Fast forward to better business

The pandemic is as appalling as it is undeniable. Its human cost continues to grow in ways both visible and invisible.

As for the business cost of Covid-19, this sometimes feels capricious, inconsistent and simply unfair. Nevertheless part of our job as creative business leaders is to process, as fast as we can, just what the hell is happening this year and what we do next. After all, with every politician, from the sublime to the ridiculous (AKA Jacinda to Donald), talking about ‘Build back better’, the creative industry is ideally placed to figure out how to create renewal and progress from this global disruption.

Part of our job as creative business leaders is to process, as fast as we can, just what the hell is happening.

But maybe disruption is not quite the right word. Perhaps acceleration is more appropriate, because it feels like just about every emerging trend we were living through last year has sped up. And, within the grim realities of 2020, some of these trends are pinpricks of light that point to encouraging advances in the way we run, manage and lead our businesses.

Above: The Black Lives Matter protests have impacted how company cultures should evolve. 

First, the extraordinary events around the callous killing of George Floyd on May 25th, igniting widespread energy behind the BLM movement, have had measurable and meaningful impact on how we understand our company cultures and our responsibilities as leaders. Any residual inertia around adopting an action-orientated and vocal anti-racist stance – unconscious or otherwise – has been replaced with an urgency previously unseen and unfelt in British business. More of us now feel empowered to have new conversations and seek new answers to old problems. 

There’s a long way to go, of course. In fact, to many, it feels like the real journey is only just beginning despite centuries of civil rights protest and activism. But this new readiness and need to prioritise anti-racism will speed up the changes everybody wants to see. As it is now beyond doubt that greater diversity and inclusion are key drivers of business success, the faster the change happens the better. 

WFH does act as a stalking horse for the good stuff, helping us understand just how achievable a radical reset to the way we organise our working patterns is.

There’s another major change that is as yet unachieved, but which feels closer to hand than it did last year. It’s inspired by the imperfect experiment known as Working From Home (WFH). Advocates of flexible working quite rightly tell us that forced WFH is something quite different and that we shouldn’t draw too many conclusions. Awkward Zoom calls and inquisitive pets are categorically not indicative of the true benefits of more modern, flexible ways of working and, of course, there will always be a vital role for people to meet and spend time together in the flesh.

But WFH does act as a stalking horse for the good stuff, helping us understand just how achievable a radical reset to the way we organise our working patterns is. We’ve been forced to make more rapid changes to how we work than we ever would have contemplated if left undisrupted. Now we know just what extraordinary things we are capable of without the twin curses of 9-5 and the five-day week, there will be no turning back. And, as the Flexible First initiative from WACL highlights, flexibility in all its forms helps drive more of the inclusion and diversity that boosts company performance.