After a few meetings this week I began to notice that instead of getting things discussed that needed to be discussed during those meetings, we spent the majority of our time talking about the Coronavirus.
It is very important that we don’t ignore the elephant in the room. Everyone is concerned, has opinions and is looking for a bit of reassurance. This is completely understandable considering that we are in the midst of something very unknown.
I am a big proponent of talking about our fears and concerns and listening while others do the same. One positive thing I believe will come out of this situation is that we will all learn to be a bit more empathetic and to lean on one another more.
However, spending all of our time talking about what is going on is only going to make matters worse. We will get behind on things that need to keep moving forward and it can cause even more fear.
I have an idea for you, one that I am excited to implement for myself as well. For all of your upcoming business meetings, consider approaching your conversation in a new way, honoring the current situation yet still moving forward to get things done. In order to do this I suggest that you allot a certain amount of time, maybe 10 or 15 minutes, to simply discuss what is going on in your world, which will probably be the Coronavirus and how it is impacting our lives.
Once that time is up, it’s time to get down to business and have the conversation you came to have. It isn’t doing business as usual, but it is still doing business. The last thing all of us want is to allow the Coronavirus to put a freeze on everything, that would be devastating to most businesses.
Even if we can’t gather in large groups, go into the office, or meet in person, we can still get things done during our meetings if we do it intentionally. Give it a try, first honor the situation by allocating time for open discussion and sharing, then shift into getting down to business. Since we don’t know what tomorrow will bring, let’s keep moving forward today!