2020 reflections and living into our new world

The notion of living through the global pandemic crisis is one I have reflected on a great deal, especially as the year comes to a close and we face even more questions. How will our society rebound? What behaviors established through this period will remain, and what will continue to shift? Simply, what’s next?

I have been intentional about pivoting my mindset from how we live through this landscape, to how we live into it. Our “new normal” will continue into 2021, and we will feel its impact for years to come—as a leader, it presents an opportunity for innovation and evolution.

I have learned more this year than I ever expected to about the resilience of people, the power of transparency and authenticity, and the critical importance of inclusion and self-reflection. For my last post of 2020, I wanted to share how leading lululemon through this challenging period has changed the way I work, manage, and live, with considerations for other leaders as we enter a new year shaped by the many transformative events we have experienced. 

Finding your compass

As the realities of the pandemic emerged, with so many uncertainties around us, I knew that we needed to establish a way to focus the organization and operate the business through conditions none of us had ever experienced. To serve as our compass during this time, we defined three guiding principles during our COVID-19 response—support our people, make balanced decisions, and continue to invest in our future. These gave us clarity around our decisions, helped guide who we ultimately wanted to be as leaders and as an organization, and enabled us proactively to move forward with a shared vision—never stalling based on uncertainty or taking our eye off lululemon’s runway of growth for the future.

Of course, we could never have actioned on this without the support and dedication of our people. The pillars tapped into our people-first culture to help instill purpose, drive, and confidence. I believe our shared objective of taking care of one another was paramount in revealing the best and most unique abilities of every one of us. Our teams have never been more innovative, and I am continually inspired by the adaptability and resilience I have witnessed throughout this year.

Planning into the current environment is a practice that requires constant reassessment, but worth the time and consideration—it continues to provide direction for us on a global scale.

Embracing rapid change

The exponential rate of change in our world has never been more pronounced, and several trends have emerged in this environment like the acceleration of digital, living a healthy and active lifestyle, and working and sweating from home. lululemon is best suited to connect with those trends, and leaning into them required agility from everyone across the business. We needed to review our plans for the year, run scenarios to manage risk, and quickly adapt to serve our guests while keeping an eye to the future, considering how these trends could persist and evolve. 

For example, having a guest-centric Omni experience that brings the power of our Educators across all of our channels was already one of our goals for 2023, leading us to invest in our digital capabilities more powerfully. We also leveraged our agile store fleet with pop-up and seasonal stores, Ship from Store, Buy Online Pick Up in Store and Curbside, and brought hundreds of our Educators online with virtual appointments to offer further choice for our guests. In addition, we moved deeply into expanding our sweat ecosystem with the acquisition of MIRROR, as well as online offerings with our ‘Community Carries On’ Hub and Virtual SeaWheeze.

It requires significant lift to address trends in an intentional way—but when they emerge and align with larger shifts happening in our society, and tap into your business vision and value, that’s where magic can happen.

Creating balance

Our global corporate employees, including myself, shifted to a work-from-home model early in the crisis. The first few months were filled with adrenaline as we jumped into a new way of working and collaborated to find solutions—but adrenaline by design is a short boost of energy. Working from home became the norm, and every member of the organization had a unique experience to navigate. As I saw more into the home lives of colleagues, I knew we had to pivot and think differently about how we could support our global workforce.  

I worked to develop a deeper awareness of how I communicate in order to powerfully lead others. I placed more emphasis on smaller group calls to listen, learn, and create more personal dialogue. I also began doing videos almost every week where I shared updates and offered visibility into different areas of the business in order to encourage connection with our global teams. Honesty and transparency are the most important parts of fostering trust, which is even more critical in a virtual world, and requires consistency and authenticity. 

I also had to consider how we were addressing mental health and balance across all levels and functions of the organization. We introduced meeting free focus time and resiliency courses for our people, and we are on a powerful journey through our IDEA and Impact commitments to contribute to conditions that support the mental, physical, and social wellbeing of our collective, with even more emphasis to come in 2021.

Staying hopeful

Our recent Q3 results and milestones throughout the year have demonstrated that together, we can navigate what lies ahead. Though this period in our lives is filled with uncertainty, we are certain about our future. 

Wishing you all a safe and happy holiday season, and best wishes for 2021.