Summary
Leading a team during the pandemic may seem impossible given it’s likely the most stressful time of your team’s lives. Recently, I lead our team through a design sprint where we explored improving unemployment benefit access in the middle of the pandemic, which required us to shift how we work. In this talk, I’ll share how we reimagined collaboration, communication, and processes to reduce the stress load while maintaining forward momentum. Together as leaders, we’ll explore how to ethically lead our teams while keeping their resiliency in mind and bring these learnings into the post COVID work life.
Key Insights
-
•
Resilience differs from survival by aiming to maintain steady energy rather than exhausting oneself to get through crises.
-
•
Using the battery metaphor helps teams visualize fluctuating emotional and mental energy levels and the need to recharge.
-
•
Clear, co-created communication norms reduce remote work stress from excessive or duplicative digital messaging.
-
•
Regular check-ins and check-outs that share headspace, heartspace, and needs foster psychological safety and trust.
-
•
Allowing flexibility such as video-off meetings respects emotional bandwidth and prevents burnout.
-
•
Leaders need to understand individual signals of stress, which can vary widely, to provide appropriate support.
-
•
Talking openly about mental health, racial justice, and personal challenges at work creates inclusion and resilience.
-
•
Resilience practices must evolve as external conditions change; what worked pre-pandemic may not suffice now.
-
•
Nurturing a team's resilience includes fostering autonomy, shared decision-making, and prioritizing wellbeing over productivity.
-
•
Leaders must consciously cultivate their own resilience to sustainably lead and support their teams through ongoing stress.
Notable Quotes
"Resilience is being able to maintain self needs and effectiveness at moments of change, tough demands, and adversity."
"Survival can feel like a roller coaster with big energy spikes and drops, often leaving us completely depleted."
"When the pandemic hit, those in the resilient 'yellow' zone had enough reserve to readjust and come back."
"People were taking vacation days just to homeschool or take care of a loved one."
"Creating space to name what we’re experiencing without guilt allowed us to unload some of that emotional weight."
"We co-designed our environment and expectations around what we needed as a team during these times."
"On days with many user interviews, the team wanted internal meetings video off to take a break from 'smiling all day.'"
"Check-outs and reflections normalized pausing and being honest about what we don’t know."
"Mental health, systems of oppression, and racial justice should have been normal conversations at work all along."
"The whole give yourself an oxygen mask before helping others metaphor is very true here."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"It’s not always a charismatic repository that people flock to, but tools that seek you out where you work are more effective."
Ned Dwyer Emily Stewart James WallisThe Intersection of Design and ResearchOps
September 24, 2024
"There are lots of little mushroom patches of design sprouting up, but they're disconnected and not sharing."
Michael LandEstablishing Design Operations in Government
February 18, 2021
"Apple’s innovation with VoiceOver on iOS changed the world by making accessibility a built-in, first-party responsibility."
Sam ProulxTo Boldly Go: The New Frontiers of Accessibility
November 18, 2022
"We run our UX department as a business, with responsibilities, requirements, and expectations."
Vasileios XanthopoulosA Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approach to User-Centric Maturity at Scale
January 8, 2024
"Balance UX and CX—making the site work technically is not enough if the content or experience isn’t meaningful."
Andrew Custage Michael MallettThe Digital Journey: Research on Consumer Frustration and Loyalty
March 29, 2023
"By limiting our classes to six or seven students, we could give better quality feedback."
Marjorie Stainback Kelsey KingmanTransforming Strategic Research Capacity through Democratization
October 24, 2019
"Repair is any action that prevents negativity from spiraling out of control and helps bring people back to connection."
Alla WeinbergCross-Functional Relationship Design
December 6, 2022
"Everyone wants to see themselves reflected in the research questions and findings."
Jerome “Axle” BrownHow to Use Self-Directed Learning to Ensure Your Research Insights are Heard and Acted Upon
March 11, 2021
"The hiring process typically includes two manager screens and a final interview with project presentations."
Jen Crim Jess Quittner Saritha Kattekola Alex Karr Gurbani PahwaCulture, DIBS & Recruiting
June 11, 2021
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
What strategies can a design team use to scale from impacting a few projects to many more per quarter?
What role do personal financial and family pressures play in deciding to leave or return to tech?
How can service design approaches support innovation decision-making in large public sector institutions like the OECD?