What are you paying attention to during this pandemic? What you’re focusing on can make a big difference to your business, career, and health.

Many people are very excited by the prospect of effective vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. This fantastic news has deservedly lifted the stock market, and many companies are moving to eliminate planned budget and staff cuts. 

Yet too many business leaders and stock investors are showing excessive enthusiasm over the attention to vaccine news. The vaccine rollout to the general public is slated for early Spring of 2021.

They’re not facing the reality of today’s third wave of COVID, which is flooding many hospitals and leaving patients stranded. The urgent requests by governors to stay at home and telecommute to tamp down the pandemic’s danger in early November have turned into renewed shutdowns by late November across the US to decrease the strain on the medical system. As a result, the economic situation will not improve, realistically speaking, until late Spring 2021.

It might seem hard to contemplate that the next few months will be even worse than the last few months, but that’s the reality we’re facing. If you’re not paying attention to the reality of the third wave, then your attention is misdirected, as it is for so many people.

Consider what catches and holds your attention whenever you read or watch the news. Most of us tend to be optimistic and focus on the bright side of life. Sure, we might acknowledge that it’s much wiser to balance optimism and pessimism about the future of the pandemic, given the combination of both good and bad news: good news in the long term of Summer 2021 onward, bad news in the short and medium-term of this Winter and Spring. 

Yet it’s hard for us to pay attention to contradictory ideas. Holding such opposing perspectives in our mind causes cognitive dissonance unless we train ourselves to accept complexity and nuance. Thus, most people prefer to let go of the negative information and focus on the positive, despite the danger to their business, career, and health.

Manufacturing Attention: A Case Study

Let’s consider James, the COO of a mid-size manufacturing company, founded in 2012 and growing quickly, whose senior leadership was determined to push through with its product expansion plans even during the onset of the pandemic. When COVID-19 made the news in December, James and the company’s CEO and CFO dismissed any thoughts that it could turn into anything serious. 

However, as COVID-19 numbers started to climb in the US in early March, James grew concerned and discussed with the other leaders the possibility of postponing their expansion plans. He suggested rerouting their resources towards boosting tech and security to prepare for a possible work from home migration. Then, there was the looming threat of loss of productivity in case of an outbreak and perhaps even a shutdown. 

The company had already been testing some equipment to automate more tasks with good results for the past few months, a technology that many of their competitors had already secured and implemented in the last couple of years. James urged the CEO to greenlight the purchase of this equipment and its wide-scale implementation, instead of waiting another 12 months, as initially planned. Using this equipment, many fewer workers with a more general skill set would be needed to produce the company’s products.

Unfortunately, the CEO was unconvinced and decided to push through with the expansion plans. Of course, you can already imagine what happened next, given the boom in COVID-19 cases and the wave of restrictions that were soon imposed on the country. James’ company, along with many other companies in the manufacturing industry, was heavily disrupted.

James decided to contact me for a consultation in late May after learning about my work through a webinar I conducted about how organizations can adapt to the changes brought by the pandemic. When he called me, his company was already embroiled in internal team conflicts, and its operations had already been severely disrupted. Even after the state allowed reopenings for businesses, many employees either refused or were unable to go to work due to quarantines, considerably slowing production. 

Even those who had desk jobs had many difficulties working remotely due to the company’s overall lack of preparation for a work from home setup. The company’s business continuity plan was entirely inadequate for such a significant disruption.  

COVID-19 and the Attentional Bias 

When I met with James and the company’s CEO and CFO over Zoom, I told them that we need to acknowledge that COVID-19 severely disrupted our world and will not disappear anytime soon. Believing otherwise helped drive many companies deep into chaos because business leaders failed to take the right action at the right time.

The refusal to recognize the gravity of the pandemic and even the act of downplaying it stems from a combination of three factors: 

● The nature of the virus itself

● The preexisting beliefs and plans of the business leaders

● The dangerous judgment errors we all tend to make that cognitive neuroscientists and behavioral economists call cognitive biases

The latter mental blindspots stem, in large part, from our evolutionary background. Our gut reactions evolved for the ancestral savanna environment, not the modern world. Yet gurus and business leaders alike overwhelmingly advocate going with our gut and following our intuition in making decisions instead of using effective decision-making processes.

One of these cognitive biases is the attentional bias, which caused James’ colleagues to decide erroneously at the onset, and amidst, this pandemic. 

Attentional bias refers to our tendency to pay attention to information that we find most emotionally engaging and ignore information that we don’t. Given the intense, in-the-moment nature of threats and opportunities in the ancestral savanna, this bias is understandable. Yet, in the modern environment, sometimes information that doesn’t feel emotionally salient is the most important data.

You need to pay attention to and accept the current reality of ongoing waves of restrictions as the new abnormal, instead of a temporary emergency. That means fundamentally changing your internal and external business model if you want your organization to survive and thrive during these troubled months.

Steering Back to Efficiency

When I last spoke with James at the end of June 2020, he told me that he, along with the CEO and CFO, decided to meet with all the senior and line managers to assess the most pressing issues in each department and come up with short- and long-term ways to address the pain points.

Next, the CEO held a company-wide virtual town hall meeting to update everyone about what was happening and present how senior management planned to solve its crisis.  

Due to the CEO’s efficient and engaging way of handling the town hall, much pent-up resentment was significantly reduced across the company. This paved the way for better cooperation, which was crucial for the significant steps that James, the CEO, and CFO took — starting with stopping all projects related to the product expansion and shelving it for the next two fiscal years. 

Fortunately, only about 30% of the budget resources had been released for the expansion-related projects when they first consulted me. As a result, the CEO, CFO, and James were able to make a timely and strategic plan on how they can reallocate the remaining 70%, including:

● Purchasing and installing the automation equipment

● Investing in necessary social distancing and hygiene measures at their manufacturing facilities to comply with CDC guidelines

● Boosting tech, security, and funding for home offices for an efficient work from home transition for all employees who could be moved to telecommuting

● Providing professional development for their workers, both in working from home collaboration and communication for those who worked from home and in using the new equipment and CDC guidelines compliance for those who needed to come to work

James told me that he and the leadership team were pleased with the results of the changes they made, especially once the numbers of COVID-19 cases began to increase in mid-June, prompting a pause of the reopening process that eventually led to a cycle of reopening and restrictions.

