Today’s video gave me a chance to reflect on the movement that many of us are undertaking at the moment: from Panic, to Purpose, and ultimately to Planning.
Panic, of course, is where a lot of us have been lately — “What’s going on? All these people are looking for help??! What can I do?? What can we do?? What’s going to happen??”
The risk we face at the moment (in addition to continuing to manage our ongoing anxiety and those of the people around us), is that we jump too fast from Panic to Planning, without making sure of our Purpose first. In non-crisis situations, we see this happen when organizations make assumptions about how we can best address question X without getting very clear on the outcomes they want to achieve. And, more importantly than ever, what they are uniquely qualified to do versus what they can collaborate with others to do. But in the midst of a crisis, any halfway- functional attempt to help is going to be welcomed… until we discover that it doesn’t work, or it missed a more important need, or it wasted the limited resources it had on the wrong thing.
The challenge in front of you who are trying to move from Panic to Planning is to make certain that you don’t misread your Purpose.
In the Good Ideas category, economic development data and mapping powerhouse GISPlanning just created a powerful tool that anyone can use, in cooperation with the economic analysts at Chmura Economics and Analytics. This interactive map,
which you can check out here, gives county-by-county color-coded data for the entire US on a range of data sets, including number of reported COVID-19 cases, percent of growth in cases, cases per 10,000 residents, and more. The piece that I find particularly interesting is the mapping of the Job Loss Vulnerability Index, which uses Chmura’s JobsEQmodelling to assess the relative impact of the pandemic based on each county’s industry mix, demographics, and more.
So if you need to make the case to your local or state government as to the need for more support, the GISPlanning Covid-19 map may give you the information you need.
Especially as you begin to figure out your Purpose.
Wise Economy Workshop 