Lessons from the Covid front
The words ‘and breathe’ written against a background of green leaves
Our latest contribution to The Big Idea in The Herald's Business HQ magazine - sharing our experience of supporting our clients to create spaces to breathe and stay resilient.
Like most businesses, Animate spent April absorbing the shock of what Covid was meaning for our work, and then spent May ‘re-designing the plane, while flying it’ (not our perfect phrase, and unsure to whom it is attributable).
As organisational development consultants, we knew that our clients (public and charitable sectors) were facing similar challenges, and the support of people like us was perhaps more useful than it could ever be – as the stakes, for many of them and the people they serve, had never been higher.
One of the best descriptions we have heard of our Covid experience, acknowledging the extreme differences in the reality it is presenting for humans and organisations, is ‘same storm, different boats’. We spent the spring and early summer jumping in and out of as many boats as we could, often voluntarily, as our client network -many of whom are health and social care providers – made amazing things happen in the face of the most significant ‘wicked problem’ any had ever faced.
Our supports were most often a version of simply creating a space for people to pause from the overwhelm, the ‘doing’, to notice the individual and collective impacts (brain fog, anyone?) of Covid – including the good stuff.
One of the challenges we have all faced in 2020 has been to remain hopeful, and not tune-in too closely to the fear, distress and tragedy that has beamed at us from every screen; or tragically unfolding in our own lives. This has also been true for most businesses – the challenge of remaining hopeful, in the face of many reasons to fear for our futures. Psychologists are reminding us that we build our resilience by remembering to notice the good stuff, and tuning-in to our gratitude for any strands of a threadbare silver lining we can find in this weighty Covid-cloak.
We have been encouraging our clients to reduce their overwhelm by weighing up their challenges against a simple acronym – CIA. To ask themselves what is in my control, what can I influence, and what must I simply accept? We often use too much of our energy and focus (two things that many of us recognise seem diminished after 8 months of living and working like this) on issues that we have no influence or control over. Giving ourselves permission to set these issues to the side and focus on what we can actively control and influence not only gets things done but builds our resilience too.
While it has not been easy, it has felt a privilege to journey so closely with our clients in 2020. Their creativity, commitment and impact has often been humbling – and we have learned a lot from them. Here is a list of some of the new habits our clients have told us has helped them keep their heads above water in 2020:
Start team/work group meetings by sharing a highlight of the period since people were last together. Starting with a positive focus makes it easier to maintain one, and not slip into ‘doom and gloom’ (which diminishes our resilience!)
Schedule a couple of ‘tea breaks’ during the week, that anyone can show up to – to connect around things that aren’t work. We hear how much people are missing their informal chats and catch ups – create a new system for those connections to be possible.
On Friday afternoons, schedule a ‘check out’ space for 30 minutes – where people can ‘let go’ of the week, and finish by sharing something they are looking forward to doing at the weekend.
Walk to and from work. While this is still possible for some people, we heard that people were benefitting from leaving home and having a short walk before ‘opening the door to my office’ – even when it is their home. They then make a return journey at the end of the day, before ‘opening the door to my home’. On that return journey, it will be useful to reflect on your day, and notice 2-3 things that went well, and you feel good about.
If the work that your organisation is doing is particularly difficult, we heard a couple crisis services we work with describe the usefulness of people having a designated ‘buddy’ to check in with at the end of the day. In one organisation, people were assigned a new buddy every month – which we heard had a significantly positive impact on the team dynamic and moral.
Finally, we heard from one group of managers who meet on Friday mornings that they started showing up in costume, or with funny things in the background of their desk (the example we heard was someone putting a life-sized cardboard Storm Trooper behind their desk). What started as a prank has now become a habit that they all look forward to each week. There are wigs, super-hero costumes – and a cardboard Princess Leia gifted to one of the managers whom others thought looked lonely.
As we heard nicely described by another client – the rule book is out the window!