Conclusion

During these disruptive times of the pandemic, it’s essential to keep biases in check and pay attention to critical information. Remember that even if your company had trouble making the best decisions at the onset of the pandemic and fell into cognitive biases, you can still steer it back to the right path.  

The 2020 national election seems to have solidified the gulf between “us” and “them.” We’re polarized and paralyzed: collaboration is working with the enemy, and, worse, compromise is seen as losing to the enemy.

The traditional leadership style—where someone or some political party creates the vision and has the positional authority to lead us towards the future—can’t solve the large-scale collective problems that require systems change such as climate change, inequality, and the circular economy. We need different strategies for coordinating stakeholders.

Fortunately, many such strategies have been developed and tested by people working on the frontlines of sustainability in the cross-sector space where business, government, and civil society intersect. I’ve summarized them in a new book and provide two examples below: one uses identity management to change diets, the other uses accountability to change investing. Both can transform whole systems.        

Few sustainability challenges are more contentious than meat-centric diets: if cattle were a nation, they’d be the third-largest CO2 emitter behind China and the US. Yet few people will change what they eat because of the traditional assumptions around meat’s benefits. An alternative strategy would be to target food professionals. 

Most of us eat in restaurants, order take-out, and pick up ready-to-eat food from grocery stores. When we cook at home, we use premixed items and follow recipes promoted by chefs we admire. Thus, our food system is dominated by meals that food professionals design, prepare, and promote. Coordinating food professionals to advance plant-based diets could change the whole food system. The founder of Changing Tastes, Arlin Wasserman, explains: “The culinary profession and the restaurant industry decide what goes on the menu and provide the choices before us. Changing those choices gives consumers a safe way to try new things and decide to change their tastes, with a dash of sustainability and a smaller serving of carbon and water.”  

But foodservice professionals are poorly organized and widely distributed across restaurants, media, and multinational corporations. Wasserman realized that identity management might help enlist them to this cause. As the name implies, identity management appeals to the human desire to identify with a group, movement, or cause. Humans are social creatures, motivated by status, and want to be respected by members of our communities. We therefore defend, rationalize, and become advocates for the communities we join. 

One identity management technique is to recruit “celebrity” chefs to promote plant-forward diets. Other chefs and foodies then aspire to join the “in” group and promote similar plant-forward entrees, recipes, and ingredients. Another technique is to use awards and recognitions to build a sense of membership and community. The Plant Forward Global 50 list, for example, “recognizes significant achievement in rethinking menus and traditional restaurant concepts that reflect the critical role that culinary insight and the relentless pursuit of deliciousness play in advancing health and sustainability concerns.” Another technique is to organize competitions for the most plant-forward cuisine because competitions clarify goals and celebrate winners. 

Another strategy for coordinating the actions of diverse and dispersed stakeholders is accountability. The following example is used to reduce carbon emissions and water use in the hotel industry by coordinating investors, the companies they invest in, and the engineers and managers of the companies’ buildings. Accountability works by making the consequences of people’s actions visible to others. Actors causing harmful impacts are motivated to improve their practices to avoid shame and blame. As the famed judge Louis Brandeis reportedly remarked, “Sunshine is said to be the best of disinfectants.” Actors producing good outcomes, in contrast, are encouraged by boosts to reputation. As a result, best practices for creating more sustainable outcomes are distributed through the system, and worst practices get sanctioned. 

Host Hotels & Resorts is the world’s largest real estate investment trust and one of the largest owners of luxury and upper-upscale hotels. As part of its commitment to quality, Host has embraced sustainability as a core aspect of its business and is regularly recognized as an industry leader. Host began working with the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) in 2017. SASB differs from other platforms that assess environmental, social, and governance indicators by devising indicators material to investment decisions.

Brian Macnamara, the Senior Vice President and Controller explains Host’s motivations: “We wanted to brag about all the smart sustainability money being spent on infrastructure at our hotels and prove to investors that it was making a difference to the bottom line.” Host already reports on common sustainability metrics such as the Carbon Disclosure Project and Global Reporting Initiative, but were attracted to indicators directly material to investment outcomes. Brian explains: “Host’s environmental engineers may be delighted with building retrofits that reduce long-term energy and water use and lower long-term operating costs. However, year-over-year savings may be relatively small, so every project must meet a return on investment threshold as well as create sustainable benefits.”           

SASB reporting efforts have already paid off for Host. The company recently issued the first green bond in the lodging industry, raising $650 million from investors. Other companies have adopted features of Host’s 10-K reporting. SASB accounting created a common language within Host that led to cross-department synergies that improved management efficiency and return on investment. 

We live at a time when our systems need to change, but traditional leadership by those with positional authority no longer seems up to the task. Fortunately, other strategies exist. Career success and professional impact, and the hope and promise of sustainable development increasingly depend on these strategies.

R Bruce Hull’s book is Leadership for Sustainability: Strategies for Tackling Wicked Problems

In healthcare, the undeniable truth is that impact is measured in outcomes. Communities thrive when health systems and their mission-oriented professionals deliver positive outcomes for both health and life. 

The margin for error is small, so hard-won lessons become mantras upon which we build public health programs. For business leaders and organizations seeking to deliver impact, some of these longstanding and universal truths learned from the healthcare experience can prove invaluable. 

For example, the knowledge that small, early interventions matter can form the foundation of any social impact program. In healthcare, evidence shows engaging (and subsequently treating) patients early, often, and incrementally can help stave off riskier and more expensive treatments necessitated when patients wait until a condition requires an Emergency Room visit or until it is ‘too late”. Impact professionals that can address or alleviate the root causes of a social crisis or systemic issue before it explodes will often expend less effort and resources quelling the risk. 

Similarly, healthcare teams’ understanding that nothing happens in a vacuum is critical for impact-minded leaders. Just as a combination of environmental factors, human decisions, and even treatment protocols can overlap to create, resolve, or exacerbate medical conditions like heart disease, so too can multiple conditions combine to create a larger social ill. Understanding the chemistry of economics and education and more is critical to addressing issues like financial inequity or mass incarceration. 

However, the sudden, unanticipated, and abrupt changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have forced the healthcare industry and necessitated a shuffling of priorities and methods to weather the ongoing crisis. Again, there are lessons leaders and impact-driven professionals in other sectors can absorb from this unprecedented healthcare response. Here are four:

1. Build on Solid Ground

COVID has undeniably proven that the health and emotional wellbeing of our nation’s caregivers determines our ability to deliver quality healthcare to everyone else. Applause from people in their homes or billboards showcasing “healthcare heroes” only go so far. The truth is that caregivers are stretched to the breaking point and feel unheard and unsupported by their institutions and communities even as the virus surges again. 

