At Draper Aden Associates, we believe so strongly in the power of collaboration that it is one of our core values.
As we’ve all seen our way of life change, it would be easy to feel defeated and bury our heads in the sand. But across the board, both personally and professionally, I’ve seen people reaching out to each other: colleagues collaborating on projects, neighbors checking in on each other, and old friends playing virtual games. It has reminded me that human nature is to connect, to collaborate.
That need to connect has led my team to collaborate more intentionally than ever before. We’re on video conferences daily to discuss the changing landscape, how to support our employees, and how to help each other. At every level, our employees are communicating with their teams about their workload, concerns, and victories. After work, our employees are sewing masks for healthcare workers, making financial donations to organizations on the frontlines, and virtually hanging out with family and friends.
It’s easy to take this kind of digital communication and collaboration for granted, after all, the technology that makes this possible has been available for years. Still, I recognize that we are lucky to have these abilities and a team that actively participates in these digital communications.
The intentional collaboration between coworkers, companies, and communities is what will see us through this crisis. You can already see it happening as scientists develop new vaccines and innovators design new ventilators. These moments of collaboration — as small as virtual coffee and as large converting factories from manufacturing makeup to making hand sanitizer — remind us that we are all human and unite us even as we are physically distant.
