As the world’s great work from home (WFH) experiment continues, we wanted to pause and reflect on a few things Logical Position has learned so far. As you know, there wasn’t much time to plan for this occurrence. The COVID-19 pandemic rose like fast-moving floodwaters, which forced us to make several critical decisions during a very short window as we all headed for higher ground.
Throughout our preparations, several critical concerns kept rising to the surface: The first was our infrastructure. How could we quickly transition our entire team to work from home without sacrificing our effectiveness? Fortunately, our IT department worked tirelessly to minimize this within a few days of our move. The other concerns, however, couldn’t be solved overnight. How would our team respond to the disconnection that comes from working remotely? Related to that disconnection, how would LP preserve our culture in a virtual environment?
In our view, connection and culture are critical components of our company’s overall success – even more important now under these new circumstances. But only time would tell if working at LP would still feel the same after a few WFH months.
How Logical Position Responded
Technology goes hand-in-hand with our work. After all, we’re always searching for the latest digital tool that will help us provide better service to our clients. But as we began navigating this new WFH landscape, we realized that we’d need to leverage technology in entirely new ways.
Communication is Critical
So far, Microsoft Teams has been the hub where we connect every day. Team leaders created large chat groups where people add helpful information, cheer on their peers’ wins and share pictures of their WFH stations. We’re also using RingCentral for video meetings. Some managers are finding creative ways to use the platform’s breakout feature to incorporate large and small group discussions.
In addition to real-time digital communication, many managers use video recordings to replace communication they would have previously sent over email. Some create their own custom webinars to augment in-person training. Now that chat and video conferencing are the new way of life, we’ve all had to dive in with both feet. However, that’s prompted ingenuity and experimentation as more of us are willing to risk failure by trying something new. In the process, these tools allow us to interface with our coworkers whenever we need to and bring a much-needed sense of connection as we all work from different locations.
New Routines for a New Way of Working
Another essential component of maintaining a connection between coworkers is shared routines. As our new reality continues, leaders throughout the company are looking for ways to create ongoing events our dispersed team can build their days around. That’s why we hold a Microsoft Live event for the entire team every Monday morning, and smaller working groups are following suit. The product team participates in virtual stretching sessions every Monday morning. Other teams kick off each day with a video chat to set goals and intentions.
Culture is Still the Focus
The LP team has always been very social. We love spending time with our coworkers in the office and often socialize with each other in our free time. This aspect of our culture has always been something we’ve worked hard to foster because we recognize how much it contributes to enriching our work lives. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 lockdowns have made these in-person gatherings impossible, at least in the near term. We’re doing our best, however, to replicate that experience in a virtual environment.
Our culture department has experimented with fun new offerings like the LP Live Lounge program, which airs every Thursday at 1 p.m. PST. This innovative event gives us all something to look forward to and allows us to connect in ways we’d never imagined possible.
In addition to events like the LP Live Lounge, our culture team is busy providing team leaders with resources for holding online team building events like games and virtual happy hours. We’re also planning virtual employee enrichment events, like a first-time homebuyer webinar hosted by our partners at Churchill Mortgage, as well as a paint-and-sip event led by a talented member of our enterprise team.
It’s hard to know how long our current state-of-affairs will last. But for the duration, we’ll be prioritizing cultural activities that keep our team engaged with the company and each other in fun and helpful ways.
We’ll Be Stronger When this Ends
So, a couple of months after having our whole world turned upside down, does LP still feel like LP? We think so, but with a couple of important distinctions: There’s a new spirit of experimentation in the air that will serve us in exciting new ways in the weeks and years to come. Our communication is also better. This was certainly out of necessity, but these improvements will make us more effective in everything we do. We’re also collaborating in ways that didn’t seem possible even earlier this year.
More importantly, this shared experience is bringing our entire team closer together. Employees working across all nine of our locations feel more unified than ever. Since each employee is working in the same way as everyone else, distance isn’t a factor.
The last two months have proven that we can operate LP 100% remotely if necessary. While we didn’t choose this experience, the actions we’ve all taken to see it through will make us stronger. When the pandemic subsides and the lockdowns end, we’ll be in a better position than before. Until then, we’ll keep burning up the video conference lines and singing silly songs in between helping our clients find success in these challenging times.
