your current options

our staff meeting was a bit gloomy today, what with the worst financial forecast in the history of state government. we talked about worst case scenarios, and then we brainstormed ways we might face it with our heads up and hopefully above water.

later on one of my staff counseled all of us that it is always a good idea to think about our options.

if there are layoffs, what's our next move?

very good advice.

i have a lovely old wooden desk with a glass top in my office, it is a vintage state issued piece that no one wanted but me. everyone else has sleek modular countertops, flipper doors and lateral file drawers. very efficient and space-saving. but i prefer to sit behind something solid and strong that could tell me stories of hard times and good times from many years past, and it will tell me those stories if i would just listen,

which of course i often do.

so there i was pondering the state of the state late this afternoon, watching the snow and thinking about that forecast. and then i noticed my telephone.

it is a fancy phone with lots of groovy features they told us we would love, and some of them really are useful, especially the ability to customize your ringtone. i do enjoy that. there is a little grey screen on the front that tells you who is calling, or if you have messages, or if you have missed calls.

but what i noticed today was the standard menu on that tiny grey screen. funny how we often miss that which is right under our noses.

the screen says

your current options

and underneath that it says

redial. new call. forward all.

in our office we have 7 flipchart pages filled with ideas about how to face this challenge, PowerPoints, pie charts and wiggly graphs. we have lots and lots of information to help us make choices.

turns out, the best answer is right in front of us.

these are our current options:

redial: go back in time and think about what didn't work and how bad it was the last time. complain some. gripe a little.

new call: recognize the opportunity every crisis creates.

forward all: keep going.

what is it they call that thing?

oh that's right

a smart phone.