June 1, 2021 Commentary from a wicker chair

 June 1, 2021 Commentary from a wicker chair: It was absolutely amazing to see the excitement on the faces of the Wake O2 Angels as they excitedly shared their experience of working with a family that desperately needed O2 as the COVID-19 patient was getting released from the hospital because the family could not afford the hospital expenses and there was a need for free O2. Not just O2, but it had to be free. Such an oxymoron – never had I thought that O2 will be something we will need to pay for. Nearly 21% of the air we breathe for free is O2. All of a sudden that is not enough. And I know the feeling. For a decade I have been going to Ladakh. When the aircraft doors open at the airport in Leh, the air escapes the aircraft. Pressurized to the equivalent of 6,000 feet over sea level, the doors open to the thin air of 11,000 feet. I practically gasp. There is not enough O2 in the air. This is what COVID-19 patients face. They are unable to access the 21% and the O2 must be pumped in for life. And the cost could be high. But this family could not afford to pay. So, the work was even more difficult for the Angels. But they did it. They matched the family with free O2, and another person may live and not gasp for breath. I have realized that it does not take sophisticated training to manage projects. The myth of the management education that became the way of the World in the latter part of the Twentieth Century, with spreadsheets and Gantt charts and decision trees and jazzed up processes and workflows. Perhaps it has value, but when you put dedicated well-meaning people in charge, you trust them, you give them the freedom to do that task good things often happen. The aftermath of the storm left many without basic food supplies a few miles from Gobindapur. So, another decision maker supply pivoted. Devdas, sent me a video showing distribution in a place I did not recognize. He explained, “eder khub kharap obostha tai ekhane dilam.” Of course, I concurred those who can use the support best should get it. There is no algorithm running in a super-computer making the decisions. It is Devdas and his trusted auto. As I see this unfold I feel a sense of hope. Not that the numbers will suddenly shift down but a hope that there are smart people who can make good decisions when needed. These are the people who will make the post-COVID-19 World where place will not matter and management will be through video meetings and time will conflate to a global time where the task decides the time, not some privilege of what time is more precious. In the World of outsourcing, I have seen how the Western time has been privileged and the labor in the East would have to run the graveyard shift to serve their Western overlords. I think that could and would change. The task decides the time and not pre-existing power structure, perhaps that is the change I seek – realign the structures of power and just as the sun finally set on the Empire at the end of World War 2, perhaps there will be new alignments of light and shade after we have adjusted to COVID-19. Perhaps it is the way in which people will work when the work is needed. Demand for O2 in Calcutta does not follow a nine to five schedule in New York. We work when we must. We sleep when we can. We try to help others breathe all the time. And thus perhaps will come the post COVID-19 World as in the words of Wynonna Judd, “I am ready to fly” “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5fEDhQQ_W8