2020 - who would have thought?

Six years ago, I was engaged by a company to help them adopt and define a fresh vision for their business. It’s useful in these situations to focus on a specific point in the future and we, along with many others I expect, chose the year 2020 - it seemed the clear option for a vision!

I think we got a few things right but it’s fair to say NO ONE could have envisaged a year quite like the one we’ve had.

Given that year is almost at an end I wanted to reflect on some aspects of 2020 – a personal perspective on the highs, the lows and some hopes for the future.

Travel

In recent years I’d begun to travel a lot with work; 13 overseas assignments in 2019 and two more by mid-March this year. That came to a grinding halt when Leader Boris announced the first UK lock-down on 23rd March, ordering us to stay at home except for a measly ration of one slice of outdoor exercise a day.

The PM's plea to hunker down and battle the virus from home was echoed in a very different way by the German government. They produced an oddly humorous video, set in the future, in which an old man reminisces about the year of the coronavirus. He recalls that, as a young man, he contributed to the ‘war effort’ by doing…”Absolut gar nichts” (Absolutely nothing). With the “sofa as our front and patience as our weapon”, he explains how the home-based approach was the best defence.

Although we’ve probably consumed more Netflix (and alcohol) than normal this year, it’s still been a busy time for many. I know people who spend countless hours on video calls with clients and colleagues; by mid-afternoon they realise they’ve barely moved since breakfast.

What has changed is the commute, whether that’s to a single workplace or between client meetings. Like many, I despise being in traffic jams – that sense of helplessness and wasted time. But those connecting journeys are not without value; they give us time to reflect on what we’ve just done, get ready for the next encounter or simply decompress at the end of the day.

It’s a bit like the mortar between the bricks, or the gaps between different courses of a meal. The temptation is to replace that time with more ‘doing’, but it’s important to preserve at least some of that neutral space.

Events

During the second half of 2019 I successfully launched a new brand called ‘Just One Thing’ (JOT). It was a series of events in Cheshire and Manchester where people came together to explore one soft skills topic during a 2-hour session. We were getting some nice momentum and I was proud of the new pull-up banners which arrived in March this year. Then….

• No events
• No trips
• No clients
• Paused retainers

What to do?

Invention from necessity

I drew inspiration from the way people and companies adapted during the pandemic – gin producers churning out hand sanitiser, online workouts by fitness gurus and the restaurants who ramped up their take-out service.

For me, the lock-down was a time to reflect and re-visit some of the self-development books on my shelves AND the content of my own workshops. I find if you’re continually delivering work it squeezes out that time to review and revitalise material you’ve relied on for a while.

In March I launched a YouTube channel called The One Minute Mentor, a free platform for people in my network to record and share a nugget of wisdom, a 60-second tip or technique which demonstrates they know some useful stuff.

I began to network online, a strange experience initially, but it helped me stay connected and enjoy the support and camaraderie of fellow coaches, consultants and entrepreneurs. The SUBS networking and learning events have been particularly enjoyable, and I must thank David Bellin, Paula Eddy and my fellow members of the Macclesfield branch for their friendship and encouragement during the pandemic.

Forced into virtual working, I managed to adapt my corporate workshops to launch a new online course in Applied Storytelling for micro and SME businesses. The course comprises six 90-minute sessions for up to 20 delegates, delivered on Zoom every fortnight, and covering a range of topics from the elevator pitch and case studies to blogging and hosting a radio talk show.

It’s been a wonderful experience to run this, with two cohorts completing the course so far, and producing one particularly memorable quote from a delegate:

If this was a book it would be an unputdownable page-turner (Leslie Marsh)

Happily, almost all my other work has reappeared, and new assignments have emerged.

Adapting to the virtual medium

One thing that really strikes me about this pandemic is how unevenly it seems to have affected people, and the shift to online communication is a case in point.

For example, I’ve heard several self-confessed introverts say how much they prefer this to traditional forms of networking. On the other hand, those who like to feed off the energy of a room find it a rather empty, soulless experience.

I think it’s made me appreciate how much actually goes on during a face-to-face encounter, how much we read into a purse of the lips, the glint in someone’s eye or a shift in weight from one foot to another. These things are really hard to see online, especially with several people on the screen, and their absence impairs our ability to understand one another and truly connect.

