As we at Farland Group gear up for the end of 2020, and prepare for customer advisory board meetings for 2021, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I would best describe this year in one word — adaptability.
While 2020 began as any other year, we soon found ourselves in the thick of a pandemic. We needed to quickly change course from in-person customer advisory board meetings and adapt to a new and pervasive virtual work environment. For instance, while we were already using video tools in some of our work, we couldn’t anticipate how much we’d need to rely on those platforms to talk with colleagues or clients, as well as continue to hold customer advisory board meetings from the comfort of our homes versus the typical conference room setting.
In talking with many of the members on the customer advisory boards we facilitate, and our clients who run those boards, they all share that they had to pivot how they operate — whether conducting day-to-day business and operations virtually, or re-prioritizing their areas of focus. In fact, one major theme that has come across throughout this year has been the need to rapidly de-accelerate X strategy, only to swiftly accelerate Y, as COVID played a major role in those decisions.
In order for everyone to continue to be successful in their organizations and overcome the various challenges thrown at us in 2020, the ability to adapt all-around is key. While I chose adaptability to describe my 2020, what single word would you use?