That’s impossible, said Omnicor Never
Social distancing became a catch phrase overnight. The world changed and suddenly business as usual changed too. Omnicor’s team of Psychologists and coaches were ready to head to our clients’ offices on Monday morning to deliver forty one-on-one 360 feedback sessions to our client within a five-day working week. A logistically difficult and complex task, but we were ready to go! Suddenly, the Sunday evening before, we had to quickly pivot the project online as our standard face to face engagements were no longer permitted due to what is now commonly known as the COVID19 pandemic.
The pressure was on, did everyone have the required technology at home? Would everyone have stable connectivity? Managing the anxiety and stress of those receiving feedback is challenging at the best of time. With the added complexity of remote sessions, there was a fair amount of concern. Nevertheless, challenges were overcome and perhaps one of our most successful projects was achieved.
Top three lessons learned:
- Omnicor’s offering can be extended into the worldwide market
Through challenge and uncertainty, new opportunities emerge. An unwanted experience gave us the insight that although we may prefer face to face engagements, online sessions are equally as effective and perhaps even more efficient. We have learnt that our remote service offering is in fact highly effective without any value compromised. This has allowed us to more easily open our target market and offer valuable services to a wider audience with 100% efficiency and effectiveness.
- Make friends with technical challenges
Technology certainly has ups and downs but overall there are far more ups! Technical issues are inevitable but understanding the technology you are using and how to direct others around the technology is extremely important. We found it very valuable to have a resource from our team on standby to support our team and our client with the unexpected technical issues. Although we had a handful of sessions starting late and various interruptions during sessions, the pros certainly outweighed the cons. The technological features we found to be very valuable were the share screen options to keep everyone in the session on the same page, and the webcam feature to pick up on any social ques required to assess engagement and ensure a successful and insightful session.
- People are pretty adaptable
We grow and innovate the most when our back is against the wall. If you had told us a month prior to South Africa’s lockdown that we would have moved all projects online, that no balls would be dropped and that a successful project would still be delivered, we would not have believed it to be possible. It seems that history has again taught us that when we have to make new plans, find new solutions, overcome resistance to change, and do the aforementioned in record time, our biggest growth occurs and our greatest milestones are achieved.
After the dust settles, we are left wondering what our new normal will look like. Business as usual seems to be taking on an entirely different meaning. But one thing is for sure, we will continue to adapt and find the opportunities within.
Author: Carli J. Myers
