Ides of March

Today’s my birthday. It’s Sunday. Most of you won’t officially be reading your email. But we are, and we suspect you are too. Hope you had a good weekend.

Today has the feeling not of 15th March, but 13th September 2001. I was on one of (the first?) flights out of Washington DC, racing back to London. Today has the same feeling. Reality is setting in. This is big. There are the short-term ramifications, and there are the long term implications. We need to think through both, simultaneously. We need to react and also not over-react.

At our core, this portfolio represents a private diplomatic corps. And diplomacy is in high demand right now. Being private means that my partners and I have absolute freedom to respond as we wish to crises. Here’s how we’re responding. It may mean we risk not being in business this time next year (though I suspect we’ll be fine), but this, right now, feels right:

Media Production (Free)

Your people are terrified. Talk to them. We have two separate audio and video studios set up and ready to go. If you’re a business executive, a non-profit leader, a small business owner - come record a message for you stakeholders. We’ll film, do post-production, and host your media for free. If it’s hard to get to the studio, we’ll park our mobile media production trailer outside your house/office and record from there. Be honest, transparent with your people -give them a path. Email Caroline to schedule.

Crisis Management Meeting Space (Free)

You might think you can do this virtually. You know in your soul you can’t. Canvas has been reconfigured to offer three distinct spaces that allow for meetings of up to six leaders with 6ft/2m spacing between seating. You can reserve on an hourly basis for a price-gouging rate of $0.00 per hour. Just do me a favour, if you book it, use it. Email Claire to reserve the space or any questions.

Comms And Negotiation Coaching (Free)

You need to wrap up operations. sell your organisation, communicate tough news to vendors, clients, employees. Set up a call or meeting. If I can’t help - then one of our team likely can. We can’t help you create a great place to work or an award winning culture. But getting through this… this is our world. Hourly rate: $0.00

Strategy Reboot (Free, or at Cost, Depending Who You Are)

This will be the third email we’ve sent stating this. Your old strategic plan is dead. If BoJo is begging the British arms industry to make medical ventilators instead of guided missiles, the odds of your strategic plan being on the mark are extremely limited. If you’re a non-profit, or industry association, or a business in the travel sector (yes, our friends at Lufthansa, Delta, HIlton, and Marriott) we’ll do this gratis. Anyone else, we’ll do it at cost. Drop Laura a note, we’ll get it scheduled.

Speaking - Virtual or in Person (Free, or at Cost, Depending Who You Are)

Same rules as above. I’ll speak in person or virtually. Laura’s politely twisting the arms of the other speakers on Evolve’s speaker network to do the same. Drop her a note with whatever you need, she’ll make it work

Local Small Business (Free)

And maybe the most important. We’ve got a leadership retreat centre that’s sitting pretty much as empty as a transatlantic Virgin Atlantic A330 right now. It’s got a beautiful natural garden and pop up huts and bar. And a big parking lot. We’ve designed a queuing system that is socially distanced. If you’re a local farmer, restaurant, retailer and you want to sell your goods online with a pick up station, our garden is there for you. Email Claire to make arrangements.

The Big Stuff (Outcomes)

Some of you are wrestling with really, really hard decisions that the markets and news media haven’t picked up on yet. You can’t justify spending dollars/euros/pounds given you’re having to think layoffs and redundancies. We’ve built a mechanism to fund support that’s based on outcome (success fees) only. It might be too early, but if you want to talk through, drop me a line.

And One Last Tip (Priceless)

When your stakeholders are anxious this week, cut them some slack. Don’t lean on data. We don’t have valid data. The Chinese and Italian data is unreliable. US hasn’t been actively collecting. UK and Germany increasingly see as pointless to resolving the crisis and estimating instead of counting.

“Remind yourself that being told something is good is better than being told something is bad, but being told something is definitely bad is less anxiety-producing than telling someone we have no idea.”

We’re in that latter state right now, cut everyone some slack

All of this applies through to 01 May 2020. If we’re facing similar circumstances, we’ll extend.*

Wishing you all well.

• Scott (and the small, dedicated crew who aren’t leaving their stations for quite sometime yet).

PS: If you’re at the forefront of this and you’ve lost your job already, our seven tips are here.

*PPS: Will this break us financially? - Maybe, but we’ll deal with that when we get there.