Working through it

Yesterday was the strangest day in my working life.

Having spent 20 years busily building our business, enjoying the constant hustle & bustle, energy, wonderful banter, and general camaraderie of being in a positive, productive team … yesterday we closed our doors and don't know when we'll be back.

It was a surprisingly emotional moment.

Generally speaking, we can control many things in our business - the direction of travel based on the services we want to deliver and the clients we know will appreciate them the most; the expertise within the team to deliver this; the standards we want to attain (and often exceed); the processes we need in place to make it all happen; the culture we want to cultivate so that working life is an enjoyable, collective, team-spirited part of our lives.

But now, and yesterday in particular, as we told our team to work from home and collected all of the things we need (and many we probably don't), I have to admit to feeling a sense of panic and lack of control about the future of our lovely business.

As I walked around Edinburgh yesterday, seeing all the local businesses that have become part of my life, from coffee shops we often frequent together or with our clients, our local sandwich shop where they serve delicious soup with a warming smile, the various retail outlets I dash to for birthday cards and gifts (when I should have done it weeks ago), the hairdressers I go to cover my increasingly silver whiskers ... all of these will be struck in the same way us. And who knows for how long.

Suddenly it felt that the direction of our business, and that of the local businesses we've supported for so many years, was out of our control.

I watched the massively inspirational Holly Tucker MBE (she of Not On the High Street fame, and now champion to SME's and especially to shopping local) on Instagram when I got home and that was the turning point; the grounding, reasoned voice I needed to hear. She too, I was relieved to hear, had felt emotional as she shut her doors yesterday, and had felt that same sense of panic. But now, she's turning that all into a new positive focus - albeit one that needs to adapt and flex as our lives are turned in circles over coming weeks.

So today I, too, have woken with a fresh perspective. I feel energised to take our business into this new challenge head on. We are extremely fortunate that the work we do can be facilitated remotely - meaning our clients can continue to connect with their customers via remote research methods, which we're well used to. So once our clients have got themselves settled into working remotely they can get on with working with us as usual.

Our team are all set up in their respective homes too, and our key priority is to ensure they are all happy, healthy and don't feel isolated, worried, or alone during this experience, and to ensure that our learning from each other can continue and thrive. We've set up a daily meeting through Microsoft Teams and we're using that as a key channel to share information. There's talk of setting up a UV Minecraft game (thank you Mark) and online Dungeons & Dragons too (from our Dungeon Master Andrew!) to inject some virtual 'fun' into our lives. And our wonderful Stephen Denning trawled around Edinburgh collecting and making a special and humorous 'survival pack' which was delivered to the whole team today and I know has brightened their day!

So, we are luckier than many. And having the team I have at User Vision - I feel incredibly lucky.

We're all in this together. Big business, who are regularly supported by many thousands of small businesses all over the country with specialist services, have a role to play in this. As much as possible they need to look forward, keep their projects moving, and ensure that their own working practices and operations adapt to these extraordinary conditions.

Whilst there is much at the moment none of us can control, we have to remain positive and adaptable, looking for ways we can collaborate and support each other, and most importantly keep our businesses alive with new ideas and exciting futures. This will be one of the biggest tests any of us have ever had.

I truly hope that this is over swiftly, and that we can all support each other through this difficult time. For that really is the key. Reach out, look out for others, let's pull together to do whatever we can.

I'd love to hear how your remote working works out for you, and any ideas you have to facilitate it in the best way possible.

And I wish you all success. Positivity in the face of adversity.