Reflections on 2020

Here are some brief reflections from me on this VUCA year of 2020! I also announce a new series starting 2021 of bite-size podcasts that I’m calling ‘Related Work’, discussing a single topic or concept from both an evidence-based and experiential perspective. You can find the full transcript of my reflections below or you can download it here as a pdf.Image: ‘Hanging out together: Physically distanced and socially connected’ (Geraldine Fitzpatrick 2020)Related links:Leadership-related events for Informatics Europe including: Webinar on Creating the New Academic Normal for Informatics ResearchersAcademic leadership development course - Autumn 2020 - with Austen RainerCheck here too for the Spring 2021 leadership course (announced soon)DigiLeaders event - Supported by Digital Futures and KTH Stockholm GEC2020 Workshop - on ‘Red threads, choices, and the ‘good’ academic life’Transcript:(00:30):Welcome. So this is going to be my end of year reflection and what a year it has been, hasn't it, 2020, will we ever forget that? So many big issues, not just COVID 19, but political issues and environmental disasters huge weather events. So many people impacted in so many ways this year. So following up from my earlier reflections as well we are still in Australia unexpectedly, I would never have put any money on us still being here at Christmas or for the new year. And this is one of the characteristics of this year. Isn't it? That it's just been so unpredictable at every turn we thought we would be back in Vienna in a few months, in a couple of months, even, and the year has been full of lessons about that.(01:34):In the business world they often talk about how we live in a VUCA world, which is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. And if ever there's been a book a year, I think 2020 has been it. And I know that we've often talked about returning to normal or the new normal, and I'm starting to think that one of the lessons from this year is the reminder that everything is always changing and challenging. And it just so happens that we've got a concentration of challenges and changes this year, but there will never be any real stable time. There are always events that will challenges or changes in technology or changes in policies or whatever that we need to respond to or in our own personal life circumstances. And for me, I think one of the lessons for this year has been how to maybe just embrace that sense of ongoing change as just being where it's at.(

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