This unstable layer beneath our healthcare delivery system should serve as a wake-up call for an entire industry that our system is fragile. Not only from a clinical or financial perspective but a “caregiver” perspective. If we cannot protect those who give care while they are at work so that they can feel safe at home – and do it in a way that is second nature or woven throughout the fabric of our care model – then we are heading for a massive collision with the reality of staff shortages in the coming year and beyond. 

To avoid the perils of building on an unsteady foundation, business leaders and organizations across industries must also first evaluate and support their employees before engaging in any impact program.  

2. Triage, Triage, Triage 

Surges across the country have placed hospitals under enormous strain at different times this past year. Those facing the worst of it have had to make hard decisions about whom to treat and how. In recent weeks, stories circulated about hospitals around the country drawing up criteria for prioritizing patients’ treatments based on age, overall health, and other factors. 

Even those systems that escaped tremendous onslaughts of patients have likely made concessions about treating routine illnesses or providing preventive services to conserve resources or slow infection. 

Similar challenges are being felt in adjacent areas. Mile plus lines at food banks in Texas and other states have stretched already-thin supplies with homeless shelters, mental health centers, and others also bending under strain. As impact programs seek to serve those facing financial ruin, food insecurity, or other challenges, having a similar triage mentality or prioritization strategy will be important. 

3. Protocol as Suggestion 

One positive recurring trait demonstrated by healthcare pros throughout the pandemic has been creativity. Whether running IV lines outside of patient rooms to conserve PPE and limit staff exposure, embracing novel needle-free blood collection technologies to reduce staff exposure to COVID-19 patients, or building new treatment centers seemingly overnight, the industry has proven that necessity is indeed the mother of invention. 

In many cases, these novel and quick-thinking approaches were devised by modifying longstanding instructions or assumptions. Instead of walking around walls, people – in some cases, nurses and staff holding phones to dying patients’ ears so they could say goodbye to family – ran through them on behalf of their patients, creating new solutions in the process. Similarly, the pandemic knocked down many longstanding regulatory barriers and timelines to expedite treatments, expand telemedicine, and kickstart vaccine testing. 

So too, should leaders think outside of the box when seeking to deliver impact within this new normal. Drive-through food banks and laptop donations for remote schooling are just early examples of how organizations are creatively serving new populations and meeting unique needs amidst the pandemic.

4. Catalyze a Coalition of the Willing 

Before the virus became political, there was a sense that we were all in the fight together. Hospitals desperately seeking PPE were receiving facemasks from hobby seamstresses, face shields from 3D printing companies, and planeloads of equipment from sports team owners. 

The lesson for leaders is that everyone can play a role in impact programs if appropriately aware, inspired, and activated. We must cast the net wider than anticipated, drop down our barriers and instead be unafraid to ask. Impact-driven innovators that make their voices heard, and solutions seen stand the greatest chance for success.

These lessons and others will be vital as the pandemic has amplified a host of new and existing social, economic, and health issues while forcing many more of our neighbors into deeply unfortunate circumstances. Finding a way to make a meaningful difference within this new normal will require creativity, innovation, and determination – three skills demonstrated repeatedly and extensively by medical professionals throughout this year. 

While everyone else on the field was playing soccer, Diego Maradona was performing art.

Consider the famous “Goal of the Century” during the 1986 World Cup. At minute 55 of the Argentina vs. England match, Maradona received a pass on the Argentine end of the field and swiftly and deftly makes his way to the English side, eluding the defenders and goalkeeper to kick the ball into the goal. All along, he keeps the ball so close it’s as if it were tied to his left foot. He is always one or two steps ahead of his rivals, almost in another dimension. He is fully present, in his natural environment — the soccer field — enjoying and expressing himself.

Had they not seen it with their own eyes, most people would have said that a goal like that was impossible, especially during a World Cup against a high-performing team such as England. But Maradona’s mindset on the field was different. Diego, as most Argentines call him, allowed himself to explore and unleash his full creativity on the field, pushing the boundaries as a player.

Maradona connected with his exploration mindset. UC Berkeley professor Alison Gopnik talks about this mindset as typical of our early childhood, when we first explore the world to gather information. Here, we live fully in the present moment: we are enchanted by the nuances and details of our environment and completely open to new ideas. On the other hand, as adults, we tend to adopt an exploitation mindset where we work to accomplish a task within the rules and conventions of society. That is, we exploit the data we already have in service of a task at hand. We tend to focus on the objective more than being present.

The most innovative entrepreneurs and leaders take a Maradona-like approach. They manage to combine both their exploration and exploitation mindsets. They understand that they need to score a goal to win the game. They know the rules of the game inside and out, even when their purpose is to change it. But they can also be fully present: to listen, connect with others, be open to new ideas, and go beyond their comfort zones. Unlike many adults; they continue to explore.

Thinking about Maradona’s mindset when he was at his best as a soccer player, we can highlight a few lessons for leaders and entrepreneurs.

Connect with Your Passion

Maradona found his passion as a little kid when he played ball on the dirt fields of Villa Fiorito, the slum where he was born. For many, it takes longer to find their passion. But when you find it, you get the drive to go the extra mile.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Finding your passion is not something that happens overnight and stays with you forever. It needs to be nurtured over time. As you practice, you get better, and enjoy it more. Maradona was obsessed with soccer. Even though he had natural talent, he would practice longer hours than anybody else. His incredible shots with his left leg were not the product of divine inspiration. They were the fruits of long hours of training.

Exercise Generosity and Foster Trust

Almost everyone who played alongside Maradona described him as a thoughtful leader who had their back. Even his competitors emphasized how caring he was with his peers. After Maradona’s death, a former colleague said he would miss Diego, the human being behind the player, “Especially the calls that always came after losses. Never after the triumphs. He knew that after the triumphs, we didn’t need phone calls. In difficult moments he was always there. After the defeats and in difficult moments, he always told me: ‘Don’t forget that you are the best.’” Maradona emphasized his connection with others. No matter how smart or well prepared you are, you cannot do it all yourself as a leader. You need others to trust you, work with you, and go the extra mile to help you.

