberger vs Wiesenfeld, 1975).
• Banned excessive fines by states and local governments, not just federal government (Timbs v. Indiana, 2019).

Of course the internet and the movie entitled "On the Basis of Sex" provide more information on Justice Ginsberg, but I also have three books in my library that I would recommend to those interested in learning more about Ruth Ginsberg's life and legacy:
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• The Unstoppable Ruth Ginsburg - Quick to read through and summarizes her life and accomplishments, primarily through large photographs. 
• My Own Words Ruth Bader Ginsburg - An autobiographical look at Justice Ginsburg's life and topics of interest such as gender equality and international law. This book is full of detail, yet also manages to be a truly engaging and enjoyable read. 
• Notorious RBG - A New York Times bestseller. This book focuses on Ruth Bader Ginsburg personally, including interviews with family, friends, colleagues, clerks, etc.  Another engaging read that helps us understand how this unassuming, studious woman became a cultural icon and what we can learn from her.

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We have lost a hero of the equal rights movement this week and to compound the sadness from this event, many are anxious regarding the potential impact on this year's presidential election in regard to the future of the Supreme Court. Regardless of your political leanings, let's remember to, "Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you." Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

We are inundated with distractions. For those of us working remotely from home distractions can be almost constant… pets, children, partners, making our next meal, doing laundry, social media, Netflix, etc.  For #MethodsMondays, I am going to share three ideas for increasing your focus that work for me.​

1. MAKE THE SPACE YOU NEED TO BE ABLE TO FOCUS.  No judgment here, just be honest with yourself about what you need.  Not all of us can productively do our jobs at our desk, in our office, using only digital tools all day. Here are just a few thoughts:

• ​​Noise cancelling headphones (even with no music or audio).
• Removing objects that are distracting you on your desk or immediate surroundings.
• Turning off the volume on your phone – at least for apps beyond calls and texts.
• Create an idea space.  In my case, I have a large white board in the basement with all of the tools I need (sticky notes, markers, etc.) that I use for mapping out complex projects and writing ideas.

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2. ​DO NOT BLAME YOURSELF.  This is not about motivation, procrastination, or strength of will.     
Focusing is a skill, which means you can work at it and improve over time. Remember that everyone gets distracted and blaming yourself takes energy away from being able to concentrate on the task at hand. For me, just the action of recognizing I am having difficulty focusing and choosing not to blame myself, helps me get back to work more quickly.

3. MEDITATION FOR 5 - 10 MINUTES. Meditation does not need to take a lot of your time. I like an app named Calm for mindfulness. Research shows it helps to increase concentration, focus, sense of well-being, etc. It is also a great way to understand and improve your focusing skills over time. I have often used it to reset myself to focus on a large time-consuming work task with great success.
     
What about when it is not you, but your family interrupting? Last night I got interrupted 6 times while I was trying to do a 7 minute meditation. Life happens. Try to be creative. A friend of mine wears a special hat when he needs to not be disturbed and even his young children know to only stop him from working if it is an emergency when his hat is on. I have husband and two dogs who don’t need a great deal of attention, so it is typically easy to go to a different area of the house and refocus or simply verbalize that I need to complete a specific task and need to concentrate.

Regardless of your circumstances, the key is to make your environment work for you, and to acknowledge that you need to spend some time and energy making sure you can focus effectively. Just remember…it happens to all of us.