The 5 Hacks that got our business through lockdown

Our business fell off a cliff overnight when lockdown started. It isn’t an exaggeration - Utopia was based on the face-to-face; on the power of communicating; on being in the same room learning together - that which now might feel so surreal and intimate for many. What’s saved us has been a hacker mentality.

I’ve always been a massive proponent of hacking. It not only solves problems, but opens up opportunities. Hacking is the recognition that we exist in complex systems and in order to create change, we need to make lots and lots and lots of changes. (I believe the process itself is closely aligned to the Japanese art of Kaizen, which means ‘continuous improvement.’ You can read more about Hacking HERE.)

Anyway, as we went into the equivalent of a global freefall, our collective hacker mentality kicked in - in buckets. As that freefall abates, I’m pleased to say our business has survived so far, and is immeasurably stronger because of the hacks we implemented. 

Here are the five hacks that helped get us through lockdown - and which we’re adopting for the foreseeable future:

1. Daily Hearts & Minds calls

In early lockdown, our initial focus was on the safety of our team. After getting everyone to a place where they felt safe (one team member went to Manchester and another went home to Amsterdam), we knew we had a responsibility to look after everyone’s mental health. 

So we instigated a daily Hearts and Minds check-in at 10am every day. It was a time where no-one could speak about work but rather the focus was on how people were feeling. It provided a moment for the team to feel fully supported and to check in with their mental health as well as creating a moment of belonging. Without this session, there would have been a real risk of losing the connections you get from the watercooler moments. It has proved so effective, that we have now integrated it now as part of our regular working week - weekly now, rather than daily. 

2. Towards Utopia Virtual Summit

Crystal clear was the fact that our modus operandi had to change completely. Face-to-face wasn’t an option and yet that was what our business was built on. Pivoting to virtual delivery was the only way forward. So never having delivered a workshop virtually, we naturally committed to launching a three-week virtual summit on 29th March. 

It was stepping into the unknown in so many ways, but it provided us with real focus which included dedicated a week of one of the team’s time to produce a comprehensive guide to training using Zoom. 

It also enabled us to engage with our wider Utopian community and it was so lovely to have Amazing If, The Boom!, Curve, Do-it Solutions, Hidden, Hilary Gallo, Inner Ambitions, Nibana, Pjoys, Surviving Sundays and The Future is ND involved. (Thanks again for your input!)

After 20 workshops, over 200 attendees and an average feedback score of 8.4, we had become a virtual business. 

3. Belonging Hour

Engaging with that wider community highlighted just how important it is to create and maintain a sense of belonging. It’s an essential part of the human psyche, one of the pillars on which our mental health is built. It’s also the one thing we knew people would be missing more than ever in lockdown.

We felt a responsibility to provide moments to create belonging to our wider Towards Utopia community. So we created Belonging Hour - an event to create a sense of belonging between strangers using music and stories of belonging. 

The response has been phenomenal, with participants telling us it has been the most fun they have had on zoom since lockdown and provided a true moment of connection. We have now run it over 4 times publicly, including a Pride special which raised funds for akt. It’s also now become part of our client offering and has been specifically integrated into our Accelerate product. 

If you would like to experience it, come join us on 2nd October to celebrate the close of National Inclusion Week by registering HERE.

4. Utopia Movie Night

Another community initiative we set up to help people feel a sense of belonging is the Utopia Movie Night. At its core, it’s just a simple movie club to help connect people over the love of film and to celebrate film’s power to be the ultimate empathy engine. 

Since the first film on 19th March, we have programmed over 70 films (you can find many of them here) and have interviewed Gemma Arterton, Matthew Rees and Toby Jones. 

And while we were chuffed to find ourselves featured in Time Out’s Virtual Movie Club list, the real value for me has been ensuring that I had a natural break from work. Every night for 4 weeks I would have to watch a movie at 8pm which forced me to stop working. Looking back now, that was priceless. 

Also priceless? I have also met people from around the world, that I now consider friends. We even got connected with one of my neighbours and her daughter who we had never met despite living in the same building for 10 years.

5. Recharge Week

Pivoting a business is intense and, it’s fair to say, pretty relentless for everyone in the team. We are SO thankful for everyone’s hard work. But that’s not really enough; as a business it’s important to us that we live by our values and recognise the importance of downtime - to rest, to recharge and give our brains a break so we can be our full creative selves. 

Last month we decided to create a Recharge Week - a week without client commitments in which people could decide how to use their time. They could catch up on admin, spend time learning, unlearning and relearning or just spend time relaxing and recharging their batteries. 

That one week has supercharged us as individuals and as a business, And we’re going to do it annually now. 

All these hacks - and more - have helped me personally, and our business more widely, to survive and begin the journey to thriving. I would love to hear the hacks that made a difference to you (just add them in the comments).