We’ve both felt the effects of the coronavirus pandemic in our communities and around the world. While the focus of the news and discussions has been on how Covid-19 has impacted numerous businesses as they change to a virtual office model. It has created revenue losses, Paycheck Protection Program loan activity, and a scramble for technology solutions to support remote teams. One area that has been impacted significantly, but not as much of the spotlight, is the toll that this shift has had on the environment.
Organizations must be diligent in their imagination as a source of inspiration and team engagement while transitioning to a digital workplace. Unlike in the pre-pandemic period, when impromptu connections could lead to innovative ideas, disciplined communications are now essential for encouraging creative thought and human connection. In this regard, we agree that resourceful links are critical for executives and operations departments in various fields, including human resources and marketing relations, technical and services applications, consumer engagement, and sales.
Bounce session
Person initiative and teamwork are combining with great imagination. Usually, you might get an idea and head down the hall to test it out on another team member. It allows you to see if you’re on track and work through any creative problems. How can you re-create this method for a distributed team? One proposal is to host virtual sessions where authors, artists, and other creatives can bounce ideas off a confidante or senior team member. The laws are straightforward: It may be a phone call or a video chat, and each session can be limited to 30 minutes at most, but preferably less.
Virtual office hours
Digital working hours are a more streamlined alternative to bounce sessions for more prominent organizations. The idea is to start a Zoom or Google Meet session and leave it open for a certain amount of time. The session is lead by a creative director or another senior official, and team members will enter, if appropriate, during that time to get input, ask questions, or have work reviewed. The host would not arrange any calls or meetings during their session but could function while still on-screen when no team members had joined. Virtual working hours can be set for an hour or two or open all day with various managers rotating in and out.
Online creative meetings
Platforms like Zoom and Google Teams make it easy to run a face-to-face online creative conference, whether it’s an account meeting or a brainstorming session. We’ve learned that having planned material to study and going from there is the easiest way to go for, e.g., rather than free-form in designing corporate branding concepts and taglines or updating concept proposals. Furthermore, having a meeting leader who can deftly handle the call would guarantee no one person dominating the conversation.
Baseball as a meeting template
Though imaginative sessions are more impromptu, setting standards for more organized meetings will boost productivity significantly. Baseball should be seen as a model for organized participation, setting standards for participation, equity, and orderliness. The person speaking right now is at-bat, the next person is on deck, and the person after that is in the pit. The umpire is the person in charge of the meeting. They should make the roster known to everybody. “Tony is first, Kelly is second, and Matt is third,” for example. Everyone plays an active role in the game, similar to football, and the structure keeps the meeting on track.
A new take on the newsletter
While an internal newsletter will seem to be out of date, bear with me. It is not easy to feel like part of a cohesive society and realize what’s happening outside of your world without a workplace’s living entity. Formal internal interactions have never been more critical. An essential weekly newsletter can easily cover corporate milestones and challenges, spotlight individual achievements, and even share innovative ideas in a conventional style. They can be mailed to households, as emails sent through the intranet, or even as a fast-talking points guide for managers in face-to-face online team meetings. The trick is to keep it short — five minutes or less for a fast read or experience.
Bottom line
Outside of the activities at hand, connect digitally and prioritize individuals. Even in the best of circumstances, ongoing, reliable internal communications may have a transformative impact on departments and activities for organizations. Still, they also become a requirement for progress during times of crisis. Usual questions such as “How are you being productive?” or “How’s it going over there?” will help defuse minor tensions, improve everyone’s working relationship, and potentially affect overall performance.
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