360: Embracing Change In This Covid-19 Crisis

May 20, 2020

Embracing Change In This Covid-19 Crisis

 

The concept of co-existence with the virus puts a different spin on the “new normal”.  Yes, the lockdowns are coming off, but what will we need to be doing from now going forward?  We may be moving to a murky world that is not quite office and not quite home.  We will be keeping aspects of both, but not having the totality of either.

 

Here are sixteen ways to master on-going coexistence with the virus.

 

1. Every morning, get your brain into 100% productivity by getting into your work battle dress as per usual.You may be going to the office or you may be working at home, or you may be doing a bit of both, with a late flex-time dash to downtown. Anyway, you are not on holiday, so no jammies, shorts or T-shirts.

 

2. Start everyday with a group huddle at 9.00am. Whether some are in the office and others are at home, cameras must be switched on to set the professional tone for the work day.  It is important that everyone can see each other to feel connected.  It also alerts you to anyone not being there, especially those living alone and possibly having some health issues.  We need to make sure everyone in the herd is okay, every day.  In our case, we have continued with our set Daily Dale morning routine and have just taken in online.

 

3. Chit chat is part of the social glue to keep people connected and now many are at home, away from the group and possibly feeling isolated. Set a daily coffee break time to allow people to talk informally, just as they would in the normal office setting.We have Coffee Break Time With Dale at 3.00pm every day, for those who want to join and just catch up with colleagues.

 

4. This is a mark of the professional organisation. Have everyone set their laptops such that the camera is at eye height, rather than shooting a video broadcast of the inner passages of people’s noses, which is what happens when you simply sit your laptop on your desk.

 

5. When meeting on-line, look like a reliable, credible businessperson and sit forward and upright when speaking, rather than lounging back in your chair or sprawled on your sofa.You will look and feel much more professional.

 

6. Create an extra 12.5 hours a week for personal development.Wake up at the same time as before, work until the same time as before and use the two hours commute time and thirty minutes from your lunch break, to work on your personal development and not just on your job.  Also, spend the time researching your industry and the market.  Avoid the media and social media, as most of it is pulling us down into negative mentalities by its love affair with bad tidings.

 

7. Invest 15 minutes a day as a group, to extrapolate that 2.5 hours a day of personal reading, by establishing formal study group sessions with your colleagues. By rotation every day, each can provide a synopsis of the key points from what you have been reading, watching or listening to.Share good information around.

 

8. Use the technology available to brainstorm ideas with colleagues and also clients on how to deal with industry and market specific issues.There are whiteboard functions where you can brainstorm in real time, share and discuss.

 

9. When you are presenting don’t allow the tech to hijack the center stage of the presentation – you must be the main focus, not the screen, just as we would do in a live meeting venue situation.Hit the ‘B” key on your laptop to black out the screen, so you are not competing with the slide deck for everyone’s attention.  Hit “W” and the chastened slide deck will miraculously reappear, after you have shown it whose boss.

 

10. Use breakout rooms to practice role plays in triads.One plays the role of the client and another the coach, to both give good/better feedback to the person doing the role play.

 

11. Access high quality online training to make sure the workforce are moving forward rather than slipping backwards in their professional skills and competencies.Some locatedin the office and some at home makes on-line training a must, in this future twixt and tween world.

 

12. When on-line, use polls to create some humour and also to build self-awareness with colleagues and clients.

 

13. Try and break the tech, by pushing it to the its limits, so that you can get the absolute most out of it. Don’t be timid with the tech, push the hell out of it to see what is possible. We broke WebEx when we did breakout rooms with 150 people and we learnt a lot from that experience.

 

14. Bring value to your clients by offering product training, insights from your reading on the industry and the market.Send them links to the best podcasts, blogs, articles etc., you have found using your extra 12.5 hours of study per week.

 

15. Use the cost cutting you have done to re-examine whether some of these savings can’t be maintained after the lockdown is over and we go back to some recollection of normality.You may find there were things which actually didn’t add any great value, which you never got around to turning off.

 

16. Because of the Covid-19 business disruptions, many talented people are losing their jobs or their faith in their companies and are now available, so this is a good time to look for hiring new people.In the same way, there may be people you have been carrying for a long time and this may be the time to move them out and replace them with more talented staff.