It can be too easy to move on from successes without learning anything. But by understanding how we overcame one challenge, we can learn more than any expert could ever tell us about how to meet and rise above future challenges. All growth experiences are investments of our time and talents, and the value of those efforts deserves to be carried forward, not forgotten.
As we learn to navigate new parts of our world in 2021 and beyond, its critical to highlight major successes from 2020, and become students of our progress.
When the normalcy of our day-to-day was unseated, we were forced to do away with the status quo and set out on new paths. By becoming critical consumers of “best practices” and experimenting with new ways of doing things, we often uncovered great new solutions. This not only taught us that there is another, better way to work, but also that we are capable of much more.
Let’s not let moss cover this new growth just yet. Let’s keep that momentum and capitalize on the lessons learned from COVID by doing away with outdated “rules” we broke to make it work. The top five broken “rules”-turned-lessons learned from 2020 for employee survey professionals and organizations were:
What seemed ill-advised (and essentially impossible) was accomplished over and over again in 2020. Employers sent 90% of their workforce home with no notice. Can you think of a bigger disruption to employees’ work lives? That kind of transformation (or even a fraction of it) would traditionally have needed 18 months or more of extreme change management. Employers eventually learned they needed to keep many employees remote indefinitely. On top of that, employers couldn’t afford to skip a beat. They needed to keep people connected and engaged, manage productivity during a pandemic, and see the future.
What made this possible?
Before the trials of 2020, many employers were highly selective of the “right time to survey.” Swerving timelines to avoid open enrollment, stalling to avoid holidays and vacations, speeding to provide new leadership with the latest data were all acceptable tactics before COVID-19.
One year later, we're all witnesses to how possible, and beneficial, it is to keep (and even enhance) listening during the worst time imaginable. We would have been much less effective during the pandemic if we had chosen not to listen. We learned from our employees and about our own skills and ability to take in, interpret, and share data with vigor. We proved there is no such thing as survey fatigue. As long as survey content is timely and relevant and employees have faith in the actions taken, people feel valued when organizations listen.
What made it possible?
We learned that employees, leaders, children, people can and will adapt in times of crisis. When the need for change was clear we all rose to the challenge.
One of the lessons learned in 2020 is that people will “hang in there” and adapt if they have these key things in place: a united experience, a community where they find support (information + empathy), and connections made by visible and communicative managers and senior leadership. This isn’t to say organizations draw from a bottomless tank of productivity and fortified culture. We also learned lessons in focused communication and education, showing gratitude and empathy, and the cost of burnout, imbalance, and unsustainable stress. If we accept these lessons and pave a more enduring path, we can achieve a more ambitious, agile, and healthy workforce.
What made it possible?
Many organizations have been chasing the elusive spark of spontaneity. We built beautiful and inspiring common areas to entice employees to collaborate and, hopefully, create the next big idea. Creativity is good for business. It keeps products competitive and can drive continuous improvement. The ability to be creative and innovative is also rewarding and motivating to employees; it keeps them engaged and having fun at work.
But for many, 2020 forced common space spontaneity into the virtual worlds of Slack and Zoom. Some see this as an obstacle—how do we ensure creativity and collaboration when everyone is so far apart and distracted? Others see this as leveling the playing field—now everyone has an equal seat at the table. We can be more intentional about who is invited to contribute (now it’s less random who you run into in the hall); we can also find each other more easily. Instead of having writer’s block and hoping your collaborator is at their desk when you stop by, now everyone is more accessible—and they are probably sitting in a spot they have personalized beyond their office environment, providing more inspiration and creative thinking.
What made it possible?
2020 was, in some ways, one big bonding away-camp. As a socio-historic event, this pandemic and peripheral activities have created a new cohort of professionals who have had to digest everything at once. We witnessed and survived new lows and climbed to new heights together, all the while taking in the heartbreak of health and social events around the world and peering into our coworkers’ homes. It was a momentous and intimate event the likes of which we haven’t had the opportunity to learn from before.
The year wasn’t easy on anyone, and we came through it together. Let’s not lose one of the most unique characteristics of working in 2020: the empathy, care, and genuine consideration we showed for one another.
What made it possible?
Follow the next five installments of this blog series about lessons learned from COVID-19 to read more about how organizations broke the rules and forged new paths.