Le CACT

07/05/2020

Are confinement restrictions easing where you are? Is your employer asking you to come back to the workplace? Or are you asked to work from home for a longer period of time, maybe even permanently?

Here is some basic guidance from WHO on how to stay safe and keep others safe. Please share widely!

There are simple things you can do to keep yourself, your colleagues at work and your family members protected from COVID-19. Watch this short animation and ...

07/04/2020

7 April 2020

Today, 7 April, is World Health Day. We can’t think of a better way to highlight this day than to participate in WHO’s ad hoc Consultation on Infodemic management.

It’s inspiring and humbling to listen to international experts share their knowledge and experience so that we can better tackle the current infodemic on Covid-19 in a coordinated way, based on evidence and encompassing emotional and cognitive dimensions.

We’d like to give a particular shout out to the gentleman who coined the term “infodemiology” almost 2 decades ago, Gunther Eysenbach.

03/04/2020

For the past month or so, Le CACT has shared posts on misinformation about COVID-19, and so has our Director, Caroline-Anne Coulombe, on her personal page.

We’ve done it because we’re passionate and experienced in emergency risk communication, behaviour change and change agility; and because we’re passionate and experienced in supporting people through change and public health emergencies.

Today, Le CACT is proud to announce that we’re FORMALLY joining the fight against misinformation about COVID-19! We’ll be supporting a regional organization in Atlantic Canada, funded by the Government of Canada, in creating a fact-checking portal on Covid-19 – in English and French.

Stay tuned for all sorts of helpful resources, coming soon.

(Photo credit: NIAID-RML)

29/03/2020

ANATOMY OF MISINFORMATION: if you or someone you know got caught in the "ibuprophen or no ibuprophen during Covid-19" debate, this read is for you.

The authors show how "advice" was issued that was not grounded in evidence and how it spread like wildfire in a time when people are quick to want to protect themselves.

It's so important to go to the source of information rather than to rely on social media or reporting alone - even when our intentions are good and we're well-meaning.

Before you share something you see on social media or in the news, stop. Take a breath. Think: who is the source, is this official and recognized advice from recognized professionals in the international community. When in doubt, don’t share.

An online furor over whether it’s safe to use the fever reducer reveals how people are sharing incomplete—and sometimes bad—information.

26/03/2020

For all our health professional friends and colleagues who are on the front lines right now, or who will be very soon, here are some useful tips from WHO's Regional Office for Europe on how to support your mental health and well-being and that of your co-workers. Thank you for all you are and all you do!

Dr Hans Kluge was joined by WHO experts to discuss the COVID-19 response, and - more specifically - on supporting mental and psychological health and well-be...

24/03/2020

The uncertainty and all the unknowns of Covid-19 and the pandemic and the uncertainty and unknown that the current situation causes in our lives can leave us feeling powerless. We may look at health professionals and think that what they’re doing is so much more important than what we can do from our home, under the stay-at-home orders many of us are complying with (please!). And yes, they are indeed superheroes.

But we’re also all superheroes. You’ve seen it often in the past few weeks, staying home is the best way to slow the spread of the virus and in order to give our health systems and health professionals the opportunity to be more prepared at handling the surge in demand that is coming. So be a hero. Don’t go out unless absolutely necessary.

Since we’re all superheroes, we also all have superpowers, qualities that make us unique in this world. Now more than ever, we need to tap into these superpowers and apply them to the circumstances we’re facing. For many of us, these circumstances may be different than usual because of the stay-at-home orders.

For example, our Director, Caroline-Anne Coulombe, has the superpower of staying socially connected with people all over the world on a consistent basis, through various technological means. She’s practiced this superpower for 15 years, having lived in 6 different countries in 3 continents since 2005, and travelling almost constantly during that period. She’s purposefully applying this superpower while being hunkered down in Quebec City to check in with friends and colleagues across the planet.

What are your superpowers? And how can you apply them to your current situation? We’d love to hear from you.

20/03/2020

Le CACT specialises in supporting organizations and individuals to develop “change agility”, the ability to quickly adapt, shift and pivot with changing circumstances, technology, deadlines, teams, etc. The current Covid-19 pandemic is showing us contrasting examples of what happens when we lack change agility, and succumb to the biological reflex of fear instead of overcoming it when change is needed, and what happens when we acknowledge the reflex and rapidly move beyond it to more smoothly adapt to new circumstances.

One key concept during this pandemic has been the importance of creating physical space between people in order to avoid or slow the spread of Covid-19. In epidemiological terms, this has been called “social distancing”. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve seen many instances of people having difficulty coping with the idea and resisting the reality of not being able to congregate as usual. We’ve noticed that many people seem to confuse social connection with physical contact, thinking that they won’t be able to be social if they stay at home or are not in close physical proximity to others. This thinking and the associated beliefs and behaviours are having a significant impact on mental and emotional health of those people.