Balance Your Exploration and Exploitation Mindsets

When we are young, the exploration mentality causes us always to try new things without worrying about the consequences. Our parents generally offer us security, but they also help define the scope of our exploration. As we become adults, this exploring and risk-taking mentality is also a critical factor that allows us to innovate and excel. Of course, we also need the other mentality, the more practical side, which focuses on results, social rules and conventions.

On the soccer field, Maradona had both an exploitation and exploration mentality. He knew the rules of the game. But he gave free rein to his exploration, too. Through his years of fame and fortune, he could not strike the same balance in his personal life. But without a doubt, as a player, he knew and mastered these two mindsets better than anyone else.

This dynamic between the exploration and exploitation mindsets also applies to business leadership. If we think of entrepreneurial leaders like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, we can see how they knew the rules of the game but also felt free to innovate and go further.

Getting this balance right is the art of leadership.

Airbnb’s former Chief Ethics Officer Rob Chesnut says it’s time for an ethical revolution in how we do business. America’s most powerful voice in business ethics shows that the “do no evil” mantra is no longer enough, and companies that do not think seriously about a critical element of corporate culture ― intentional integrity ― are destined to fail. Here, he explains why integrity is important and how leaders can nurture this culture at a corporate level.

Everyone thinks they have integrity, yet week after week, we see organizations like Facebook, Google, Boeing, or even the Houston Astros, come under fire for failing to live up to their values. What is “intentional integrity,” and how can it help us get out of this integrity crisis?

Integrity is a great buzzword; it looks great on a poster, but no one talks about what it really means. In today’s global workforce, we come from such different backgrounds and cultures—that diversity is a strength, but it also means that we lack a shared understanding of how to treat each other and how to act. Leaders are uncomfortable talking about integrity, perhaps because they’re acutely aware of their own human failings or because they feel uncomfortable imposing their own moral values on others. Where there’s silence and ambiguity, science demonstrates that people “fudge,” or do things that are in their self-interest, and convince themselves that it’s ok even when a neutral outsider could clearly see that it’s not. That ambiguity also creates fear and uncertainty, even among employees who want to do the right thing but aren’t really sure what that means.

Intentional integrity is a commitment from the top of the company to talk, in a specific and very human way, about how we all treat each other in the workplace, how a company treats customers, and how the company impacts the communities where it operates. It’s a message that can’t be outsourced to HR or a third party. It needs to come from leaders. It needs to talk about romantic relationships in the office, alcohol and work events, using office resources for personal benefit, and even hugging. 

What’s at stake if companies don’t directly and explicitly address integrity? 

Everything. We’ve all seen how brands have been ruined, careers derailed, and businesses sidetracked by ethical failures. The costs are enormous. And data shows that companies who act ethically by paying attention to things like the environment, governance, behavior by leaders, and social good actually outperform companies who do poorly in these areas. Integrity resonates with today’s employees, who see their personal brand closely tied to their employer’s brand and want to be proud of where they work. Consumers are increasingly making purchasing decisions based upon how they perceive the values of the business align with their own. 

We need companies to take the lead in solving many of the biggest problems that face the world. To lead effectively, companies and their leaders need to earn the trust and respect of their employees and the global community. Operating with integrity is critical to gaining that trust.

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, you updated your book with a chapter on leading with integrity during a crisis. What lessons have you learned?

A crisis fire-tests the character of a company. Trust can be formed and broken during these stressful times. It can be challenging to know where to direct your attention, but these three things should be prioritized. 

Put the health and safety of your employees first. A crisis can strain relationships with employees who may have legitimate concerns about their health and safety if they are still on the job. Anxiety tends to run high as people fear layoffs, and many struggle with isolation or juggling parental responsibilities while working remotely. It is a time to care about your people in a very human way.

Think about how you can work with all your stakeholders. Investors will be concerned that the crisis will put a tremendous financial strain on many businesses. But you should also be thinking about how your suppliers, vendors, customers, and communities where you operate are also suffering. 

Creativity pays off. We observed that many businesses have resources that enable them to pivot quickly, respond to new needs, or develop entirely new business models. We saw production lines change to make PPE, hand sanitizer, and ventilators; restaurants move to take out, and personal trainers and music teachers giving remote video sessions.  

During COVID-19, many people were laid off from their jobs. Is there a way to lay people off with integrity?

Of course, layoffs are not necessarily unethical. The truth is that some companies can’t absorb the financial impact of a crisis, and letting people go is necessary for survival. But a layoff is a drastic move, with financial and psychological implications for the affected employees, their families, and the communities where they live. To limit the fallout, leaders need to demonstrate that they are sacrificing first. You cannot credibly continue to take your full salary while putting the financial burden on those who aren’t well-positioned to manage it. 

Another important consideration is whether you looked at alternatives like a furlough. A furlough may enable the employee to continue on your health insurance plan—a huge plus—and it keeps the door open so you can bring them back when business rebounds. A pizza chain in Atlanta had to furlough many of their workers, but those who remained to handle takeout orders are sending pizzas home to the furloughed workers, demonstrating that they still care and want to help.  

Lastly, leaders should use their network to help the laid-off staff find work. I’ve seen leaders at companies that need to do layoffs go onto LinkedIn and post about the company’s pain having to release so many terrific employees. They often list the areas where cuts of strong, skilled workers were made an offer to connect any interested employers with their former colleagues.

How will intentional integrity protect employees from individuals’ bad decisions and fix pervasive corporate cultures that enable abuse of power, as we saw in the #metoo movement?

Intentional integrity is a proactive concept that sets the right tone at a company and creates a culture where it’s clear to everyone how to act. Bad behavior is contagious—if people see leaders behaving badly, it enables them to rationalize acting badly themselves. But integrity is contagious as well. If employees get a clear message upfront about what the company stands for and how the employees are expected to treat each other, and leaders live up to that message with their actions, you’ll avoid a lot of the bad behavior you see now.

Now, you won’t avoid all of it. We’re humans; we make mistakes. People will do things that violate the letter and spirit of the intentional integrity culture that each company creates, and that’s normal. Companies must create an environment where everyone is comfortable reporting bad behavior, there’s a trusted process for investigating that bad behavior, and employees—all employees—are held accountable with appropriate consequences.

You write in your book Intentional Integrity that “you can’t outsource integrity,” and that to be authentic, pervasive, and persuasive, integrity must come directly from an organization’s leadership. If you could give one piece of advice to every CEO, what would it be?

