Maximize the Pause

Article Originally Posted in High Profile Magazine

by Ellen Feldman Ornato and Jenny Drescher

The Great Pause of 2020 has upended our personal and business worlds. Whether our associates and clients are working from home, coming into the office, or are out in the field, the current disruption is impacting all of our daily lives in unprecedented ways.

It’s most definitely NOT business as usual!

We’re all improvising – creating new and different ways to get work done together. Co-workers are no longer a cubicle away. Quick conversations take longer. People are more distracted than ever before with home and work lives overlapping – sometimes in the same spaces – and work hours flexing and/or shortened. On the plus side, we get to see people’s homes and pets on Zoom.

The Big Question: What are we doing RIGHT NOW to intentionally improve the quality of our team and client interactions? We have a unique opportunity to carve out time to connect and engage our teams in thinking about some big questions. Clients who might otherwise be too busy to talk may now welcome our calls. For example, one of our impossible-to-reach clients offered to meet for a virtual happy hour.