Monday of last week, we were advising our people to exercise their best judgment when electing whether or not to travel. By Wednesday, we had made the decision to work from home across the globe. By Thursday, our 1,600 person company was all online, rising to the occasion of finding new ways of collaborating when we can’t all be together for the foreseeable future. I spent the majority of last week partnering with our leadership team, trying to do what’s in the best interest of customers and our people. I also had to take those messages and try to communicate to our people in a manner that struck a balance of confidence and care. And yet, as the work week came to a close with two days of WFH under our belts, I had countless moments of pride witnessing our teams lean into our new normal with vast amounts of creativity, collaboration and even some humor.
Another week, another set of challenges. While last week ended with the inconvenience of having to put our business continuity plans into hyperdrive and people sharing tips to set up a makeshift home office, this week challenged our productivity in different ways. With lightning speed, I witnessed people evolving their questions from “Can I get another power cord to bring home?” to “OMG! My kids and spouse are now home too and how the heck will I be able to focus?” to now shifting to “Ummm, am I going to have a job in a week?” This isn’t just Rapid7. This is the collective angst felt globally.
Having lived long enough to have worked through shared difficult times like 9/11 and the last recession from 2007-2009, I appreciate this is life’s way of reminding us change happens, and we can never rely on the status quo. In some perverse way, I am still able to find the opportunity that lies in mass social disruption, as I believe it leads (mostly) to the best in people. Right now, we are seeing a little more kindness; an appreciation that even if we personally are feeling stressed, there are people and families facing far worse than us. It’s a scary time for literally almost everyone in the world, and yet there is something reassuring about the fact that we are experiencing it together. At times like this, we focus on that which binds us together, rather than focusing our energy on things that often drive us apart. We find the best in ourselves, whether it’s buying your elderly neighbor much needed groceries, or ordering from small local restaurants who are desperately trying to weather this storm.
Leadership plays a critical role in the ability to execute during a global crisis. On the global stage since this pandemic started, we’ve watched Bill Gates step off the board of Microsoft and commit his energies full time to his philanthropic efforts with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. We’ve watched South Korea set the pace for what speed and ingenuity can do in the face of a crisis by making testing widely available through “drive-by” clinics, thus reducing the burden on hospitals and reducing the risk for healthcare workers. While I’ve taken to avoiding too much news so as not to get sucked into the vortex of insanity, I am heartened to know there are people in the world committed to helping us collectively get through this. Even the Italians are doing their part, finding the joy in a time of mass quarantine. These people make me so proud to be part of the human race.
And while I’m witnessing first hand the response on a global scale, I’m personally managing through it within my own company and family. I’ve spent a career trying to build companies that provide people the opportunity to live out the career experience of their lifetime. My approach has never been about free lunches or over the top perks. It’s always been about creating an environment of trust, collaboration, and innovation. I’ve been so incredibly proud of how Rapid7 and our leadership team has pulled together during this time. We moved swiftly to send our people to work from home, and we challenged our teams to embrace our “one moose” spirit by offering support and patience with one another. Somehow, even working virtually, our Talent Acquisition team has hired more people this quarter than in any other in our history. Our IT teams have found ways to ensure we have the technical capabilities to work from the safety of our homes without missing a beat. Our People Development team has learned to immediately revise our onboarding program so that we can still offer a high quality experience for our new people, even though we aren’t quite sure yet when we will see them face to face. I’ve seen countless examples in every single team over the past two weeks, highlighting the absolute best in us. I credit our leadership team, especially our CEO Corey Thomas and President Andrew Burton for not just setting the pace in how we treat our people, but how we will keep our business thriving during a down economy.
I’m confident Rapid7 will rise together to make the absolute best of this challenging situation. Having spent countless hours with my colleagues over the past few weeks sharing ideas and getting a sense of how their teams are responding, I can’t imagine working anywhere else.
We are just at the beginning, and we know that the next few weeks of social distancing is going to be really trying. We must acknowledge this is hard for everyone. People with families are trying to keep their children entertained while they remain productive working virtually. People who live alone are starting to face the struggle of loneliness and isolation. Once we get past the health elements of this COVID-19 crisis, which we of course will, we will still face a deflated economy and the chaos of rebuilding. While I’m no economist, it strikes me that those who have the most solid foundations will survive because they appreciate and have built teams that can persevere in both good times and challenging ones.
And yet, it’s not too late for any company - and leader - to stand out and truly shine during this time. If you have fallen behind, here are some lessons learned by us over the past weeks.
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Establish a dedicated crisis team. This isn’t just a health crisis. COVID-19 is now impacting every element of businesses, and having senior level oversight and accountability is critical. This team needs to set the pace in terms of cross functional teaming, understanding who’s responsible for what, and setting the tone for communications to both your people and your customers.
