The COVID-19 pandemic has truly affected the way we work. A lot of companies have either closed up shop or have been adapting through work from home (WFH) arrangements. 

Adapting is more than just getting used to working in pajamas. The once standard habit of just chatting with each other, exchanging information a few feet apart has been transformed to Zoom sessions or phone calls, maybe not difficult at first glance, but the instant exchange in an office feels like a thing of the past and is truly missed.

At TeamKSA, we are still trying to figure out the WFH arrangement. Definitely has not been easy, but these past few months we have been educating ourselves!  

The Good

While we are physically apart from one another, we have never been so close personally to each team member. We all share the challenge of facing a new tomorrow with what COVID-19 has brought to us, and teamwork has never been better.

We also learned to become more agile as a team, taking one step at a time. With more alone time, we have developed insane amounts of focus and have become more comfortable with incremental forward momentum, helping everyone at once.

In the client fulfillment side of things, we are “forced” to learn a lot of tech fast to have close communication with clients, as well as adapting to more opportunities previously overlooked, like virtual workshops.

The Bad

If there’s one thing we do miss, it’s seeing each other face to face, without the worries of spreading the virus to our teammates and their families. We miss the banter, the eye to eye contact without the masks, especially the overall camaraderie when we work in the same space inches away from each other.

Other than the health concerns of being close to each other, balancing work/personal life is an ongoing challenge for some of us. If you do have kids, a dog (or a few) or other family members in the house, it can be tricky to get that “alone” time, especially if you do not have a home office or a workspace to shield you from distractions. 

This was never an issue if you got to travel to your office, where everybody is careful not to cause any distractions that could have the team lose their focus.

The Best Lesson We Learned

In order to survive and thrive in today’s economy, we’ve discovered as long as your work culture is based on constant communication, initiative and creativity, it doesn’t matter whether you work from an office or at home. You can still make your clients happy through consistently achieving the goals, and going above and beyond with your services – we do both.

While there is tons of uncertainty about the next couple of years, we are never more hopeful than we are today. We see the “new normal” is just that: new. In anything new, there will be the discovery of positive things as well as the challenges we are not used to facing. 

At TeamKSA, as long as we kick-ass, overdeliver value to our clients, and reach our team goals, we will always adapt and be ready with changes like what the pandemic has created.

Finish the Sentence:  I maintain my creativity by ___________.

Have you ever had the feeling where you are just “in the zone”? 

You know, when you are feeling so productive, so much work has been done that by the end of the day you ask yourself “where has the time gone?” Or “it’s 7pm already?!”

It usually is expressed through artwork because you use your imagination to create something, but creativity is also expressed through using such imagination to tackle problems. If used right, it could make you feel time flies because you are so involved and engaged. 

At a marketing agency like KSA, we value creativity as it is the driving force for growth since we need creative input to:

• Solve problems
• Tackle uncertainty
• Develop ideas to grow despite challenges

The problem is, there are times when we feel challenges are too hard, we are out of options and issues just keep popping up that we aren’t able to cope with. 

And, 2020 has not made it any easier to say the least. Stress levels are at an all-time high as we are fighting something we cannot see, and it might be too late when we do experience symptoms, forcing us into new territory in the way we work and do business.

It could be understandable that there are spurts where you just stare at the ceiling, open up your laptop and just… nothing. Absolutely no idea where to start.

If left unchecked, it can feel overwhelmingly impossible to make deadlines, achieve goals and feel in control. 

Here are some ways we’ve found to deal with creativity slumps: 

• Hands in dirt (gardening, stacking wood, working outside)
• Cooking
• Go for walks until your head is clear
• Review past work and talk it out
• Talk to myself out loud as if there is another person in the room (or to pets)
• Read a lot
• Listen to audio book to relax and tune out for a minute
• Color (inside the lines) or do an art project
• Sew or sort fabric by color to feel it

You might notice a theme here: we found not browsing social media all the time helps a lot for getting out of the “slump”. It is probably due to a lot of information (or misinformation) circulating nowadays with all that is happening, is based on fear and something that is out of our control. 

As a team we believe in order to have an overall positive outlook and ongoing productive days, doing activities that involve something we can control is important. Cooking and writing are just some examples our teammates love to do at KSA.

If we need to connect with friends and colleagues, we opt to do it via video chats and personal messages, to keep tabs on what is happening and spread the overall good vibes that contribute to creative ideas in tackling problems. 

While it is not possible to eliminate challenges that arise like the pandemic and other issues that appeared this year, as a team, in order for us to achieve goals and grow in 2020 and beyond, we learned to keep creativity consistent by having an overall positive outlook. To do so we move our bodies and do hobbies we can control, like gardening, sewing or writing, triggering the brain to be productive consistently. 

Hope this helps!