Look at integrity not as a roadblock to getting things done but as a potential superpower. You set the tone by your words and actions. Embrace that responsibility as an essential element of your job. Understand that when you act with integrity and encourage others to do the same, there’s a powerful ripple effect that goes throughout your company and into the community to build trust and give you a long term business advantage. 

How does your 6Cs process work to create a culture of integrity, and what’s an example of one or two of these steps?

The 6Cs are all about sending an authentic, human message that integrity matters at your company. One element of that is the way you communicate with employees about integrity. The “old school” way is to email out a canned code of ethics, put some nice language in your employee handbook, put up a compliance poster in the breakroom, and require everyone to watch a video created by some third party on sexual harassment. The law requires that you do some of that. Still, those things are no substitute for authentic communication from leadership about integrity, framed in the company’s language and culture. At Airbnb, I used to go to new hire orientation every week and talk to the new employees myself about the code of ethics and what it means at Airbnb, using real examples and situations they might encounter. The feedback I got was overwhelmingly positive. To have a leader come in for that conversation, right up front, makes a lasting impression.

What is your advice to a company or individual dealing with the aftermath of an integrity lapse—especially in an era of Yelp, Twitter, and LinkedIn where a bad decision can live online forever?

I spoke to Dan Ariely, a behavioral psychologist at Duke University, about this exact point. It’s hard to recover from significant integrity lapse, and it can’t be done incrementally. It requires a stop and a complete reset. There needs to be a very open discussion, from leadership, about what happened and why it was wrong. And it has to be followed up with a plan to specifically deal with the issue so that there is no doubt about where the company stands on it—things have changed, and from this point forward, we’re taking a new path. Incrementalism and subtlety won’t work.

You started your career as a federal prosecutor who tried CIA spies like Aldrich Ames. How did this experience help shape your philosophy about intentional integrity?

It’s hard to imagine a greater breach of workplace ethics than selling secrets to a foreign government, resulting in the capture and death of other human beings working for your country. What Ames did, and what others like Edwin Pitts and Jim Nicholson did later, sent shock waves through our intelligence community and deeply impacted so many people. It fundamentally undermined trust and integrity across a broad spectrum of government. It certainly impressed upon me at an early stage in my career how important it is to have a real culture of trust and shared mission, and how damaging one event can be to achieving your team’s goals.

What was it like to be running trust and safety at eBay during the dot-com boom and a general counsel and chief ethics officer at Airbnb, two companies that had to invent ethical rules in the nascent and less-regulated frontier of e-commerce?

I love working in a blank space — both places allowed having a lot of impact in big unexplored areas. In hindsight, I think I had it easier than colleagues at a lot of other companies. It all starts at the top, and I’ve been fortunate enough to work with leaders like Meg Whitman and Brian Chesky, who genuinely care about their companies’ integrity. With support from the top, the possibilities for building a culture you’re proud of are almost limitless. Without that support, there’s nothing you can do. I remember Meg told me right up front when I devised the rules that I was free to do the right thing in deciding what we could and couldn’t sell on eBay. Her instructions were not to worry about the revenue impact, but to do what was necessary to keep us on the right side of the law. We ended up banning guns, alcohol, tobacco, items made from endangered species, Nazi memorabilia, recalled items, and even body parts like kidneys. We voluntarily put caps on event tickets in states that had ticket scalping laws. In hindsight, those decisions look easy, but, at that time, there were debates. 

What are some of the unique challenges faced by Internet-based platform companies—like Airbnb? Do they have a greater need to act with integrity than a traditional retail company, hotel group, or grocery chain?

Well, I think all companies, large and small, should be concerned about integrity. We live in a world where it seems like someone is always watching, and when it comes to unicorn tech companies, it seems like lots of people are watching and watching closely. Tech is under a microscope, and when you look at some of the things that have gone on in tech over the last few years, I understand why. Tech, as a whole, like the entertainment industry, needs a reset on integrity. An intentional one, so to speak, where we acknowledge some bad behavior in the past and commit to a new way of doing business. We’re seeing that crop up now in pockets all across companies. You hear Marc Benioff talking about it. Cisco is doing some interesting things, so is Microsoft. That’s why I wrote this book to push the conversation and highlight why it’s important. The world needs more from companies, all types of companies. The old world where companies focused solely on making money now just isn’t working. 

In a digital and global age with shifting cultural norms, how can companies reinforce common integrity standards while respecting each employee’s right to their personal opinions and preferences?

We’ve all got to give a little, recognizing that the workplace is a unique environment where we all make a living and do our life’s work. For the good of creating a workplace where everyone can do their best and feel like they belong, there may be some sacrifice in the freedoms that you might enjoy outside work. Let’s take romantic relationships. If you’re a top exec at a big company, do you have the right to pursue a consensual romantic encounter with an employee in your company? On the one hand, I’m sure some people think that you can’t fight love. . . let it happen. Studies show that most people have engaged in at least one workplace relationship in their life, and some people end up marrying a work colleague. 

But if you’re a leader, you have a higher responsibility to set the right ethical tone. How will a lower-level employee react to your advances? Will they be worried about the career consequences if they say no? Or if they break it off? The imbalance of power is troubling. What will others at work think? They’ll believe that the employee sleeping with the boss has the inside track to raises, promotions, inside information. That undermines trust. And too often, these things end badly. I don’t think it’s too much for a top leader to refrain from engaging in any romantic work relationship or for managers to refrain from relationships with anyone on their team. Just talk about it, put it in the code of ethics, and live by it. 

Besides #Metoo, what are some ethical blind spots that companies should be paying attention to?

I don’t think that a lot of companies have put thought into combining alcohol and workplace events. Over and over during my career, I’ve been involved with terminations involving bad behavior that started with too much drinking in a work environment. Sexual assaults, grossly inappropriate language, insulting customers, even in one case, an employee so drunk that they bit a security guard who was trying to help him, drawing blood. Yet it is still common for companies to make large quantities of alcohol available in the office, without rules or supervision. Dinners and “hospitality suites” on the road where too much alcohol is served, holiday parties that get out of hand. All of this is happening, yet you so rarely hear leaders talking to employees about how dangerous mixing work and alcohol can be. Intentional integrity should include a real conversation about how much is too much at work, and leaders need to put thought into what can go wrong when corporate parties go on too long, with too much booze.

Ethics can be an intimidating subject to bring up. What advice do you have for leaders who want to kick start this conversation at their organization?

