Challenging Workers to Think Out Of the Box When Lightning Strikes

One of the interesting things that occurred as a result of the lightning strike is that all of the people that work with our firm were forced to think out of the box. The Internet connection is down. How are we going to get email? Accounting information is unavailable, how will we get out bills?

While it is not necessary pleasant, it is certainly good for employees to have to think out of the box and challenge themselves to find solutions to problems which they did not anticipate. For Internet connections, we took turns going across the street, to the coffee shop, and connecting up through our web mail accounts. We made sure nothing fell through the cracks in a "make do" world. Despite the loss of QuickBooks, we quickly went back to the basics for billing. We pulled time on paper, we accumulated it in an Excel spreadsheet and created a custom bill for each client, and we sent out hand bills reminiscent of the practice of law back in the 1970’s. It wasn’t necessarily pretty, but it worked and got the job done.

One of the interesting things that happens when you are forced to think out of the box is that you see new opportunities and avenues for efficiency. Instead of relying on the process that you go through each day, you are forced to rethink whether or not you want to return to that process or modify it. Change presents an opportunity for improvement. There is good and bad in everything.