One year into the global COVID-19 pandemic, many remote teams are feeling like they’re constantly running on fumes. Beyond the stresses of the health and economic situations, days spent on endless, back-to-back virtual meetings, sharing your workspace with family… it is easy to feel drained. For years, a top productivity concern was time management -- now it has shifted to energy management. Here are some of the best techniques we’ve learned for energy management to support wellness and resilience and avoid burn-out in remote work.

Momentum for action on racial equity has continued to build around the world, and we like many others have spent the past few weeks in an ongoing discussion on what else we can do to help contribute to positive change. It remains remarkably difficult for organizations to have uncomfortable conversations about racial bias, so as a first step we’re spreading awareness of how cognitive diversity can be used as a powerful device to break down the walls in these conversations.

The impact of COVID-19 on our ways of working has been staggering. The most obvious, the shift to remote work, has impacted organizational cultures and employee engagement almost overnight. Beyond remote work, it has accelerated a number of key future of work trends, in some cases irreversibly. In the years to come, it will continue to reverberate in the ways we collaborate, balance our career and family obligations, and think about our teams and organizations. 

This blog post is a brief excerpt from our latest white paper on adapting to uncertainty. The full piece can be found here.

It is no surprise that in the face of today’s constant volatility and uncertainty, agility is frequently cited as one of the most important attributes for leaders to be successful in growing organizations. Yet most managers and leaders have not been prepared or trained for how to deliver this agility, especially in a crisis. It’s one thing to have reactively put things into place in response to a new reality, often with a lag that creates competitive disadvantages. It is another to think about what’s next in the midst of a crisis and stay ahead of change, rather than chasing after it.

Dear Trusted Whole Brain® Thinking Partners:

Like so many other organizations, Herrmann has spent the last few weeks learning about COVID-19 and thinking about how it will impact individuals, families, teams, and companies across the globe. For us, understanding that impact means working closely with partners like you and providing you with resources and support to help manage the disruption.

One of the unexpected consequences of the rapid spread of coronavirus is that the shift to remote work is being accelerated – forcing the “world’s largest work-from-home experiment”.

As the CEO of Herrmann, I’m proud that one of my first actions in taking on the role was to become a signatory of the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™ pledge to take meaningful action towards creating more inclusive workplaces and to participate in the Day of Understanding. 

Our bet for the biggest idea in management for 2020? Cognitive diversity.

Cognitive diversity is broad concept, but we define it as the differences in the thinking (i.e., cognition, perspective or information processing styles) that people use to process the world around them, collaborate, solve problems, and make decisions.

Understanding these differences in thinking, and how to harness them, enables teams to tackle problems in new ways and increase their productivity. For organizations, building a culture of inclusion around these varied perspectives strengthens that culture, builds agility in change, and ultimately drives better business results.

Ever come down with a case of the Mondays?

The Monday blues can get the best of all of us. In fact, one study has pinpointed the exact time—11:17 am—when the Monday mood hits rock bottom.

One of the reasons we dread Mondays is because everything that’s carried over from the previous Friday and everything that’s on deck for the coming week all hit us at once. The pressure’s on. The inbox is full. You’re busy digging out. You need a game plan to get going.

If there was ever a time when you needed focus, creativity and a clear head, this is it. And nothing can interrupt that flow or pull you further off course than yet another meeting.