There are as many definitions of ‘innovation’ as the people asked to define it. In simple terms it means ‘to make changes’ or ‘to do something differently’, but I think that when we hear that word being used, we expect the change to be positive. I’m tired of seeing the anxiety inducing negatives of the current crisis on social media and TV, so wanted to share some positive thoughts about how we’re all innovating in these extraordinary times.
When the country isn’t on lockdown (those halcyon days of just a few weeks ago), changing the way a whole organisation works can be slow going. It’s said that the straightforward part of digital transformation is implementing new systems, whilst it’s more challenging to influence people’s behaviours to embrace change and use those systems effectively. One positive thing about this predicament is that it has accelerated our acceptance of new working practices, as we have had no choice in the matter. I’ve seen more change to the way my organisation works in the past few weeks than ever before.
From what I can tell, many of us have taken to agile working like ducks to water (here’s some good advice if you haven’t). Any previous resistance to working from home (for whatever reason) is no longer a barrier. There will be new challenges to working in remote teams and we will adapt and learn a lot in the next few weeks. Some may feel more comfortable reverting to micro-managing mode (example here), but I hope that the principle of trust will be the default.
Staff from all over the world have been holding meetings using video. It’s been entertaining seeing what people have been doing to keep each other amused and boost morale. The old days of second-long delays during jerky video calls seem to be over. It’s great that it feels natural to talk to each other on video chat now, whereas for me it felt a bit weird before. We’re finally living in that future that I imagined as a child when watching Tomorrow’s World.
I’m impressed by the teams in my organisation that run our essential services who have adapted to meet the new challenge, and the other teams that have used their creativity to continue to provide their services to our customers in new ways. It would be a great shame if all organisations didn’t capture and share their learning about what has and hasn’t worked during this time. I’m sure things will never be quite the same again, and this knowledge will help us all when the pandemic is over.
Please stay safe and wash your hands :-)
