Its good to talk, to share the day
We know it’s good to talk. We are based at The Guild a coworking space in the beautiful Carlisle city centre. Up until COVID our main business involved face to face contact with businesses large and small. During Lockdown One we adapted to the new online world of Zoom ,Teams etc. A brief respite during the Summer meant that we had the joy of actually talking to people face to face. Then Lockdown Two brought us back to the online world.
This week has really brought home how much we and other businesses have adapted. We now all know more than ever that you have to talk and share your day with other businesses.
The new normal is not Shangri-La BUT it’s not Blade Runner either…
Our new normal is intense. Like most SMEs we are probably working more concentrated hours than ever before. Some of this is good news and some not so good. Answers to the following questions can have both a positive and negative impact on your life or on your business:
- How many hours a week do you save not travelling to meetings? But how many of those hours were non contact time that you could gather your thoughts in?
- How many early mornings and late evenings can you fit in and not have to leave the house? Does this mean that work time has encroached on your home life?
- Whether you’re working from home or from your business do you find you can focus on the task in hand quicker? Are you focusing on business at the cost of everything else?
- Does the loss of turnover ‘motivate’ you more to search out the new opportunities? Are you getting tired of chasing new?
- Has the loss of regular income focused you’re mind on really cutting business costs back? Have you shrunk the business back to a point where you are doing everything again?
- Or have lock downs and COVID made you really busy, where you are at full capacity? Is your business coping under the pressure and how much of this will continue once lockdown eases?
Questions, the good, the bad and the ugly can feel lonely without peers
The real danger of social distancing is that a cry for help or a shout of joy often goes unheard. We know one of the main benefits of coworking is the ability to share the good and the bad. Sharing this with fellow businesses just makes it better still.
We have found that we can now get some of this back online. You don’t have to feel alone in the wilderness and you can share your joy outside of your room.
How we shared online…
Like many other businesses we have taken our established business relationships online. Knowing who you are dealing with helps online relationship work. We are working with a great business team who will launch a brand new product next year. We were approached by an old business contact to write submissions for honours awards. Knowing the team meant we could run phone interviews immediately and capture great stories around the nominees.
We are also working with a new business introduced to us by a fellow associate. Here trust in the go between has meant we have all committed a significant amount of time to a project before any of us have met in person.
Trust is so important
Our final thoughts go to this week. On Monday we held an ONIT Zoom meeting with our fellow Guilders. ONIT has been running for many months and it is now an online meeting of businesses (Guilders) connected with the Guild. The agenda was simply how do we deal with our wellbeing? We all laughed. We all reflected and most importantly we all shared our ups and downs. Trust amongst a group of businesses that have shared the same experiences allows us to take on this new normal. We owe a personal thank you to Mondays group who just made our life that much better.
Peer to Peer, a place where it is good to talk
This week we also launched our first two Action Learning Groups for the BEIS funded Peer to Peer Network facilitated by our Jacqui Jackson and the talented Tina Cook. This is where businesses can really share and work on solutions for their businesses with fellow business leaders. These groups will run through to March next year. We are already really impressed with the level of honesty, trust and care our businesses are showing. In Cumbria our cohorts and those of Cumbria Chambers are now full. If you want to join the Cumbrian Peer to Peer Network there are still paces with groups led by Entrepreneurial Spark, the Leadership Secret and Skills for Care. Just contact Helen at the Cumbrian LEP for more details.
Final Word
It’s always good to talk. The very act of saying out loud what you are thinking releases pressure from your brain. We are sociable animals. So please use what ever medium suits you AND get out there and talk.
If you want to know more contact us.
