Create Connection in a Crisis, Even When We’re Told We Can’t

Hey Coronavirus. Welcome to New York. The City is an amazing place to grow and spread, but everyone here is trying to kill you.

We hate New York, but we love New York. We live in New York, but we also have to survive New York. We’re crammed and stressed in subways, coworking spaces, coffee shops and small apartments. And if that wasn’t enough fun, we also opt to go out all night to the restaurants and bars that are the most packed and hardest to get into.

Every true New Yorker is aware of when the city is scheduled to shut down and create a transportation nightmare. You have to know how to cross town when the marathon splits the city in half, and the world shows up to cheer on these athletes. You also have to be aware of when the UN comes in and wreaks havoc on your daily routine. While you curse the disruption, you also love watching the world come together.

As much as these events screw up our day and make the city seem that much more congested, we thrive on it. And when our city is faced with tragedy or crisis, our bond grows even stronger.

So, telling New Yorkers to keep their distance from each other in the wake of Coronavirus is a tough sell. It’s especially hard on business owners who, maybe for the first time, have to face the challenge of incorporating remote working options into their operations now that so many have been advised to stay home.

To be clear, I’m not one to be nonchalant about public health threats. My daughter is immunocompromised — I deeply appreciate the efforts our healthcare aids and organizations make to keep people safe and to prevent the spread of infectious disease and misinformation. But I’m also saying that we are social people, and in a crisis our instinct is to congregate, not separate.

In a crisis, our instinct is to congregate, not separate.

Remote Control

If yours is a business that hasn’t yet embraced the remote worker lifestyle, there’s no time like right now to get on board. But I’m also super sympathetic to the fact that it’s one thing to understand why change is crucial, and it’s another to actually do it, and do it well. I know, because I’ve also been a business owner on the frontlines of crisis in this city.

The Sandy Syndrome

I owned a marketing agency on the Brooklyn waterfront during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Much of the city was out of commission due to flooding that filled subway tunnels, destroyed apartment building mechanics and knocked countless offices offline. My office, just by chance, had what I once considered an annoying five steps up to the main floor — an inconvenience that ultimately spared our building from the worst of the flooding and power and Internet loss. As our founder friends at other companies quickly learned that their offices were closed until further notice, we stepped into action. I don’t even remember if we had an executive meeting to discuss, but our working office quickly became a halfway house for homeless businesses in our community. To be honest, it didn’t occur to us that there was any other option. As a business owner you know how quickly your company can spiral and possibly go bankrupt, we didn’t want to see that happen to our friends.

I remember a bunch of companies cramming together on a single floor, busting at the seams (no doubt a fire code or two was violated) to make sure we could all continue business-as-usual and let nothing, I mean nothing, break us. We ate communally, slept on floors, cobbled together a sense of normalcy. And when these new refugees started to look a little ripe, I tossed them the keys to my own apartment, where a warm shower and clean towels were always waiting.

New York does not sleep, and it does not stop. Sandy was sure as hell not going to shake the economic engine, and, more importantly, the underlying spirit of New York — especially since companies around the world not hit by the storm where still expecting us to produce like we had contractually promised. But the Coronavirus is not a hurricane. It’s actually bigger than one, and it might prove to be our biggest test yet.

Already, Coronavirus fear has caused the biggest gathering in our industryto be canceled. Clients are freezing budgets and directing staff to work from home. The stock market, which is a barometer for uncertainty, has been going crazy. States are declaring states of emergency and banning events with over 250 people, and New York’s Governor, in just two weeks, mobilized the supply chain and launched a free hand sanitizer line to prevent price gauging. The goal posts are moving daily, and we’re all just trying to make the best decisions and do the right thing at any given moment.

Decentralizing the Workforce

What to do when our instinct is to connect, reach out and open up in a crisis — while experts advise us to stay home, cancel and disengage?

Episode 169 of Adweek’s podcast, Yeah, That’s Probably an Ad, discussed what creative agencies can learn from production companies during a crisis. Since production is so location-sensitive, the industry bakes contingency protocol right into their SOPs. From inclement weather to civil unrest, production has a lot of experience in pivoting on the run. Adweek suggests that after the Coronavirus dust settles, agencies will notice ways they were actually more productive with the imposed remote working rules. A crisis is a terrible way to get thrown into innovation, but here we are.

Capitalizing on local provides a logical way to make it possible for your own teams to stay home and healthy while maintaining, even increasing, their productivity. And, going local boosts other communities as well that may also be suffering from this economic debacle.

Change for the Better

New York prides itself on being the first, the best, ahead of the curve. But, I’ve also sensed pushback against embracing the remote worker lifestyle, even while the trend shows no signs of slowing anytime soon on a global scale. I think the “logic” here is that since we’re in New York, the very best talent must be in the city, because who else would brave living here? Guess what, the Coronavirus is the wakeup call that your “business as usual” must change, even in New York — and it’s about time. New York might be home to some of the greatest talent in the world, but if it can’t leave that home to get to work, does it matter?

