It’s been six months since the marketplace fell into the initial grasp of the pandemic.
Unless you were an essential business, remote work and sheltering-in-place became the new normal.
TRG Marketing shifted to work-from-home in mid-March. As we flew solo in various locations, our employees caught up with each other on a regular basis. We hopped on Microsoft Teams or Zoom calls each week.
The first order of business was to simply share how we were doing and coping in a new environment. We were successfully operating from the confines of a drafty basement or fluidly handling the daily interruptions of a child asking, “What’s for lunch, Mom?”
We all appreciated the opportunity to be “together, apart” and vent, if needed, or share something particularly noteworthy related to work, our families and the community. During those initial weeks, our remote team was keenly focused on meeting the needs of our clients. But as time passed, I also noticed how much more improved we became at listening to one another. We adopted an agile mindset with our projects in order to stay on track and not lose momentum.
A recent article in Inc. magazine talked about how “the shift to virtual teams doesn’t make the work any harder, and may, in fact, make some aspects of change easier.” While we continue to ask “what’s next” in our ever-changing news cycle, consider that because of COVID-19, many of us are now more accountable, better at empathizing with others and teaming up to co-create.
In this on-going crisis, how has your team become more resolute? What changes have you noticed? Are those changes a temporary fix or do you think they are long-lasting? Let us know about your experiences by reaching out to me at julie@trg-marketing.com.
