Five strategies to deal with a crises – from a BOTH perspective…
We are all dealing with COVID-19 challenges almost on an hourly basis to weather this storm and to remain resilient. Five major strategies we immediately implemented were:
- Homeworking: we were able to mobilise everyone immediately to work from home within our digital workplace – “Ela”. Our first and foremost priority is to keep our team safe and support them to deal with the impact of the virus and social distancing on their personal and family life while adapting to the constantly changing “corona-cation”. This is key to our safety, our clients and overall public health.
- Connectivity: we have our #microsoft365business productivity cloud based platform and the fabulous #microsoftteams to collaborate anywhere, everywhere and anytime with one another. We remain connected to each other, We share about the wellness of each one of us and our families, what is going on around us, learning new things (as we have never done this before), giving advise, coming up with new ideas and trying to grasp together what it is, and how it is, while we all work in containment, learning how to do business in a crisis, and supporting each other as we do it.
- Virtual huddles: Work needs to go on and this is a way to check in and ensure struggles are addressed and work is prioritised. We use the planner app on Microsoft to record and monitor progress, as it is real time, and everybody has access to update their struggles and priorities for the day immediately.
- Cloud Engagement channels: Clients can engage immediately. Meetings are scheduled directly via the #Microsoftbookingcalender, instant messaging and the traditional outlook invite. Client care (our main purpose) needs to continue no matter what and needs to be instant. We use channels such as WhatsApp and Microsoft teams to discuss and anticipate impact and consequences in the coming days/weeks/months. We share new regulations and rules emerging from this crisis, provide advice on business and affected operations and conduct business “almost” as usual.
- Real-time and adaptive innovation: We are learning and creating on the go. Rapidly integrating information to serve our clients and pivot towards whatever happens instantly in this new transformational journey brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Things are changing and bringing new perspective to life. It is now the time of creating balance between sustaining vs disrupting vs innovating for a better and safer place for all. Be safe, stay at home and reach out if and when you need help.
Anna
