From Resilience to Brilliance: 3 Strategies to Thrive Beyond COVID

Nearly a year into COVID-19 and counting, we’re all thinking about what comes next. As I discovered during the many moments of uncertainty brought on by the pandemic, it was always Zoetis and our purpose that kept me going. By ensuring the care of animals, we were helping to nurture the world through comfort and nutrition. That has anchored us since the beginning and made us even more resilient. But how can we build on this strength to flourish wherever post-COVID takes us?  I believe if we strive to maximize our potential amid challenging times, we can move well past resilience. Below are three strategies I’ve shared with colleagues to help us make this shift in 2021 and beyond:

1.   Get Creative

Pre-COVID, face-to-face conversations were my creative go-to. Whether I was chatting with customers in their clinics or catching up with a colleague at the Zoetis HQ coffee bar, these interactions were fueled by excitement, energy, and new ideas. But current circumstances make it hard to capture that novelty. We’re spending more time at home – often times on video conference calls -- and it’s easy to become isolated and uninspired.

Overcoming COVID fatigue means we have to make time to let our minds wander. It can be simple: a new hobby, an online exercise class, or getting lost in a good book. I enjoy long walks in the woods with my dogs and family. I’ve also enrolled in online courses such as Usher’s Master Class on the Art of Performance. It’s like a mini vacation for the mind and helps me come back recharged and ready to think outside the box to meet the challenges of this moment—and those to come.

2.   Challenge Your Perspective

It’s also about broadening your network. As the pandemic has magnified disparities in our society globally, companies like Zoetis have a role to play in creating a more inclusive environment where every colleague feels welcomed, valued, and respected. It starts with having more varied perspectives when making decisions. So that we are better equipped to address challenges, accelerate innovation and drive success with the input of many different voices. I’ve tried hard to make this a priority in my own leadership by creating a network of creative, thoughtful perspectives. But there is always more we can do. After all, shouldn’t our businesses reflect the world we live in—and all the customers we serve?

Imagine for a moment you are doing a virtual scroll of the outbound calls logged on your mobile phone for the last month. How many calls were with people who are a different color than you...a different gender, different age group or different economic class? If you’re like most people, the answer is not as often as we would like it to be. But you can change that. 

Building a broader network with diverse individuals and then listening and engaging them on their perspectives can unleash a flurry of innovative ideas to enrich our learning and decision making.

3.   Keep Learning

This leads to the third strategy, which is to keep learning. If digitalization was on the fast track before the pandemic, COVID-19 set it to warp speed. So as we think about how data-driven technology is rapidly changing and reshaping our future, from advanced vaccines and medicines to the cars we drive, agility and adaptivity will help us keep up with the pace of change. We just have to be willing to learn. It can be as simple as subscribing to a podcast on data science, signing up for a seminar on the future of data analytics, or enrolling in a certification course for cloud computing. It’s the perfect time to keep learning and broaden your skills.

By harnessing our creativity, broadening our own networks, and learning to keep up with new technologies that improve our ways of working and innovating, we shift to a more forward-thinking approach to build a brighter and brilliant future.

How are you shaping your post-pandemic strategy? I’d love to hear your ideas; please share them below.