Connect with Conviction

This time around, I don’t own an agency with office space to spare and access to quality Internet. I’m not even sure those things would be helpful given the circumstances. Today I’m helping run Communo, a vetted network of freelancers and agencies that collaborates on creative campaigns. Communo helps agencies by offering project-based staffing, and it supplies freelancers with desirable projects from top agencies, regardless of where they live. The company was built out of love for the creative industry, definitely not to simply offer emergency staffing options. However, it’s worth mentioning that we’ve experienced the single largest increase in membership in the last month. While it feels a little sad that our largest growth is correlated to companies preparing for pandemic staffing concerns, I also feel proud that we have built a large and supportive digital office that we can share with folks when they need it most.

We’re all concerned about how this virus will impact our loved ones’ health, but we’re also fearful for the health of our companies and the employees and clients that depend on us. The good news is that Communo’s network of 25,000+ freelancers and hundreds of agencies has been so welcoming to our newest members. But the best news is that since our membership base has been at the forefront of remote work for some time, we have a wealth of knowledgeable resources who are happy to share their agile remote lifestyle tactics with anybody who wants to learn more.

People are connecting and talking about how their agencies are navigating this uncertainty, and founders are sharing advice on how to manage possible deal cancelations. Examples of new Coronavirus contracts clauses are being circulated, and veteran agency owners are even talking to younger teams about how best to handle employees with kids if the schools close and suddenly a bunch of children are running around the office.

While these conversations are still very new, I want to share some thoughts we have collected from our community about how to successfully approach newly imposed work restrictions and the remote worker sector.

1. Take advantage of video conference calls for both the super important and simple company tasks. DON’T do traditional conference calls just because they seem more convenient. Now, more than ever, making eye contact with people while discussing thought topics will make it easier to cope with the distance. Don’t obsess about the lighting in your kitchen or what outfit you have on. People just need to see you. The biggest benefit of video is that it encourages colleagues to look at you and to be fully present, which actually should speed up a lot of meetings. Or, don’t discuss work, but still hold a video call. Create a lunchtime Zoom meeting where everyone can eat “together” and just catch up on everything else. You know, like how we do it in face-to-face life.
2. Make it clear to your team that everyone is expected to use the same prescribed collaboration tools. Don’t tolerate non-compliance. Instead, challenge these rule-breakers to find a better solution and to broker the best deal with that provider. From frame.io to Google docs, there are endless tools for every media format to collaborate on. Now is also a great time for you founders or C-suite’s to finally understand all the tools your teams use. While you’re home alone and worrying that you can’t see your staff working, you might discover the true value of digital collaboration if you can watch it in real time.
3. If remote-working emails start to pile up, they’d give anyone anxiety. Quick, hectic responses to large groups can sometimes be interpreted different ways and have unintended consequences. One way to avoid any lost-in-translation moments and to ensure your message actually gets heard is to send a video. Sometimes it’s worth shooting a quick iPhone video to answer quick questions to handle a delicate response. Again, anything you can do to put that personal contact back into the day is a win.
4. Get out of the city. Just one hour north, south or west lie amazing towns that have great local character and large homes posted on Airbnb. You can house your team for an entire week for the same price as one company dinner in NYC.
5. While the economic and client uncertainty will force any business to hold off on hiring full-time staff, you’ll still need to leverage freelance talent to complete current projects and pitch future ones. Get your fix of meeting new people, even while in semi-isolation, by employing freelancers from around the globe. You’re already working remotely — might as well add in some interesting people from cities you’ve never visited.
6. Develop a clear company culture that’s strong enough to be heard and felt across time zones. It doesn’t matter if that culture is based around generating profit, helping people, doing exceptional work or just having fun. Whatever your company stands for, make sure everyone is aware during this work-from-home time. Your efforts to define and galvanize your culture today will make it less painful to implement tough corporate decisions over the next few months.
7. Use this time as the best excuse to not focus on work. Rather than stress over how to keep productivity levels up, take a deep breath and relax. Read all the books you usually can’t fit in, binge-watch some guilty-pleasure shows, and most importantly, carve out moments to spend with close friends and loved ones.

There’s a Bright Side to Setback

Crisis is no fun, but there’s often a silver lining. 9 1/2 months after Sandy, my wife gave birth to our first born. The hospital was overbooked and understaffed thanks to all of the “Sandy” babies coming into the world that month. What I’m saying is, sometimes when disaster hits, it can birth something great — from a new way of operating your business, to reconnecting with an old friend, to expanding your family.

As we welcomed our son, we were surrounded by strangers who also used their Sandy time in the city to create something amazing. While Coronavirus will cause many of us to separate, let’s use this gift of time to get more connected with the people we love, and the people we love working with, regardless of where they live. Unlike Sandy, which was a hyper-local event, COVID-19 stretches worldwide, giving us a chance to reach out and connect to even more people across the globe. Rather than panic, seize this rare opportunity to forge connections and build something you otherwise may not have had the time or the perspective to try and do if it was just business as usual.

Good luck to all the business owners navigating this difficult time.

#coronavirus #agencylife #NYC #founderhelp #workfromhome