This was acknowledged by the World Health Organization who, this past week, showed its change agility by listening to how people felt and changing some terminology. WHO is now referring to “social distancing” as “physical distance”. While it urges people to create physical distance between each other, it strongly encourages everyone to nurture social connection through means other than physical gatherings and touching.

From our perspective, connection and social connection are a way of being, they are emotional states, they are not ruled by or dependant on physical proximity or geography. Yes, at some point physical contact and proximity are extremely important. But the two are not essential in order for connection to exist and be nurtured.

During the pandemic, let’s practice change agility too and take advantage of the physical distance to nurture social connections. We can all be caring and kind, through actions and words that don’t require physical contact.

If we do, we will have a different and more positive experience during this period of uncertainty. We can also establish a whole new world on the other side of the pandemic.

PS- Thanks to our colleagues at WHO for alerting us to this change in terminology!

15/03/2020

One of the biggest complaints of our time is, well, lack of time. Lack of time in our lives, and lack of time in our day at work. There are several ways of creating more time in our workday, including prioritizing and becoming more productive. But the Covid-19 pandemic is providing some of us with a more straightforward opportunity to create more time – albeit temporarily: by taking away an existing activity which has used up time. (Disclaimer: this post is directed at those who are not involved in the emergency response to Covid-19)

Indeed, the Covid-19 situation has pushed more and more organizations across the world to ask their personnel (those who can) to work from home, and more and more governments have implemented social distancing measures.

Teleworking and social distancing measures, even if temporary, have the potential to give us more time. It’s basic math!

If I don’t have to commute for an hour, I’ve gained one hour in my day, that’s a minimum of 5 hours in my week. I could read that book I’ve been putting off. I could take that online course I’ve been meaning to register for. I could add 30 minutes of sleep to my night. I could engage in that mindfulness practice that’s fallen off my schedule, or do 30 minutes of cross fit. I could connect virtually with friends I haven’t contacted in a while. I could tackle that renovation project or that crafts project. I could just do…. nothing!

So what’s your math? And what would YOU do with the extra time every day, and every week? How do you preserve this time, if you’re at home with children?

13/03/2020

A doctor in Northern Italy recently said that during World War II, people were forced to go fight, and during the current pandemic, people are forced to stay home, even when they are not ill. This really put things into perspective, as most of us would favour one over the other. But often, when we’re experiencing uncertainty, frustration and fear, being asked to relativize our situation only exacerbates this uncertainty, frustration and fear. Indeed, who hasn’t had a spike of annoyance when, in describing a situation we thought of as negative, the person with whom we were sharing pointed out that we’re still much better off than so many others?

This comes from our brain’s built-in negativity bias. Studies show that the brain reacts more strongly to what it considers to be negative: when we hear news that is undesirable or that creates uncertainty, our brain exhibits more electrical activity than when we hear news that we consider “good”.

So even if staying at home is likely less physically risky than fighting in a war, our brain will naturally want to zoom in on the negative aspects of staying home/social distancing - on what we’re not able to do, what we perceive we’re losing, why it’s inconvenient, etc.

How do we lessen our brain’s negativity bias if we’re asked to quarantine ourselves/telework during the Covid-19 pandemic? In addition to following WHO's advice on managing stress during the pandemic, we recommend 5 actions:
1) Acknowledge the things we can’t control or influence/the things that we won’t be able to do for a while, and those we can influence and control
2) Go one step further and identify what we can gain from teleworking/social distancing/staying home
3) Purposefully guide our brain towards and concentrating on what we can influence and gain
4) As much as possible, keep doing the things we've been doing that are supportive in these times
5) Create a plan and a new routine to follow if need be, and implement tools to prompt us to follow this new routine

08/03/2020

Happy International Women's Day! Le CACT is proud to collaborate closely with strong and compassionate business women who are redefining the leadership of women in society, in the business world, and in the United Nations. We are acutely aware, as shared in the attached article, that this is a work in progress. Yet our vision is unshakable and we remain committed to effecting change through kindness, gratitude and love.

Despite decades of progress in closing the gender equality gap, close to nine out of 10 men and women around the world, hold some sort of bias against women, according to new findings published on Thursday from the UN Development Programmme (UNDP).

01/03/2020

Healthy work environments are key to employee fulfillment and productivity. One of the ways to keep our work environments healthy is by protecting ourselves, of course, but if we’re an employer, it’s also by protecting the physical health of our colleagues and others who may visit our workplace. This is true every day, but it is particularly important during times of uncertainty, like we’re experiencing now. Here is a summary of the World Health Organization’s guidance on workplace safety in relation to the novel coronavirus currently circulating across the planet (Covid-19).

https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/getting-workplace-ready-for-covid-19.pdf

27/02/2020

For the next five years, Le CACT is focusing on healthy work environments and personnel well-being. For us, this means supporting organizations and their key asset, people, through organizational development and change management strategies and activities that strengthen individuals, teams and performance. The aim? To shift culture, to develop change agility, and to increase emotional competence. We look forward to engaging with you about questions, highlights, milestones and insights on this journey!