Every social media stream, every inbox, every news alert, and every telephone call seems to have mention of Covid-19. It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it – it’s affecting everyone after all. It’s more that I don’t want to say the obvious or jump on the bandwagon. Most of all, I do not want to add to the negativity that’s out there right now. And, in fact, I’m not the only one! As a team, we have all been in the same mindset.

The situation is serious, and we have to act responsibly. We haven’t closed the office but have a rule of only going in if it’s essential to your work-day, and we’re communicating our plans to try and keep it so that there’s as few of us in at the same time as possible. But that has a major downside.

The problem is we actually kind of like each other!

We have a lot of fun in between the work we do – even when it’s stressful! So, in order to make sure we don’t lose that or become too insular, we’ve been having a caffeine break in the morning – we jump on a call and exchange notes while essentially picking on each other! (In the nicest way of course.)

This morning we were talking about so many things that I actually felt would be of value to anyone working at home feeling isolated from their workmates. So, we decided that we would live stream our lunch break too! At 12 noon, we jumped on Zoom and live-streamed to the Green Umbrella Facebook page where we continued to be us. The same us we usually are in the office and talked about everything from messaging to Mark’s messy desk.

There may have been some value in the conversation – we did touch on some proper stuff from messaging to co-opetition, how we can all help each other as business owners and brands… and then also things like the random ping pong balls on Mark’s desk, Pam running around the building and well… you’ll need to scroll to the bottom and watch it to see the rest!

I was going to ask if you found the video of use, but to be honest, as much as that would be good to know it’s secondary! I realise how selfish that sounds, but some of the people in this video were uncomfortable with the thought of doing it – they saw the benefit and did it anyway. It was a massive step outside of their comfort zones, but at the end of it the conversation was that they wanted to do it again. It’s this sort of activity that will allow us to thrive as a team, even though we’re not together, and ensure the values within our business are being upheld.

From here, there’s potential to get the team doing more too. I might even be able to get them presenting webinars, etc. (Don’t tell them that just yet – they might freak out!)

Thinking about the future

Seriously though, right now we’re all having to think to the future and consider how we can deliver some of our services a little differently. Finding the ways and means to achieve that for many businesses means we have to do things differently and step out of our comfort zones, and that’s true for both business owners and as employees!

So, here are my questions for you…

Question 1: What are you doing to maintain morale in your business right now? (Whether you’re a leader in your business or not, that question is relevant to you!)

Question 2: What are you doing to get out of your comfort zone right now that will help you ensure your business thrives in the next few months?