COVID-19 created a perfect storm. One that forced us to change how we live, and work. But it has also offered us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for learning and reflection.
When the pandemic hit, I was in a brand-new role as managing director of Watford BC. We found ourselves facing the biggest crisis in a generation, and I was asking people with whom I had ‘no credit in the bank’ to have faith in me, and to go the extra mile.
There was no blueprint, and it quickly became clear that our business continuity plans were not geared to manage a pandemic on this scale. Working together with my leadership team, we established six new operating principles to guide us through the crisis, and beyond.
These included protecting the NHS, mitigating the spread of the virus, leading our community through the pandemic, creating new cross service working units to deal with the crisis, ensuring good continuity of service via remote working and looking after the wellbeing of our people.
Cutting through the red tape
One of the most important changes was our Flexible Operating Model. Our existing management model involved too much red tape and we needed to completely rewrite the council’s operating structure. The first step was to organise the council into new working units focused on critical areas. Multi-disciplinary teams were created, overnight, with autonomous leads appointed from across the organisation.
Getting to the heart of local community
We’re a diverse town, with a high number of independently owned businesses. In the early days of the crisis our Public Protect team decided not to work from home, but to get out where they were needed most, in the heart of our community, to support businesses with signage, messaging and advice to help them trade.
As the community prepared to reopen, we had to scale up our approach. Inclusivity was key; from our regional shopping centre (intu), Watford BID, the chamber of commerce, to the police, the local market and taxi trade, everybody was at the table. As a result, we are reinvigorating the local economy, while ensuring safety along the way.
Coming together
There has been a tremendous outpouring from people keen to volunteer. One initiative I am most proud of is Watford Helps. Set up to coordinate new volunteers and triage those needing support, Watford Helps brings our volunteers together, and includes the foodbank, Salvation Army, faith groups, charities and residents’ groups, to make sure those most in need get help.
Lockdown also presented particular challenges for the arts and entertainment sector. But we recognised that our cultural and heritage partners could work with us to boost community spirit, and a new initiative, Watford Together, was created to do just that. The activities included One Town, One Book virtual book-club sessions and a writing workshop, aimed at bringing the borough together through a love of reading.
Hotspot of COVID-19
COVID-19 took a firm hold in Watford early on. On the frontline, Watford General was dealing with high daily death rates. Community anxiety was high. On 4 April the hospital’s oxygen supply failed and the trust’s chief executive called a critical incident.
With the news immediately making the headlines, Watford became the focus of national COVID-19 coverage. As a new leader in a new team, those days in early April brought home just how critical our role can be in leading and supporting a community through the very worst of times.
Our people, our priority
There is no doubt that our staff have been the defining success of Watford’s response. Our priority was to take care of them, so the leadership team opted out of ‘command and control’, in favour of a more compassionate approach. I put a web of systems in place to help us listen, understand and support our people. The response has been extraordinary. I’m so impressed, and grateful, for their resolve and sheer hard work. COVID-19 has radically strengthened the psychological contract between leadership and staff, a key foundation for our post-COVID-19 reset.
To go boldly
The motto for the borough of Watford is ‘to go boldly’, and it has been tested as never before. Taking time to reflect and learn from this crisis has shown us just how powerful empowerment can be.
We have developed a new council plan, focused on what matters most to our community. It’s underpinned by a recast budget focused on renewal, and a new organisational development strategy to embed agility, resilience, new competencies and behaviours.
If you had told me in early March that I would be grateful for the opportunities that the crisis presented, I wouldn’t have believed it. But looking back, this has been a defining moment in my career. Our learning from COVID-19 is our legacy – at Watford we are using it to write the next chapter, and to go forward, boldly.
Donna Nolan is new managing director of Watford BC