I think it was hard ten years ago. Now, when you raise it, you likely won’t get anyone saying that it isn’t important—look at the news to see what happens at companies when you don’t address it. The data around the ties to company performance is compelling. Study after study shows that companies who do ethics and governance well will outperform companies that don’t pay attention to it. You don’t need to make a “case” for it anymore. Now it’s just a matter of getting comfortable with what has traditionally been considered a “personal” topic. You don’t have to be a perfect human being to be an advocate for driving integrity into your company’s culture. Think of it as an opportunity to build your personal brand by speaking up on a topic that really matters.

Rob Chestnut’s new book is “Intentional Integrity: How Smart Companies Can Lead an Ethical Revolution.”

Creativity and innovation in any organization is vital for success. A leader’s job is not to be the sole source of ideas, but to encourage and champion the ideas of others.

Studies have found that innovation, leadership, and influence are related. The following thoughts on creativity in business offer executives a playbook for increased innovation.

Innovation involves implementing something new that adds value or quantifiable gain. It requires many skill sets, usually those of a team. Not everything new is automatically considered an innovation. It’s also an opportunity to clarify the participants’ commitment and examine where they are now in terms of leadership development and where they aspire to be by the end of a innovation intervention program. Progressive leadership can create a climate that encourages creativity and innovation. The most important criteria for an idea to pass should be:

• New
• Relevant
• Valuable

When you are personally working on innovation, you can still try things out and make mistakes. You are sometimes permitted to invest in innovation and fail if an idea turns out to be a non-starter. With a project, this becomes less attractive as every dollar counts.

Scholars have shown how organizational structure, strategy, technology, culture, and other management tools help organizations bring effectiveness and competitive advantage. They also show that in the 21st-century corporate environment, creativity and innovation are the primary sources of competitive advantage. However, these authors say little about the role of leadership in the innovative process.

Creative and effective organizations do not appear by accident. They require leaders to drive and control deliberate change within structures, cultures, and processes, to transform them into creative, effective, and productive ones. Many organizations already look for competitive advantages within each of these areas, yet leadership can become your most important advantage. Leaders usually decide what happens in an organization, and give the necessary direction, vision, and momentum to bring about success. Leaders, therefore, are the catalysts that create and manage environments of innovation.

Collaboration and networking

Collaboration allows an organization to use the collective wisdom of individuals and groups to accomplish a task or project. Collaborative knowledge-sharing lets people in an organization access targetted knowledge from a broader range of resources and collaborative performance is based on how effectively this knowledge can be shared among all employees, how effectively the resulting knowledge can be organized, and how it can help with decision-making.

Relevant expertise

It’s worth noting that innovative leaders are people who have expertise relevant to the innovative projects they are working on. When accountants or financial experts are put in charge of car companies, they are seldom innovative leaders. They understand the finances behind the products, but not the products themselves. When engineers or car designers, on the other hand, are in charge of car companies, they have the knowledge and experience necessary to become innovative leaders for their companies. Of course, that does not guarantee they will become innovative leaders. Vision and motivation are also critical.

Drawing on the right minds

The first priority of leadership is to engage the right people, at the right time, to the right degree of creative work. That engagement begins when a leader recasts the role of their employees. Rather than simply rolling up their sleeves and executing a top-down strategy, leaders should realize that employees can also contribute their imaginations.

Challenge people

Without challenge, there is not enough stimulus to elicit a creative response. But too much challenge burdens and overwhelms the emotions and the mind, shutting off creative thought. In studies, productivity increased when scientists and engineers were given positive reinforcement, and encouraged to participate in policymaking.

In conclusion, it’s clear that having a vision is what delivers creativity and innovation. The creative and innovative leader is also a cultural officer — someone who identifies the norms and values of organizational efficiency and moves the whole group forward.

Value-driven organizations where leaders communicate persuasively, both online and offline, are in a stronger position to navigate a crisis, motivate employees, and build resilience.

Research suggests that we form impressions about a leader’s competence in 30 seconds. That’s all it takes to decide whether we think they are trustworthy, based on both what they are saying and how they are saying it. The current pandemic highlighted that leadership communication goes beyond presenting information to people – it’s about inspiring people to want to act on what they hear. While logic might make people think, it’s emotion that makes them want to act.

It’s not a leadership job title that makes a leader – it’s their ability to connect, motivate, and inspire others to drive increased performance levels. This is particularly true during extended periods of uncertainty. The leader’s ability to deliver a message consistently and repeatedly, even if their message hasn’t changed, can help build trust with internal and external stakeholders—a critical process in the post-Covid recovery phase and most certainly beyond as we face new challenges.

Presenting in the Covid world

The pandemic has brought a significant shift to leadership communication, in many cases moving entirely to virtual. In the Pre-Covid world, leaders could rely on reading the room to see and feel the audience’s response to confirm that their message was received. In virtual meetings, it’s more challenging to read body language or maintain eye contact, which might lead to a feeling that there is no feedback or attention on the other side of the screen. Virtual presentations make it harder to connect with the audience emotionally. And this feeling of disconnect can make some leaders more anxious about speaking. This can lead to a poor experience on both sides – as more disconnected the speaker sounds, the more difficult it is for the audience to listen. 

Starting the virtual presentation is often an essential part. We need to get any technical issues resolved, check everyone is present, and begin the process in a way that fully engages. After all, “you are on mute” is one of the most common phrases we heard in meetings this year. To overcome distractions, starting with something that brings everyone in and gets an immediate response, either via the chat or directly, can make the speaker feel that the audience is listening, immediately raising their confidence levels for the rest of the presentation.

A visual experience is worth a thousand words

As Bill Gates stated and successfully proved in his TED Talk, people don’t remember every slide in a presentation – they remember moments. In his presentation, Bill Gates was talking about the spread of malaria transmitted by mosquitos. During the talk, he brought a small jar containing mosquitoes and opened the lid, stating, “We’ll let those roam around the auditorium a little bit.”. The unexpected moment captured his audience, giving them an immersive emotion-filled experience, far different and memorable than a standard PowerPoint presentation. 

