An hour before dawn, the official start of the day. First, a supplication to the Almighty followed by a cup of coffee and a short walk in the crisp morning air to the office that overlooks the garden.  Large windows ensure ample amounts of natural light, and the greenery and flowers of the garden attract the various bird species in the area.  A quick review of the news, daily schedule and a mini planning session to solidify the day’s goals.  And then, it is on to the office collaboration tools to set my status as available, this, the daily morning ritual since the lockdown.

We could never have imagined the impact that the lockdown would have on the way we work.  Before the lockdown, I was privileged enough to have the opportunity to work from home, but this was always with the knowledge that I could pop into the office for a few hours to iron out any issues or to just connect with the team.  Now we have to rely on collaboration tools to accomplish this and, I was certainly under the impression that the casual way in which dealt with social media and other social collaboration tools would flow through.  I could not have been more wrong.  Running a meeting using a collaboration tool demands your total attention irrespective of whether it is video or audio.

Trying to manage the team using only collaborative tools was a huge learning experience and after three days of chaos and umpteen video calls to clarify things I realised that we have to change the way we do things.  And these were the changes that I put forth:

• Restricting video calls to certain times of the day, a morning and afternoon slot
• More clear and concise communication which provided the issue, the actions if any that were required, the due date and a meeting slot if required.
• Follow up emails after meetings to create clarity and highlight decisions that were taken
• Smaller and shorter meetings with clear agenda and focus.

When I look at the above list I realise that this is what we should be doing anyway, lockdown or not. It requires a bit of effort and careful thought to execute. If this allows us to be more efficient when we are working remotely, imagine the efficiency when we are not?