Dear clients, partners and friends,
Hope this note finds you well as we all continue to acclimate to our new normal. S Design is open, albeit while socially distant, and here to help if you’d like to chat.
These are surreal times for sure, and while they are daunting in some ways, they also present an excellent opportunity to streamline your communications and project management.
As you may know, in 2015 we changed our business model so that our entire team could work remotely. There was a bit of a learning curve but once we figured it out, we loved it. In fact, we sometimes wonder what took us so long.
Of course, we had the luxury of making these changes at our own pace. With COVID-19 driving the train right now, companies and organizations are moving fast to preserve productivity while quickly transitioning to remote operations. If you have questions, concerns or ideas you need to bounce off of someone, we’d be happy to share what we’ve learned from going through that transition.
Here are some of our favorite tools for remote teamwork. Your new best friend might be Slack for streamlining communications. Why is Slack useful? It lets you make different ‘channels’ for different projects or divisions. Team members can be granted access to the channels for their work, and within each channel, teams can discuss projects, share files and video, and link to Dropbox files and folders.
We’re managing projects, tasks and deadlines in Asana, which we find flexible and (dare we say it) fun to use, and we use Dropbox business for cloud storage, file sharing and collaboration. Our virtual meetings are on Zoom which makes it easy to share screens and record. We definitely miss our in-person meetings, but Zoom is the next-best thing!
Here are some tips for our new normal:
- schedule check-in calls with staff or team-members for same time and day each week to feel connected and keep projects on track
- ask for help if you need it
- keep a regular work schedule
- get up and get dressed each day - working in PJs is tempting but not terrific for morale
- limit your news time
- take breaks and stretch
- noise-canceling headphones can help with focus
Remember this is an important time to communicate, communicate and communicate with your employees and customers. Consistent communication helps us to feel connected and quells anxiety. We are grateful for you and please let us know if we can be of service.
Be well.
The team at S Design
