The COVID Gift Horse

Recently I was cleaning up my photo drive and came across some shots of a flip chart from one of my last “live” meetings. The topic was CAPS Convention, which while still hugely popular and well attended, was beginning to show signs of attendance fatigue and price resistance. So we did what any self-respecting leadership group would do– we sat around and brainstormed. The flipchart in question was part of the “How might we?” portion of the process.

Among the problems with which we so earnestly wrestled were “How might we reduce the cost of the event without reducing quality?”, “How might we increase attendance?”, and “How might we reduce costs of travel and accommodation?”

Well, as it happened, the 2020 CAPS Convention turned out to be a roaring success– record attendance, high-quality networking, wonderful keynotes and workshops, and all at a sharply lower cost. Not only that, but travel and accommodation costs were zero. (Kudos to all the heroes who made this happen, including my friend and Tay Valley neighbour, Paul Frazer.)

Of course, you’ve connected the dots, even without a little help from the title. Our organization achieved these stellar results not despite COVID, but because of COVID. When the old model was snatched away, we took a clean sheet and again said, “How might we?” The results were spectacular.

Not for a moment should we belittle the global systemic shock which is the COVID pandemic and the death, disruption, and economic devastation which follow in its wake. But neither should we underestimate the resiliency of humanity and the ingenuity which ensues when the cosmos says to us, “Sorry, but you can’t do things that way anymore.”

It’s said that necessity is the mother of invention. Not that we should go looking for trouble, but at the same time we need to extract all the good we can from novel situations that are thrust upon us, even when (perhaps especially when) we hate the change.

COVID has forced us to adapt, and adapt quickly. New models may be a bit clunky at first, but we quickly learn to tweak and streamline, and we discover that you actually can conduct seminars and business meetings, and even court hearings, remotely. And in doing so, we find that there are significant cost savings to be had, not to mention a reduced impact on the environment.

Of course we all want this plague to go away, and no sane person wishes for the next one. But while we’re here, let’s not waste the lessons.