If your inbox is anything like mine, then in the past month it's been completely bombarded by every company you've ever interacted with telling you their response to Covid-19.
Not wanting to be left out, we're sharing ours. Fundamentally it's: We're here. We're agile. We can get through this together.
We're here
In the past two weeks we've had conversations at The Training Practice that I'm guessing every New Zealand business has had recently: How are we going to survive Coronavirus?
Two months ago we were discussing ambitious 2020-2021 financial year targets. Now, we're having truly vulnerable conversations about whether the business will survive the global pandemic.
Covid-19 is reminding us how truly VUCA our world is. Volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. A global pandemic forces us to shift our priorities and focus on what's important.
And that's why we're fighting to survive Covid-19. Because our work is an important piece that will help people, teams, and organisations not only survive, but thrive through this drastic life, and therefore workplace, shift.
We're agile
Covid-19 has changed organisation's priorities and work environment. We're on Level 4 lockdown for minimum four weeks.
Sudden, drastic change requires an immediate shift in mindset, behaviours, expectations, priorities, and skills needed. But, we need to make sure people have the tools in place to be successful in these areas.
We've done work in the past around leading and being part of a dispersed team. However, this wasn't an offering most clients needed at the time. Now, it's front and centre.
Dispersed working means dispersed delivery. Learning and growing can happen anywhere. So, in this incredibly volatile time, we're adapting our workshops to bring people together, while they're apart.
We can do this together
Working together is what's going to help us thrive through Covid-19. At work, this starts with looking after your own health and well-being. Followed very closely by looking after your colleagues' as well.
Then of course, the need to deliver remains. Your 'why' may have remained the same but your how will be completely different. Understanding, agreeing, and communicating expectations and ways of working is always critical for individual and team success. As Covid-19 forces your work environment to change, how you work together needs to be redefined and agreed. This means re-negotiating how you communicate, share, give feedback, socialise, engage, brainstorm, meet, lead, etc. If you haven't already had a team relaunch to respond to Covid-19, I recommend making that an immediate priority.
One of Hilary's latest blogs provides insights on why keeping the conversations going is crucial to getting through this time.
We have many clients who have postponed workshops and are ready to carry on once people are back in the offices. That's great, but some thoughts:
Most importantly, your people need support right now. Support looking after themselves, looking after each other, and looking after the work. Are you providing them? We cannot pretend this is BAU, when we don't even have life as usual.
There's no need to put learning on the shelf - there are things people will need to develop and opportunities to look into areas they've had on the backburner.
Lastly, on our side, we're a small New Zealand business that cannot survive on postponed and future bookings alone.
We're here, we're agile, and we can get through this together. We want to help you lead and thrive through this VUCA time. We have the expertise, capability, and drive to do just that. Let us know how we can be there for you.
Kia kaha, New Zealand.