The CEF team works from home for a month now due to the COVID-19 crisis. How is this work organized? What makes the CEF work efficiently as a team?

We have three focuses. The first focus is on us, our families, and our health. This focus assures that we are able to deliver on the two other focuses. The second focus is on our operations, i.e. development, design, and delivery of the learning program for public officials in South East Europe and beyond. Our third focus is observing how this situation will affect the way we will do our work in the future. What will be different? It is the continuation of our work on strategic planning of the CEF’s future.

The CEF is fully digitalized. Our organizational culture is based on our common values (trust, team spirit, focus on result, accountability, and opportunity to grow). These are two solid bases that allow us to work from home similarly as we did from our offices before March 16. Of course, we have adjusted our work to the new reality. This means that we are converting most of our learning program for online delivery.

To work from home efficiently, we developed new routines. We structured our communication even more. Our meetings are shorter and more focused. The entire CEF team meets on WebEx once a week for an hour to share the most important information. There are frequent end-of- the-day messages that I send out on behalf of the Executive Team. The latter meets on MS Teams multiple times weekly. We make decisions fast and adjust them when circumstances change. Importantly, we intensified gathering of information from the environment and communication with outside stakeholders.    

What new leadership lessons has this specific situation brought to you?

The first very important lesson for me is to say out loud even the most obvious things. At the end of the day we work from 30 locations! For me the obvious thing was that our first focus should be on us, our families and health. But, at first, I did not voice it explicitly enough. If we fear for our wellbeing, the wellbeing of our families and people around us, we can’t be creative and daring. And you have to be both to implement changes.

The second lesson is linked to the amazing energy that people can release when they have focus, clear direction, and above all know they can count on each other. Our current operational focus is to convert most of our learning program scheduled until end-June for online delivery. We will be able to make adjustments by being supportive to each other. One showcase of support is the CEF Stress Busters initiative that emerged some three weeks ago, so pretty early in time. This initiative helps us deal with stress caused by this crisis. Later, another initiative emerged – Let’s Stay Active. We encourage each other to be physically active.  Both, psychological and physical well-being are very important for teamwork and being focused on results. 

The third leadership lesson is that decisions must be taken even faster than before the crisis. Together with the Executive Team I must provide clear guidance and support colleagues to be comfortable with proposing their own solutions. Also, we allow each other to change or adjust decisions without hesitation as soon as justified reasons emerge. We acknowledge that in this we cannot avoid making mistakes. This is why we can be both productive and innovative. In the period until end-June we plan to deliver more than 50 webinars within the newly designed online courses.                                                      

What are your personal experiences from being in isolation and work from home?

Simply accepting the new reality while staying calm and focused were the first things that helped me. My decision, to strictly start working in the morning as I normally would, also helps. However, finishing with work every day reasonably soon has not been easy. The same goes for getting work out of my mind in the evening. It must be done, but it is easier said than done. Keeping the work in one of the rooms in our home helps, but often I also work elsewhere. Soon it turned out that two very basic things matter a lot: regularly drinking water and exercising. Every morning I do yoga exercises in the living room, following the practice on the screen of my iPad. Like everybody I miss personal contacts with my wider family, friends, and colleagues. Skype and Facetime can’t really replace that.

I maintain high optimism. I look at the situation as a learning lesson for all of us to make this world a better place. Let’s use this crisis as an opportunity to adjust the way we live and work! The CEF team is a source of an amazing positive energy for me. I am happy to observe we together are able to deliver the value for people and institutions that we serve. An important value is understanding that knowledge is in all of us, including in all participants joining the CEF learning activities. Now than any time before it is vital to act, connect and learn from each other. Together we can dare to make changes that we need to do.