Returning to work after COVID-19

This morning, I reached out to a colleague using one of our collaboration tools to see if he would be able to join a call later today.  We wanted to share some information and demo recent accomplishments of one of our teams.  He and I observed that both of our teams had been even more productive in the weeks since COVID-19 forced almost everyone to work from home, especially those in the technology field.  Our thoughts on why led us to similar conclusions.  Information and communications needed to be much more concise, decision cycles had become much shorter, and workers had organized their time more efficiently.  Overall, we noticed activities and operational outcomes were flying across goal lines.  It begged the question, should we return to old ways of doing business when the COVID-19 crisis passes?

Don’t get me wrong, I am a social animal and enjoy being around people, but an event like this offers us opportunities to grow and adapt the way we interact and work.  Organizations who do, will be more effective on the other side of this crisis, those who just seek to return to old ways of doing business will be forced to unwind great progress for the sake of returning to the status quo.  

How many times have you gone into a meeting and thought, “Wow! This is an expensive meeting,” as you look around at 10 or more people.  The agenda seems loose and not oriented toward decisions or action.  Most folks in the room have their laptops open and are pretending to take notes…including you.  The meeting ends with no forward progress and will likely result in more meetings or even worse, missed opportunities to get things done.  

In our current state, a team member reaches out to you via an instant message channel and perhaps includes a smaller group who are directly involved.  She tells you up front she’s looking for approval to do something.  You ask a couple clarifying questions, they answer decisively because they’ve already done their homework and you give the order to attack. She and her team complete what they set out to do successfully in hours or days. A task that previously, would have taken weeks.  I have dozens of examples like this as I’m sure others do.   

However, there are down sides.  I was recently chatting with a peer outside our company who shared a funny story.  He told me that before the crisis, they hired a new developer who was trying to start a conversation with the person next to him.  That person asked him why he was talking to him when they had Slack.  We thought it was funny because my peer and I would torture that poor developer with constant conversation.  These conditions also force us to think and act differently. Perhaps even overcome some of the social ineptitude as in the example above.  

Last week, we had an employee leave us after 10 years.  She was the heart and soul of the place and the team pulled together a “virtual” sendoff.  It was well planned – quickly, and classy.  They collected pictures of her time here, mixed in fun music, and we all roasted her a little while raising a glass to her contributions and future success. Note to self: schedule a wine delivery, looks like we’ll be having more virtual events like this one. 

Humans are a resilient species and have prevailed for the last 200,000 years.  COVID-19 will pass and we’ll be stronger for it.  In the meantime, let’s all take a little time to imagine a new way to collaborate, work, interact and succeed. 

Finally, every crisis has its heroes.  Not all jobs are created equal.  For the last couple of decades, we’ve sung our appreciation for the military and first responders among others.  In our current situation, we’ve discovered how important many other workers are throughout our society.  Those who keep groceries, pharmacies, transportation, hospitals and home delivery moving are the heroes today, but there is plenty of room for all of us to contribute.  Stay well everyone, take care of each other and this too shall pass.