Start with psychological safety across your team.

by BY AYTEKIN TANK

For Fast Company

[Photos: Chris Brignola/Unsplash; NASA/Unsplash]

Back in 2020, when most of us were doomscrolling for news about when the pandemic would finally end, I read an article by consulting firm McKinsey & Co. that piqued my curiosity: “Prioritizing innovation today is the key to unlocking postcrisis growth,” the piece read.

At the time it seemed absurd to even think about anything other than surviving or riding out the wave. Nobody seemed to know what was going on. Companies everywhere were scrambling to stay afloat, or worse, were paralyzed by uncertainty. As CEO of my form-building business for the past 16 years, I’d never experienced anything like it.

Then something surprising started to happen: We saw small businesses begin innovating, even rising to the occasion. And then larger companies and organizations followed suit. It became imperative to find new virtual solutions—to think outside the box we’d always lived in.

Take healthcare, for example. The COVID-19 crisis dramatically accelerated innovation in digital health—making it so that live-video visits weren’t only necessary but also effective. Organizations all over the world also began innovating with communication tools like Zoom or Google Classroom to host virtual classes, meetings, and workshops.

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