Neuroscience suggests that unexpected moments are so effective because our brains get bored easily, and novelty recognition is something that all humans share. Visuals have a similar impact on listening and absorbing new information. When we hear a piece of information, three days later, we remember 10 percent of it. When we add a picture to the information, we remember 65 percent. In science, this is called “pictorial superiority.” And it confirms that visual information is more likely to be remembered than words alone. One of the key reasons we respond to images is that they affect us on an emotional and personal level, which explains why they can be more engaging and exciting than just words. But not just any picture. Visual aids need to be what it says on the packet: ‘visual aids.’ How often do we see over-complex, dull, obscure, irrelevant to what’s being said…the price we immediately pay is disengagement.

Without the ability to speak with impact, presence, and gravitas, leaders are missing the opportunity to persuade and motivate others. Identifying a leader’s natural style and strengths is the first step in learning to engage and convince others. This is followed by understanding how to turn their nerves into an authentic presentation that will keep people focused and engaged. This is important so our audience won’t only hear the information but, more importantly, they will listen fully. Emotional engagement directly collates with performance and commitment. It will be a significant factor in helping individuals and teams thrive during times of change and anxiety, both today and in the post-Covid economy.

A legendary Green Bay Packer coach once said, “perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.”

Three months ago, NBA commissioner Adam Silver and 16 NBA teams arrived at the Bubble to restart their season, ahead of both the NFL and MLB, under unprecedented conditions. The Bubble is an isolation zone at Walt Disney World, created by the NBA to protect its players from the COVID-19 pandemic, and is the first of its kind in sports history.

Over the past three months, 1500 players, coaches, and staff have co-existed and thrived in a bubble community with zero COVID cases. The teams operated out of three hotels and played their games in three distinct basketball facilities. 

With just a few games left in the season, the NBA is on the verge of setting the standard as the role model of successful, positive influence leadership in a major professional sport during a crisis.

What is a Positive Influence Role Model?

A positive influence role model sets a powerful example of managing a successful business during this crisis. NBA commissioner Adam Silver, Deputy commissioner Tatum, NBA Players Association (NBAPA) leaders, and the players collaborated to manage this crisis so that a winner could be crowned on the court and the fans could enjoy the games on television. Additionally, so the league, the teams, and the players could generate earnings while still protecting the health and safety of the 1500 people in the bubble. 

The NBA created a role model of positive influence for other major sports to emulate. So, how did they do it?

The NBA established “rules of the road” and a list of dos and don’ts that were considered mandates for everyone. They put health and safety first, deployed a strict set of protocols, and enforced them with vigilance and discipline.

As deputy commissioner, Tatum stated, “we’ve been able to demonstrate a model for how you operate a business during a pandemic.”

Business (Not) As Usual 

Let’s not forget the NBA is an association of teams with a commercial purpose. The Bubble created an environment for the league, its teams, and players to earn some of the money otherwise lost to the pandemic. 

Forty percent of the NBA’s revenue ordinarily comes from arena sales — lost entirely due to the pandemic. While the bubble also eliminated all merchandise sales, it did create television and digital content sources of revenue. By the end of the season, more than 1,000 hours of play and nearly 150 games will be televised on ABC, ESPN, TNT, NBA TV, and other regional networks. While the ratings are down due to extenuating circumstances, the league added millions of new followers from digital platforms, e.g., Twitter and Tik Tok. 

Deputy commissioner Tatum summed it up best, “doing this together with the NBAPA has been critical. We had to be partners.” 

A Positive Influence Union

In late August, starting with the Milwaukee Bucks, the players led a three-day shutdown of play prompted by the frustration over the shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin. Several teams were so angered with the lack of social justice that they contemplated exiting the bubble completely and ending their season.

Credit goes to the NBA players, Commissioner Silver, and Deputy Commissioner Tatum, for supporting the three-day shutdown. The shutdown allowed the players to have a powerful voice for everyone in the bubble and take a needed break from play to focus on the more critical issues. The player representatives and the league took the opportunity to discuss and determine their social justice advocacy approach and their commitment to fighting racial inequalities in the country. 

The three-day break resulted in a league that moved forward together. 

Leadership Matters More Now Than Ever

In a crisis, people look to positive influence leaders more than ever, especially to role model leaders, as they can be a powerful force from whom we can learn from. 

The NBA, commissioner, deputy commissioner, and, most importantly, the NBA players are all role models from whom other major professional team sports and businesses can learn.

When this crisis is over, who will we remember, who will we look back on and say they provided great leadership? I believe the NBA will be among a select few who will stand out as examples of positive influence leadership.

Role models can do more than inspire. They are practical and sensible examples of how to do things the right way.

A role model is often a powerful force in your life and career. You can choose to closely emulate the person or select certain traits you can integrate into your individual style. Anne, for example, a financial services executive we interviewed, said Sallie Krawcheck was a role model because she demonstrated that a woman could rise to the top of a predominately male organization.  

A role model is frequently a game-changer who shows you a different way, an alternative path to finding your true north. Motivating role models challenge you, sometimes getting you to test your assumptions about handling yourself. For some, a role model can also be practical, sensible, and down-to-earth.  

The Game Changer

Highly successful businessman and former mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg credits much of his success to the late William Solomon. Solomon was a managing partner at Solomon Brothers when Bloomberg began his career as a trader. For example, Bloomberg said Solomon “made his own decisions and didn’t look back.” Those lessons were game-changers for Bloomberg because he took them with him when he started a company with three other former Solomon employees  

Amy, a corporate manager at a major pharmaceutical company, told us about her first boss, Evelyn. Evelyn solicited and listened to Amy’s ideas, encouraged her to seek various opportunities, and then empowered her to take action. Evelyn was a game-changing role model who gave Amy the confidence that she was going to be successful. 

Tony, a martial arts instructor, saw his captain in the Marines as a game-changer because he had a robust personal code of ethics. Tony said it was the force of his example that led me, “to stop shifting the blame on to others, but rather accept and own it.”

Some game-changers can be inspirational, too. It is the power of their example that emboldens you to choose another path or forge ahead on your current avenue, but with renewed vigor. 

The Motivator

Some leaders, our research shows, are both a motivational force and a role model. Dick, another corporate executive in our interview group, said that Bill was a motivational positive influence leader. Bill was an informal mentor who inspired Dick to take responsibility for his actions, especially regarding how you treat people. However, Bill was also an efficient, positive influence role model leader. As Dick told us, “I watched him every day and was especially impressed by the fact that he behaved the way he talked.”  

