Dear Academy Friends and Supporters,
“The beautiful spring came, and when nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.” – Harriet Ann Jacobs
As we arrive on the last day of April 2021, I reflect on how this April is different and yet similar from the last. We remain cautious and vigilant, in sorrow over parts of the globe now undergoing an awful surge. And yet, green shoots of hope emerge as more and more in our orbit have received a vaccination and case numbers and casualties begin to drop in the US. Restaurants beckon; in person activities are slowly opening up. It is a new year and perhaps a new era, but everything still feels very much in flux.
The last of our locally based employees reached a “fully vaccinated” status this week, and we will resume “going to the office” in some more regular fashion on Monday. I am both excited and anxious over this step, and I also look forward to experimenting with a more flexible work style where we incorporate some of the benefits of a more remote work force with the pleasures and efficiencies of again working from the same location. In a recent romp through the Academy’s extensive archives, I came across this valuable article by Fellow John D. Adams about managing a dispersed workforce. While it contains a delightfully anachronistic reference to pagers, the management strategies and insight into people contained in the primer are timeless and even more pertinent in today’s dispersed world than they were in May 2001. Yet another example of the World Business Academy’s prescience!
The last few weeks have been a busy time in the impact ventures we are incubating, ranging from conscious media to transformative transportation, and great collaborative work continues with our aligned partner organizations JUST Capital and EthicalMarkets, but no specific milestones to report on today.
April 2021, Earth Month, felt significant in the world’s refocusing on the climate catastrophe as the existential threat it is. We are cautiously optimistic at this change in tone, but now the actual work of transformation must begin.
Kristy Jansen, Executive Director