Mint Blue Consulting has had a busy year and started 2020 as very much a continuation of 2019.  By March, one office move was completing with the national lockdown fast looming, while another client seamlessly transitioned their staff to home-working at the start of lockdown, thanks to the completion of another project.  We knew then that this year was going to be uncertain and it was evident that coming back out of the lockdown situation was going to take a lot longer than going in. 

Online communication has proved essential this year for both personal and work and thank goodness we are in an era where this is possible.  Setting up Zoom early on enabled Mint Blue Consulting to easily transition to running operational projects totally online and communicate effectively with clients throughout the year.  Facilitating video workshops and meetings has proved highly effective and at times it’s easy to forget that people are all working individually from home.   

Developing online working relationships has definitely been the key to deliver complex projects this year.  We’ve all had to rapidly adapt to working from home full time so it’s credit to the hard work of my client project teams that project delivery has and continues to be possible.  As someone commented earlier this year, we might be physically limited during the pandemic, but thankfully this hasn’t stopped us developing new ideas and moving forwards.

While the technology is a great conduit, the people on the calls are even more important and a common theme reported for many is not taking sufficient breaks between online meetings.  As we move deeper into winter, taking regular breaks and getting outside is important to get away from the screen and a walk during the day is also a great way to problem-solve and refocus.  Living in the Chilterns, there are many lovely walking routes near my house (even though most of them involve hills) and waterproof walking trainers have been one of my best purchases in 2020.

For those not using online communication on a regular basis, Zoom and other similar tools, such as Microsoft Teams can be daunting as I was reminded the other week when hosting an online event.  One of the attendees sent a lovely email of thanks afterwards and mentioned how appreciative they were for the use of breakout rooms as it meant he didn’t have to complete with everyone else on the main call. Even online some people prefer 1:1 conversations so tailoring sessions is important.

Breakout Rooms are frequently used in the different online networking groups which have seen a big boom this year.  Moving to online sessions has actually been an unexpected bonus as this has enabled more people to attend sessions across the country without the need to travel.   Having met and also re-met lots of lovely people in my virtual travels this year, it’s been great to have the opportunity to discuss current events and topics on a regular basis, interact with different groups of people and also be interviewed by Octo Members, https://mintblueconsulting.co.uk/2020/06/21/the-gr8-debate/. The online approach has worked really well but looking forward to also catching up with everyone in person again at some point next year.

2021 is nearly here, the vaccines are beginning to be rolled out across the country and we’re all looking forward to the day we can freely move around and interact again.  Working practices have now changed for ever thanks to the pandemic, so we’ll need to continue adapting to new circumstances.  New challenges for a New Year……!