M4Jam prides itself on having a flexible workspace and managing a remote workforce was already part and parcel of my day today. When our President announced the state of emergency on March 23rd, we implemented the necessary in office precautions, like sanitising, maintain social distancing and promptly banishing everyone with so much as a sniffle to their homes.
However, when the reality of the lockdown came into existence, despite the fact both I and the team were adept to remote working conditions, I wasn’t quite confident that we would be able to maintain our levels of productivity and ensure that deliverables were met I accordance with client and our own internal expectations.
In a state of crisis, no amount of innovation, technology or even funding will help, unless you have the fundamentals right. And when in doubt it, helps to actually write those fundamentals down so you have something tangible to hang onto when the going gets tough. For us, the basics came down to:
- Having the right people (this is a blog post for another day);
- Maintaining a culture of communication (yes, this often means sending out a lengthy email following a conference call just to make sure everyone is on the same page);
- Ensuring that everyone is clear about expectations (see 2);
- Trusting your team to deliver (this means giving them enough space to do what they have to do and holding them accountable for their actions); and
- Maintaining your humanity (life and COVID-19 happen, be compassionate, grieve together and find a way to laugh about it later).
So while we may not be able to control COVID-19, or what the Rand will inevitably do tomorrow, we remain grateful that we, unlike so many others are able to continue operations during this time of uncertainty.
It’s great if you have your fundamentals down to a fine, art, but if not, there is no better time than now to start working on them.
Stay Healthy!
Devin