A Lifetime in a Year

We are still learning the lessons of 2020 — but there will be growth and positive change. 

By Janice Kapner, Executive Vice President, and Chief Communications Officer, T-Mobile for PR Week US

Just over a year ago I left after a whirlwind day of team planning meetings at T-Mobile HQ in Bellevue, Washington, for what would be the last time in a very long while. We were shutting down the office temporarily (we believed) until COVID-19 was under control and we could pick up where we’d left off. We had no idea what was coming.

I never could’ve known it then, but that final day would be the start of a journey unlike any other for my team, our company, our families and ultimately the world. Over a year later … the realities are still unfolding for all of us.

To take you back to early March 2020 … my team had a solid plan in place to tell a story that had nothing to do with a global pandemic. Instead we were focused on major T-Mobile news that was three years in the making. We were ready to announce the largest business deal in telecommunications history, as T-Mobile was finally closing its merger with Sprint. It was a move that would have powerful, positive implications across the entire industry.

We pictured gathering our legacy T-Mobile and legacy Sprint communications teams together in Bellevue and Overland Park to prepare for a whole lot of companywide celebratory hoopla. But that iconic moment of joining together in a room never happened. Instead, we pivoted to a single virtual meeting for everyone — a relatively new option for us that we took out of an abundance of caution. Because a little more than a month earlier, the first U.S. COVID-19 cases had been detected in Washington’s Snohomish County and the entire pandemic was just beginning to disrupt people’s lives here in America. 

That was March 12. 

On March 13 I shared an email I never expected to write that included these important words: 

“At this time, we are advising those of you who can work from home to please do so! Let’s do our part to keep our community, our families and each other — healthy!”

That message marked the beginning of a new era for me and for my team. 

Everything we’d planned to unite our companies into one had to be done differently … separately … remotely … and that shift had to happen almost overnight. The new T-Mobile’s public debut suddenly became a live-streamed announcement, a format that ran counter to our culture of in-person celebrations. (Believe me, we figured out how to set off confetti cannons over Webex!) Logistically, technologically, bringing two companies together became far more difficult when we couldn’t even be in the same space. 

It was an extremely tangled situation — and a far more somber message to convey. Going remote so early on felt overly cautious … but we were making decisions as much from instinct as from ever-changing science. It was a moment that lacked much concrete information OR a familiar game plan. The combination of intuition — and the sharp minds of an incredibly adaptive team — helped us transition our rather enthusiastic in-person office culture into the virtual realm in a way that felt safe, yet authentic. We would not let anything overshadow our wins. Our light was just too bright!

By the time the merger closed on April 1, we had another huge change in store for our company. Mike Sievert — the marketing genius and successful president and COO who had spent years architecting our Un-carrier revolution — was transitioning to his new role as CEO.

Mike hosted our first all-company meeting from his living room (from a single stool, with no colleagues and no shoes), and yet he exuded all the confidence, intelligence and energy that led him to the top of T-Mobile. Despite looking very different than anyone expected, it was a powerful moment. I was amazed at how quickly he — and the entire company — was adapting to the “new normal.”

Connecting our leaders with members of the media changed, too, as in-person interviews and events switched over to Zoom and other digital tools and platforms. What we lost in personal touch, we made up for with tenacity and storytelling!

We also had to quickly figure out how to shift from in-person to massive, virtual all-employee town halls with members of Mike’s leadership team. With thousands of employees working from home, we wanted everyone to feel connected with our leaders and ultimately hold tight to our celebratory culture that we’d spent so many years developing. Against a splashy magenta backdrop we had to build socially distanced staging that was separated by glass partitions, air purifiers and of course, branded face masks. This was a huge physical, digital and logistical undertaking, and my team (with so many others here at T-Mobile) exhibited a degree of flexibility I always known was there but had never been called upon to such a degree. I was proud to see it happen. And happen again and again.

Because we believe in the power of fun — especially after pulling off successful employee events and external Un-carrier launches — we also found new ways to keep old traditions alive. Our annual communications team picnic and uber-competitive cornhole tournament happened at home. Thanks to everyone’s contributions and all-around good-natured attitude, it was ridiculously fun. We also featured virtual team talks with executives at home speaking frankly about important topics like mental health (while making pancakes). And we recognized the need to shake things up, learning virtually from an expert on how to make (much-needed) cocktails and mocktails. 

We’ve told unprecedented stories during an unprecedented period in history. Stories that described our agility as a company and our resilience as individuals, stories that united us as a team and showed our best side to the world. It was a time of incredible cooperation and innovation. It was also a time of fear and confusion. When it came to the details of COVID-19, there was still so much we didn’t know, but we knew we had to band together. When facing a mega merger, a global pandemic and the incredibly difficult but important social and racial conversations that came to pass this last year – tenacity, agility and empathy were my guiderails.  

Looking back now — at that final month and at the entire year that followed — I think the changes the world has undergone might be too big fathom. We are, in fact, STILL changing. We are recognizing the need for compassion in our work and personal lives, the need to lift each other up, to support one another, and are seeking new ways to learn from each other. The new normal will look different for all of us, but that ultimately will deliver growth. We must hold onto that.

I do know that I’ve typically been able to find my footing in challenging situations — thrown in headfirst, no guidebook, applying intellect and empathy to figure it out as I go, and I try to do it with grace. However, none of us ever dreamt of the chaos of 2020, nor were we ready for it. But I believe that our company, our culture and our country will not just survive, but eventually thrive. Resilience is all around us as people have found their way through these difficult times. Despite the struggle, I’m incredibly grateful for the chance to grow. And I believe the lessons we take away from this time will help us come back better than we were before.  

Working away from our team this year has been challenging - particularly in a unique culture like ours that thrives on in-person collaboration - but now, finally, vaccines are giving us all hope to get to some new, and perhaps better-than-before normal, soon. I’m so grateful for it all - what has already transpired and what’s to come.