Speed and Synergy: Two Sides of the Same Coin

By Anneliese Olson, SVP & General Manager, Printing Category, HP

I’m not the first to observe that this year has been a wild ride. In March, we saw dining room tables turn abruptly into school desks and workspaces. Corporations had to turn dramatically on a dime due to supply chain disruptions and changes in consumer demand that would have been impossible to predict before the pandemic. Entire campuses shifted to remote education. Our society faced a reckoning.

Certainly, the beginning of the pandemic forced many of us into high gear as we looked for ways to provide immediate help wherever it was needed. Early on, when the virus swept through Europe, HP’s 3D Printing and Digital Manufacturing Center of Excellence sprang into action, designing devices that allowed CPAP machines to reach multiple patients at once in lieu of access to ventilators, ultimately saving lives. The design process only took a remarkable two days, and the devices were approved for use in two weeks. In April, as students across the U.S. struggled to access digital classrooms due to lack of connectivity or a device, HP’s Turn to Learn program helped put printed educational materials into the hands of students at Title I schools across the country—ensuring that access to coursework wasn’t dependent on access to Wi-Fi.

We’ve all juggled a lot since the pandemic began, and the fatigue is very real. But what’s also real is how much we’ve learned, and the opportunity we now have to determine how we want these experiences to inform our future.

Charting a course forward

Through Zoom, we’ve seen into each other’s homes. Through the movement for racial equality, we are starting to see more into each other’s struggles. Through it all, we’ve been humbled to realize how little we can truly plan for or predict during these uncertain times. Still, with what we’ve seen and learned, we now have the ability to work toward a new future—one that acknowledges just how human we all are.

Over the course of this year, I’ve continually come back to the saying, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” We often think of innovation as something that happens lightning quick, spearheaded by one or two people. But really, we are pieces of broader communities at home and in our companies. Innovation of all kinds happens everywhere, and the silver lining to this challenging time is that it is unlocking and accelerating innovation everywhere.

Strong relationships are what give us the ability to stay flexible and resilient in a crisis—to keep moving forward. That’s as true of corporations as it is of individuals. We must build these relationships intentionally, with honest conversations and agile collaboration, to move toward what is next.

Throughout the pandemic, I’ve had to make some hard choices at work. There have been projects and meetings I had to step away from because there was just too much going on. But in every case, I was able to step away knowing that I had a strong team, whom I trusted to do an amazing job. Still, it wasn’t always easy. When we give up projects, proposals or ideas, there’s often some grief that comes with that choice—or even nostalgia for the exhilarating pace many of us used to revel in. Those feelings of sadness are natural. But it’s important to remember that as we let some things go, we’re also making space for new ideas, new ways of solving problems and new models for how we are or can be fulfilled in work and at home.

During this pandemic, we proved we can move fast. Now it’s time to start focusing on how we can move forward, together…and commit to doing better than before.