Use the PREDICT Model To Ease Anxiety About Future

We are in the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic and everyone is anxious, everyone is feeling blindsided by the impact on the global economy.

We can use tools such as the PREDICT model to help ease anxiety about the future.

Every industry is being impacted including the travel industry, the meetings industry, and the supply chain industry to name just a few.

Uncertainty unchecked leads to mass anxiety which leads to poor decisions today that will impact the future.

If ever there was a time to ’stay calm’ and ‘carry on’ this is it.

No one has a crystal ball however we can take a step back and take a broader view of what’s happening and the potential challenges and opportunities.

In times of intense uncertainty, we are being called upon individually to be more flexible, to shift the mindset and to see the potential positives.

It is time to focus on what ‘we can control’ and to take action based on what’s best for people, how can we leverage data and how can we make decisions based on informed insights.

We use the PREDICT model with our clients and in this newsletter, I would like to share how to apply it either personally or organizationally when dealing with uncertainty.

Answer the questions and take the recommended actions for each part of the PREDICT model below:

What are the patterns of the events that are happening right now?(IE/SARS, World Wars, 9/11)
What is familiar with what is happening right now? (Massive disruption)
What are the challenges with what is happening right now and how do they relate to past challenges? (Personal and business)
When similar events to those happening right now happened in the past what changes did it force? (Increase remote work)

How have the patterns of ‘change’ in the past forced change and that are happening now forcing changes? (IE/ Travel changes after 9/11)
What are the changes that we are most afraid of right now? Why? (Business impact/personal job/work impact)
What industries are at the highest risk of being adversely affected by these changes? Why? (Travel/meetings/supply chain)

What are the potential positives of this current uncertainty?
What is it causing people/business to do?
How can we leverage the forced changes on ourselves or on the business as an opportunity?
What should we stop doing right now?
What should we start doing right now?

Brainstorm/share with all stakeholders such as employees/clients/suppliers – ask them what they need. (Polling/surveys/conversations)
Mine the data that you receive from the brainstorm/sharing and seek the patterns.
Create a mind map from the data/patterns as a visual dashboard.

Based on a visual dashboard choose what resonates as potential actions for you/your company/your culture.
Create an action plan based on all potential actions and prioritize based on most impact TODAY.
Build a daily action plan for self/team/company based on the priority list.

The biggest opportunity with major challenges is that it shines a light on what needs to change.
Based on all of the previous steps what stands out clearly as what needs to change NOW? (Increase motivation of self/teams/culture).
For example, if your company does not have a remote work plan in place the Covid-19 virus has forced the need for such a plan.
What are the ‘elephants’ in the room that up until now no one tackled but now that there is mass uncertainty there is an urgent need to?

What can I/we control? Make a list – based on what you CAN control what are you/the team/the company going to do about it?
What is preventing me/us from seeing the current uncertainty as an opportunity for creativity and elevated thinking?
What resources or strategies can we provide for ourselves/our teams/the company?(Self-care/inspiration/new ways of working)
If we look ahead at the next month, 2 months, 3 months what could the actions we take today do to create a new future?

When big changes happen and (that’s what uncertainty really is) we can often have a knee jerk fear-based reaction.

How we respond during times of challenge determines how we flex and remain agile through change.

Fear is irrational and its a real emotion AND we can calm fear by logically moving it through a process such as the PREDICT model.

Emotionally we can self resource through meditation, deep breathing, outdoor walking, listening to music, turning off the media for a while, talking with others going through the same thing – these things we CAN control.

Our wish for you during these intense times is to be pragmatic while also looking to a future where we will have learned a whole lot and there will be new inventions and outcomes as a result of this disruption.