A pandemic can shut our doors. But it can also open our minds.

Unless you’re at least 100 years old, this must be your first global pandemic; it’s definitely mine and it’s thrown me some challenges I’d never anticipated.
Like me, no doubt you’re madly washing your hands and trying to get through the day without actually touching anything – or god forbid, anyone – while trying to prepare for who-knows-what-exactly without getting into fistfights over toilet paper.

Frankly, I’m not sure what’s worse – the virus or the panic.

And while all this is going on there’s your worklife to reinvent; trying to stay focused on your purpose and goals while completely rethinking how the hell you’ll get there. And then there’s the really tricky question:

How do you hold your people together AND keep them as far apart as possible?

For the past two decades our mission has been to Help People Think and it’s been a joy watching teams come together to solve common problems and build common futures. We’ve seen how effectively groups and communities can do strategic thinking, decision making, prioritisation, innovation and even disaster planning and it’s convinced us of one thing:

The only way people make it through tough times is together.

But how do you do that during a pandemic?

Should we shut our doors and hibernate until this thing blows over – or open up better ways to serve our clients, who probably need fresh ideas now more than ever.
Fortunately, we’ve been experimenting with webinars and teleworkshops over the past few years and it’s taught us to reinvent our approach to training, coaching and facilitation to bring the interactivity and engagement of a live session to people scattered across the country – and in one instance, most of Europe and parts of the Middle East.

So we’re reaching out to teams and communities who need to come together just as everything around them seems to be falling apart; what we’re seeing might be the New Normal, at least for some time, so let’s explore this strange new reality together.