In the second class, we were presented lectures by Prof. Trajtenberg and Dr. Itzchakov. The lecture of Prof. Trajtenberg was devoted to the economic aspect of the COVID-19 crises. From the lecture, we learned that different countries during the crises applied different policies to tackle the crises.  Prof. Trajtenberg also mentioned that Scandinavian countries imposed fewer restrictions compared to Israel, which set very strong mobility and social restrictions. Even though the countries applied such opposite policies they ended with similar results. This observation raises the question did Israel’s government behave right taking such strict restrictions? The restrictions bankrupted many small businesses and damaged the economy. Israel lost very much money during the lockdowns: many businesses went bankrupt and people became very depressed. We should learn whether the ancient method of complete isolation is the only solution in times of pandemic crises. Experience of Asian countries during winter flu shows that there are other methods how to deal with a virus.

Almost all countries took different fiscal and monetary policies to deal with crises like an increase in government consumption, postponement of tax payments, reduction in interest rate, and FX purchases.  As we know different industries suffered during the crises differently. While some industries like tourism, restaurant business, and other small businesses suffered very hard, other industries were in a good position. Many countries reduced the interest rate. The low interest rate should catalyze money flow. I hope that when we go from the sequence of lockdowns our economy will improve.

           The second lecture, by Dr. Itzchakov, was about listening. This subject is always interesting, but in time of the coronavirus when the way of communication very often became virtual, this subject became extremely important. For people social life is important, and in the interaction between people skill of listening is very important. We didn’t pay much attention to this before, but nowadays when many companies have started working remotely, absence of listening skill causes painful problems. When we communicate with somebody in real life, we can read body language, but in Zoom, we can see only the face of the counterpart or sometimes only a black square. In this situation, active listening is extremely important.

Many people find it distracting to observe themselves while speaking. Many people are starting to worry whether they look good or strange, whether the background is presentable, and they have many other thoughts that disturb the flow of the communication. Managers, who have many meetings in a row found it overwhelming to have a sequence of meetings with many people from different places, sometimes even from different countries, and all this while sitting in the same place. For those managers, Dr. Itzchakov recommends having short breaks (10-15 minutes) between meetings, doing some movement and exercises, in order to rest and regain energy.

 He talked about an unexpected effect of virtual communication. Usually, asking people to repeat what they said a minute ago can give the impression that you were not paying attention, but in a virtual environment where we have a lot of distractions, asking the speaker to repeat helps him feel that other people are listening to him attentively.

These and many other recommendations we received from Dr. Itzchakov on how to make virtual meetings more effective could be very helpful for us as managers. The art of listening is crucial in the time of pandemic, and it will play an important role in the post-pandemic time when we have more virtual meetings than before.

Photo by Hakan Nural