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Get the facts. It’s hard for the crisis response team to be effective if they don’t have accurate data to rely on. Hearsay and panic through rumor isn’t going to help here. Based on the best data available, plans should include short, medium and long term contingencies to best help everyone navigate the best possible response.
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Mind the law. Understanding where your company is at risk and getting counsel - whether it’s with your own in-house GC or a trusted lawyer from the outside, it’s important in helping to devise the appropriate responses.
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Get your operations in order. These are the teams, from IT to Workplace Experience, that are handling the lion’s share of keeping your company up and running. They aid everyone in being able to remain productive, so listen to what they need, and help them to put it into place as quickly as possible.
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Which means...collaborate with everyone. We learned early into this situation that we needed to have a comprehensive set of messages to both our Rapid7 people and to our customers and partners. A few of us have straddled both of these teams, to ensure consistency and tone of the messages. We do this as often as we can, finding repetition and clarity is helping to keep rumors and fear down and productivity up. Connecting all of these teams isn’t always easy, but now is not the time to default into silos. Orchestration and collaboration between teams is always important, but especially critical right now.
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Communication is essential. This isn’t about just sharing facts or stating “we are now WFH!” The messages should include a balance of tone, authenticity, information, and cover the needs of the wide variety of your stakeholders. Ensure you are considering everyone is incredibly important, not just meeting the needs of one group. To compound the challenge, you need to be able to do all of this while ensuring everyone that you are committed to their safety and security. Whether it’s revisiting travel and health benefit policies, or finding creative ways to support people's needs as they balance WFH with family responsibilities, or even just ensuring them how your business is going to continue to operate during this time is incredibly important. In other words, don’t leave people guessing.
AND finally, what we can all do as individuals.
There have been a plethora of articles and posts about how to work productively from home during this time, so I’m not going to aim to reinvent the wheel here. However, here’s what I’ve embraced over the past two weeks to help keep moving forward without missing a beat.
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Find a physical space to carve out that’s all mine. Historically when I’ve worked from home for a day at a time, I’ve chosen to work from my kitchen table because it affords me easy access to things. However, I quickly learned that I added a desk to my loft for a reason. Separating work space to be able to step away and enjoy the rest of my house as “personal space” was a necessary move for sanity.
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Schedule in time for breaks. I was in meetings from 7 am - 530 pm yesterday. I had only carved out one break during that time, and immediately took advantage of it by going for a walk with my kids and dog to get out of the house and get fresh air. I’ve now found ways to carve more of that into my schedule - it made a world of difference.
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Find perspective. Yes, it really stinks to be locked up at home, and not spending time with a broader population. However, the vast majority of us will walk away from this time healthy, and perhaps with some new ideas about what’s most important to us in life. Taking a deep breath and acknowledging the inconveniences we are experiencing right now is very different from say, nuclear war, is important. Let’s stay grounded in working through this together, rather than making it worse than it needs to be.
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Embrace the opportunity. Written in Chinese, the word “crisis” is made up of two symbols. One represents “danger,” the other “opportunity.” I am leaning hard into the opportunity element. I’m finding new creative ways to work when I can’t be physically in front of people. It’s allowed my team to flex their creative muscles on how to provide amazing customer experiences in an escalated time frame. It’s challenging my assumptions about physical workspace, and what work will look like in the future. I’m loving all of that.
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Remember, it’s not all about you. Sometimes when we are scared or unsure, we can focus inwardly and forget there are others facing their own host of unique fears and challenges. Pause and consider them as well. A little empathy sprinkled in during times like these goes a very long way.
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Keep a sense of humor. The last two weeks wouldn’t have been nearly as tolerable without the resilience of the human spirit and a whole lot of irreverent humor from my colleagues. Whether it is cracking up at the customized Zoom background people choose for themselves, or adding a giggle by my team sharing our high school prom pictures, I have found myself laughing hard every single day. It helps.
These are unprecedented times we are living in, but as with every challenge we face, we will work through them together. We are in it for the long haul, and we are now making decisions that won’t just affect us today, but tomorrow and in the years going forward. However, right now, each of us can pause and take a few moments each day to consider what about this situation is allowing us to become even more resilient? What lessons have we learned that we can apply to actually enhance our lives in the future? By doing so, I’m confident enough to believe we will emerge from this even stronger, and more sustainable and hopefully a little more empathetic. While we do that, I wish everyone health, patience, and equal measure of perspective and humor.
Christina Luconi is Chief People Officer for Rapid7. Follow her on Twitter: @peopleinnovator.