In her long career as a sportswriter, Nancy was fortunate to work for Terry Taylor at the Associated Press. Terry was both a supportive and motivating positive influence leader. She gave Nancy opportunities that made her realize she wanted to be a sportswriter. However, she was also a significant role model because, as Nancy shared with us:

“When you’re a woman in a male-dominated industry, there are so many additional challenges. People question your ability as well as your motivations. People want to preserve the status quo. Seemingly trivial details, such as what you wear to work, take on added importance.”

The Practical One

Some role model leaders provide a heavy dose of pragmatic, down-to-earth positive influence with just a dollop of inspiration. While they hope you will change, they seem to make a point of wanting you to create your own leadership style.

Well-known financial advisor, author, and TV host, Suze Orman says It’s not about creating a cookie-cutter mold of yourself. Orman believes the best mentors help people find their own path and develop their unique definition of success. “While someone may admire you,” says Orman, “they should never feel the need to be exactly like you.”

Ray, a senior-level IT executive whom we interviewed, saw his boss, Fred, as a role model, but with a twist. Ray admired and wanted to adopt his style of being forthright about the desired goal of a project. However, Ray adapted that style to be more aligned with his inclusive personality. For example, when Ray was working with the company’s local management team in Chile, he approached them not with, “my way or the highway,” but with, “how can I help with your issues?” However, he always kept his eye on the end goal of the project.  

Another one of our study group members, Jennifer, saw her boss as a practical role model. She admired and wanted to be like him because he created “a no-nonsense” culture where the focus was on, “work fast, never say no and innovate whenever possible.” He also provided, “very little day-to-day oversight which gave me the freedom to lead my own group and grow as a manager.”

What type of role model are you?  

What do you do to be a positive influence role model on others? For more stories of positive influence role models and how you can become a positive influence leader, pick up a copy of our new book, Positive Influence: The Leader Who Helps People Become the Best Self (HRD Press, 2020). www.thepositiveinfluenceleader.com 

Have you changed your views about COVID-19 months into this pandemic? Or are you still anchored to the same beliefs you had in March?  

For example, many people still believe the false claim spread by many prominent leaders in March that COVID is no worse than the common flu. They protest against public health measures such as wearing masks, despite high-quality peer-reviewed studies showing that masks save lines.

They also ignore new developments, such as the recent urgent requests by governors to stay home and telecommute to tamp down the explosive third wave of COVID. Likewise, they ignore just-published research showing that restaurants, gyms, hotels, and other crowded indoor spaces with prolonged exposure – including workplaces that fit such criteria – significantly increase COVID risk.  

We tend to continue treading the same path based on information we initially received. That’s regardless of strong new evidence that our path leads off a cliff. The name cognitive neuroscientists and behavioral economists give to this dangerous judgment error is anchoring.

Anchoring is one of the many cognitive biases that lead us to make poor decisions. Recognizing its danger and impact helps us make much better decisions to manage risks wisely and survive and thrive in this pandemic. 

Anchoring in Financial Services: A Case Study   

Let’s consider the case of Lauren, CEO of a 130-people regional financial services company based in Texas that had a lot of difficulty with remote work at the start of the pandemic. 

The company’s leadership team didn’t think they needed to prepare for disruption of more than a week or two. They followed early guidelines from the CDC to prepare for nothing more than a brief interruption due to a short-term outbreak. As a result, the leadership team asked all of its workforce to come back to the office as states reopened, despite news reports of an increase in Texas cases. 

However, because of the company leadership’s perception that COVID-19 isn’t a big deal, neither the leaders nor employees took appropriate precautions when returning to the office. Most did not follow guidelines on social distancing or wear masks. Unfortunately, there was an outbreak of COVID-19 in the office traced to an all-hands meeting. Over two dozen employees caught COVID-19, including three C-suite leaders. 

Several employees, including the COO, ended up in the hospital, and two older employees died. This led to a plunge in productivity, attrition, and low morale within the company, which led to some key employees’ resignations. 

Lauren decided to contact me for a consultation in late April after learning about my work through a webinar I conducted about how business leaders can adapt to the changes brought by the pandemic.  

Adapting to the New Abnormal 

When I met with Lauren and the company’s COO and HR head over Zoom, I told them upfront that they have to start acknowledging the disruptions brought about by COVID-19. Continuing as they did will endanger their company’s bottom line and even survival during this pandemic.

At the start of the pandemic, most companies activated their business continuity plans and followed along as the months rolled by.

However, I wouldn’t advise continuing with these emergency measures throughout the pandemic’s minimal two years. 

Companies need to go beyond emergency measures to survive and thrive in the next few years. You need to adapt to the pandemic and accept the current reality of ongoing waves of restrictions as the new abnormal. 

This essentially means transforming your internal and external business model if you want your organization to chart a productive and rewarding course during these troubled years.

Doing so will include taking a long, hard look at the elements that drive your business. It will also entail revising or, in some cases, even totally revamping your daily operations and business continuity plan.  

Moving Forward From Anchoring

When I last spoke with Lauren a few months ago, she told me that after serious deliberation, she called for a leadership meeting to reexamine the facts on COVID-19. Fortunately, after being presented with overwhelming evidence that COVID-19 was a serious matter and needed to take immediate steps, the executives eventually acknowledged the gravity of the situation. The leadership team then decided to take the following steps:

1. Lauren held a company-wide virtual town hall to debunk the erroneous information on COVID-19 on which the majority of the company had anchored.
2. The leadership team rolled out a comprehensive remote work program, where employees were provided with tech and equipment support. Employees can also report to the office, but it was strictly optional. The leadership team ensured that the office had all the necessary visual and physical cues to encourage social distancing. Reminders on wearing masks were placed strategically. 
3. The marketing team updated its external and internal collateral to include what the company was doing to make its virtual and physical spaces safe for its employees.  
4. The COO worked with the HR head on numerous retention efforts to prevent more employees from jumping ship. 
5. The sales team built on the marketing team’s actions. They also reached out to clients who had been previously irked by the company’s slow response to inquiries and complaints. The sales team presented all the changes being made to get the company up to speed operationally and assured clients of better service. 

As a result of these efforts, the company corrected its course and finally got back to a productive path. 

The strict policies on working onsite also minimized health risk, thereby lessening the company’s risk of accountability in case of an outbreak in the office. This was a heavy load off the C-suite’s back. They were finally able to focus on product development and saving client relationships. 

Lauren informed me how relieved she was that they made the changes once the numbers of COVID-19 cases began to increase, prompting a pause of the reopening process that eventually led to a cycle of reopening and restrictions.