Five things I learned in 2020

It has been such a strange and difficult year on so many fronts, yet professionally it has been one of my best and most rewarding years yet. COVID-19 helped. It’s all captured beautifully in this 2020 Communications Impact report which I really hope you will take a look at, partly because I am really proud of the results my colleagues generated this year and partly because I want you to see the highlights of the UN Global Compact’s 20th anniversary campaign.

Here are five things I learned this year …. and to think it all began in Davos, packed cheek by jowl into our SDG Media Zone on the side lines of the World Economic Forum breathing recycled air and blissfully unaware that a global pandemic was heading our way.

1.      Change is good. I’ve been working in global communications for 20 years in many roles but there’s nothing like a crisis to keep you on your toes. Sometimes it seemed like half of the job was just showing up with a smart suit and a ready smile. COVID-19 has changed everything, and it soon became apparent that a back-to-basics approach was needed. This year, I have rediscovered all kind of practical skills learned over three decades in journalism, TV and communications and really enjoyed rolling my sleeves up and just getting on with the job of communicating.   

2.      If you build it, they will come. Our best laid plans for a special 20th anniversary Leaders Summit in June went out the window as soon as went into lockdown. We had booked the UN General Assembly Hall and the Javits Centre and hoped to bring 2,000 of our global leaders to New York for the mother of all events. Rather than give up, we made a quick pivot to digital identifying Hopin as the new “venue” for a virtual Leaders Summit. Perhaps the best thing about a virtual platform is that more people can join in (not just the CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer with a travel budget) and you can accommodate everyone in every time zone without contributing to global warming. By June 15, more than 22,000 people had registered and we ran a non-stop live event out of a pop-up TV studio in our office. It started and ended in the New York morning and for the intervening 24 hours we chased the sun with live events in every continent organised by more than 60 of our Local Networks. It was more successful and engaging than our expectations, the largest-ever UN convening of business leaders by far.

3.      Digital is the way. When I joined the UN Global Compact in 2018, I inherited responsibility for producing a large portfolio of publications -- lovingly written, designed and printed for distribution at various launches and events. I have always wondered how many of those heavy booklets made it into the suitcases of visiting leaders as they packed for the return trip home from New York or how many people leafed through the PDFs at their leisure. For me, COVID-19 has been a compelling reason to end that dismal print run of publications and we can now move our content to a more digital environment where it can be updated, complemented with video or graphics and shared on social media in engaging ways. 

4.      Keep it simple. In today’s digital online environment, making things easy for people has been key to our success. Some (not all!) CEOs and global leaders have become their own producers, sound engineers and camera operators. They’ve been at home like the rest of us trying to ensure they are in the right virtual place at the right time and ready to give their keynote remarks or moderate a panel. Helping them find the right link, adjust their camera and keep their composure before a live event has been a challenge that my colleagues have excelled at. In fact, we discovered that the more our speakers have relied on their staff to help them figure things out, the more likely it was for something to go wrong. And of course, pre-recorded remarks are always welcome!

5.      Working from home works. As a team leader I was always a bit wary of colleagues who wanted to work from home (Does it always have to be on a Friday?). While the rest of us were toiling away in the office, I felt sure they would be torn between their professional duties and things like childcare, school pick up, walking the dog and doing the washing up. What I have learned is that if everyone is working from home, we can achieve a lot together AND spend time doing all the things that make up the other important areas of our lives. I suspect that, like me, everyone I know has worked longer and harder this year than ever.

Most of all, I want to give thanks to the many brilliant colleagues, partners, consultants, freelancers and professional friends who have contributed so much in difficult circumstances to making 2020 successful and rewarding, not least my two bosses Lise Kingo and Sanda Ojiambo (pictured together below in 2018) who passed the baton in June from one to the next with the grace and finesse you would expect from two great leaders

Farewell 2020. Now let’s get on with 2021.