Adapting to our environment
I was in Bangalore this week to deliver a client workshop. I typically fly the day before the workshop and fly out the same evening back to Kuala Lumpur. The return flight is a red eye and my brain doesn’t like it. It’s an approximately 4 hour flight back making it hard to get a good stretch of sleep. Making my next day not so productive.
This time I changed things. I flew in a day earlier and opted to take the day flight back the following morning. Making it much easier on the brain and body. My client workshop was on Friday. I flew in on Wednesday morning instead of Thursday morning.
However, I had a couple of online workshops to deliver on Thursday. Thanks to technology we can be anywhere when working online. The only drawback is that the comfort of our usual setup at home or office needs adapting.
I am used to a second screen when working online, especially with Zoom. It helps to move all the participants’ camera displays and chat box to the second screen leaving my laptop with my presentation and notes. Something that I am so used to when I work from home. I plug my second screen in, adjust the setup, and off I go.
All that changes when in a hotel room. But I had an idea of using the room’s TV as a second screen. I tried it on my TV at home and it worked! So, I carried my HDMI cable with me and as soon as I got into my hotel room I got to work.
Unfortunately, the hotel TV is mounted into the wall in the room which made it difficult for me to get to the HDMI socket. I called for technical assistance who in turn called onsite engineering services to help me.
The engineer understood immediately what I wanted and promptly unhooked the TV from the wall mount and plugged my HDMI cable into a port. It took several iterations to get it to work but within a few minutes, we had it working.
I had a TV for a second screen. It was amazing. I felt ‘in control’ again. My setup was not perfect. The TV screen was too high and the table in the room was too low, but I adapted to my environment. I used my laptop bag to elevate my laptop and moved back from the TV screen as much as I could (HDMI cable length permitting) so I didn’t have to crank my head up to look at the TV.
Both my online sessions went well. The technology worked. But the power in the hotel kept going off (4 times!) during my second workshop. Thankfully it came back within seconds, and I was able to restore my TV screen within seconds too. Interestingly, the WiFi didn’t disconnect during the power disruption. The hotel must have its internet technology on a separate power supply. And my laptop was fully charged. Lucky.
I was a little anxious and excited about my technology setup before I left. But once I got it working, I was thrilled. I did go with a mindset of ‘it should work, why wouldn’t it?’. The power disruption was a surprise. But after I restored my TV the first time, I knew what to do (and how long it took) when it happened again.
The power of our brain’s adaptability!
On a separate note. The business park where my Bangalore client is based has some great cafes and retail shops below. One shop was a niche leather shop carrying locally made leather products. All very attention-grabbing. But what really caught my attention was a display on the bottom of their window. I share it below.
It made me laugh! I hope it makes you laugh too.
As always, you can reach me at yoga@yoganesadurai.com
ps. It is Sunday morning as I write this. I got back to KL last night. Hence the slight delay in mailing time.