How is the world responding?
India with Omicron + Kazakhistan's policies + giving effective feedback
Hello, hope you are safe, healthy and are staying inside. This week we talk about the trends of the Covid-19 in 2021 & 2022, protests which are taking place in Kazakhstan, and how effective feedback can impact productivity.
India enters the third wave
Countries around the world are battling with Omicron which is expected to be one of the dominant variants. At the same time, India is also facing a surge in cases like it was in 2021(second wave) and has recently reported 1,41,986 daily Covid-19 cases on 8th January 2022.
Trends of 2021 & 2022
Paul Kattuman of Cambridge University, one of the creators of an India covid tracker describes the current surge in the cases as “Super exponential”. The reproduction rate of the virus, or R, remained below the replacement level of 1.0 since last June, has since mid-December increased to 1.37 on January 1st.
400,000 new cases a day were reported when the second wave had hit last May and since mid-December, the national tally of daily cases increased four times to just over 27,000.
India has administered more than 1.50 crores of its adults with two jabs within 11 months and has also started a vaccination drive for children between 15-18 years of age.
Dozens of hospitals now have their own production units of medical oxygen, and the country’s overall capacity is said to have grown by 50%.
Views of experts on the approaching third wave-
Dr Vishal who is also the Regional Director – Head & Neck Surgical Oncology and Robotic Surgery, HCG Cancer Hospital explained that if the number of Omicron cases passes the critical limit, there will be a full-blown third wave but with a significant number of natural infections of Delta during the second wave and an increase in vaccinations in the second half of 2021, we have added protection against Omicron and we may not see the kind of spike that other countries are currently witnessing.
(Sources: Economic Times, Times of India, The Economist)
Protests in Kazakhstan
On 5th January 2022, Kazakhstan witnessed unrest as thousands of protesters took to the streets to oppose the rising fuel prices which led to violent exchanges and killings of police, national guard troops and the protestors who tried to storm government buildings.
What is the main issue-
The protests were in view of the fuel market reform which came into effect at the start of January. It aimed to remove price caps for fuel (LPG) while ensuring continuity of supply in the local market. When the price caps were removed on 1 January 2022, the government expected that the supplies to the domestic market would rise and help address the shortages. In reality, the prices nearly doubled overnight to 120 tenges per litre.
Soon the scope of the protests also expanded which was to oppose President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev, who was in power even after quitting in 2019.
What happens now?
The current president, Tokayev, said the government will reintroduce a price cap. He took to Twitter to discourage people from joining the unrest.
He even requested 2500 troops from a Russian-led security alliance that arrived in Kazakhstan on 6 January 2022.
How does it impact the world?
The dispatch of 2500 troops has stirred the fears that Moscow could use the crisis to strengthen its influence over Kazakhstan
Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, an expert on Central and South Asia at the University of Pittsburgh expressed that Kazakhstan has turned away from its multivector foreign policy, where it was balancing China, Russia, the U.S., and the EU.
(Sources: Al Jazeera, Newyork Times, Hindustan Times, Foreign Policy)
How to give effective feedback?
Feedback is the essential component of effective learning. One often relies on feedback to know how they are performing in school, at work and even at home while doing some activity. On the contrary, if the action is missing in the feedback it almost has the opposite effect even when the feedback is provided. The point of focus is that why are we giving the feedback in the first place if it doesn’t help the employees to upskill themselves?
Here, Howie Jacobson & Peter Bregman, in their book, You Can Change Other People, share a four-step process on how to give effective feedback:
How to develop a culture of efficiency and productivity
Step 1: Shift your focus from being a critic to being a supporter
People would want to talk to someone who’s an ally and would show confidence in them and commitment to them. The book describes a three-step formula to clearly communicate that you’re an ally and not a critic-
Empathize. Acknowledgement is the key to developing trust if they are struggling.
Express confidence. Show that you believe in them and they can handle the challenges they are facing.
Ask permission. Ask them if they would be willing to think with you about the situation.
Step 2: Find an enthusiastic outcome.
If they say yes, ask them, what was the outcome they were looking for? Let them articulate that outcome that is good for them as well as the organisation and help them get to an outcome that is positive, clear, and meaningful.
Step 3: Uncover a hidden opportunity
After the clarity is achieved by both people, revisit the problem with a different approach that is how can this problem help us achieve the energizing outcome? instead of “Solve it”. After some contemplation, one might realise that the person facing difficulty was the only one on the team willing to raise important issues and can in turn be the key to the team’s efficiency.
Step 4: Creating a level-10 plan.
The term “level-10” plan means that when we ask, “On a scale of 1-10, how confident are you that you will execute this plan?” the answer is a resounding 10. The leader’s level-10 plan could be scheduling a conversation with the disruptive team member, as an ally, in order to help them contribute positively to the team.
(Sources: Havard Business Review)