(Images from Afif Kusuma, Eric Muhr and Marie Michele Buchard on Unsplash)

It’s also harder to grab and maintain people’s attention during a talk, where loyalty to the presenter is so much weaker than if we shared the same physical space. I find the lack of feedback in terms of audience reaction unsettling and inhibiting, although introverts may prefer to deliver material through the screen.

What it has underlined is how much better our content needs to be. More than ever, our audience needs to feel part of what we’re presenting, with plenty of variety and stimulation in both the material and the way we bring it to life.

New behaviours

Every major crisis seems to produce its own language, with words like ‘pivot’ and ‘furlough’ entering the national lexicon. It wouldn’t surprise me if phrases like, “You’re on mute” crop up in the next version of the Oxford English Dictionary, and we might have to revisit the word ‘positive’ after months of COVID testing!

The popularity of digital backgrounds on virtual calls seems to have waned and I wonder if this has helped us humanise some of our business relationships. The 'natural' Zoom window is a peek into our personality; when children, pets and Amazon deliveries occasionally interject it’s a reminder of the daily pressures we currently face.

There’s something odd about a year many of us would describe as “extraordinary”, because I sometimes feel it’s been filled with more Groundhog Days than I can remember in my lifetime.

It might be called extra-ordinary, but it's as if we’ve had extra helpings of the ordinary.

I appreciate it depends on your circumstances, but I feel I’ve had far fewer experiences this year than normal.

I’ve had many terrific conversations with a wide variety of people and have certainly broadened my network. But I’ve conducted almost all those conversations through a single device in my living room; highly convenient and cost-effective but rather ‘narrow’.

We tend to remember and value experiences more than things, and those experiences often relate to events and encounters with people outside our normal environment. When we are working predominantly from home there’s no atmosphere to soak up, no unplanned encounters, no surroundings to which we must adapt.

Every day I battle with contradictory feelings towards routine; on the one hand it’s comforting, but it's also numbing.

Lifestyle

After the first 3 months of the lock-down I would ask people, “Have you got fitter or fatter?” I got a mixed response but for my part I’d say this existence has helped me stay in better physical shape – more home cooking, fewer car journeys and plenty of walks and runs in the hills near my home.

I bought a few nice clothes at the start of the year but they hang in the wardrobe, largely untouched. There doesn’t seem to be much point dressing up for a Zoom call, especially below the waist!

The few face-to-face exchanges I have with people in the street are cherished moments, unforeseen encounters that contrast with the pre-arranged conversations we have online.

I’ve found myself valuing the smaller pleasures in life, not least the hills surrounding my home and the ‘awe walks’ they afford, a term coined by psychologists to describe the natural world and its healing effect on Zoom-weary workers.

My kids are all grown up so I’ve been spared the stress and anxiety of combining childcare and virtual schooling with home working. Two of them are teachers, so I’ve heard a lot about it from THEIR perspective. And the youngest is at university, constrained by COVID restrictions and doing his best to stay healthy and motivated.

One outcome of this strangest of years is a rekindling of my interest in golf! It was my life as a youngster and later my livelihood for 22 years, before transitioning to the work I do now. I must thank Stewart Grant for kindly inviting me to Hoylake in the summer and inspiring me to dust off my clubs!

What next?

One of the most heartening aspects of this challenging year has surely been a realisation of our shared humanity and a re-evaluation of priorities. In his Reith lectures, the former Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney laments the fact that we've tended to hold financial value in higher esteem than human value.

This, claims Carney, has led to the triple crises of credit, COVID and climate.

I’ve certainly come to appreciate the value of carers, healthcare professionals, retail workers, council employees and hospitality staff who continue to serve us whilst placing themselves at risk. The countryside has also been the ideal antidote for periods of forced incarceration.

This year also reminds us what we can achieve when we prioritise things like medical research, community support and flexible working. What was considered difficult before is now reality.

I hope we carry that shared humanity and can-do attitude into 2021 and set the world back on its axis. I hope we can revitalise some of the industries that have really suffered during the pandemic, while still caring for our precious environment. I hope we can once again congregate in the same space to learn and network and enjoy the vibe.

I hope…

Andrew Thorp is a coach, trainer and consultant in the field of business communication. He works with companies both large and small; his mission is to help leaders become more confident and persuasive speakers and to humanise and 'storify' business communication.

Twitter @andrewthorp

Email: [email protected]