Our Chief Transformation Officer Darren coined the phrase ‘Business as Unusual’ and I couldn’t agree more.
As the Founder of S&S – running a full-time team and 100s of associates, I’ve been going through a range of emotions over the last few weeks. But it’s important to stay calm and positive during these times.
The one thing that has been keeping me up at night is making sure the team spirit stays on track. It’s hard to not worry about your people being in isolation, especially those who are alone. This is why I thought I’d share some of the things that we’ve been doing as a team to survive and thrive in these unprecedented times.
Daily Zoom
Every morning we jump on a Zoom call. We discuss the priorities for the day ahead, making sure we’re aligning to our overall goals for the week. This keeps everyone focused on where we’re going as a business and delivering the most valuable work, whilst injecting humour and social interaction.
Then, in the early evening we regroup and discuss wins from the day and also call out any blockers so we can resolve them. A lot of us miss the buzz from the workplace so this has been key. Next week we’re going to be using some of these as training sessions to see how we can up-level the team during this period.
21-day sprints
To keep the S&S vibe flowing, we’ve decided to work in 21-day sprints. As part of this, the team will collaborate to deliver the most critical work to our clients, associates and overarching business strategy.
It’s a great way to encourage cross functional teaming remotely with a product/outcome mentality. It also keeps things fresh, whilst we’re all remote for the foreseeable.
Virtual coffees and looking out for each other
Zoom is constantly open and it’s been great to see different groups coming together and keeping the morale up. I’m proud of our culture and seeing every day one of our core values, which is looking out for each other through the good and bad times, come to life.
We recently hired three new starters and seeing how everyone has mobilized around them has been brilliant. It’s tough starting a new job and getting your head into how that business works, so it’s great to see them being supported.
Staying off the news
There is too much negativity flying around at the moment, which we don’t want to overindulge in – so we’ve agreed to stay off the news and social media. Instead, our Head of PR & Content, Jess shares an update on the key stories at the end of each day.
This means we can give full focus to the business, our families, friends and personal wellbeing.
It is key we protect our mental and physical health – keep positive and look for the opportunity. Staying off the news is strategy number one for this!
Reading club
During one of our daily catch-ups, we were thinking of new ways to bring everyone together and decided to set up a Book Club. Every week we share a new book and read it all together. This allows everyone to keep upskilling themselves by discussing new things they’ve learnt or key takeaways.
14-day meditation challenge
Another idea that came off the back of our catch-ups is a 14-day meditation challenge. Meditation has been proven to decrease anxiety and improve cognitive functioning and focus. Personally, I find it really valuable, especially to calm my mind before the start and at the end of a busy day.
We’ve all agreed to use this period to transform to better versions of ourselves.
Community first
An important value of ours is community first, commerce second. This is why we’re getting super close speaking to our clients, associates and wider network, to see where we can help.
The main thing we’ve been saying is – we’re here to help. So, whether you’re feeling the pressures as a business during the current situation or you’re facing a spell on the bench, I’d be more than happy to have a virtual coffee so please get in touch.