At last, time for some vacation after a quite turbulent first half year for most of us.

January and February came and went without any special signs or any trouble ahead, but developments in Mars really had a major impact on all of us.

Most of our clients did not have any issues either at first, so much of what we were planning went along and in other cases some developments programs were also put into practice.

The first indication I got that something was going on was from family in Asia telling us that they were put into quarantine, and had to stay there for the next 50 days.

I, myself and half the word started to monitor the development and thought it would be contained or at least not as severe as it turned out to be.

A lot of clients and companies committed themselves to different endeavors without a taught to what laid ahead of us all.

Myself and my wife was supposed to go to Hongkong and stay in China for a while, due to the protests they had in Hong Kong it was decided to cancel the trip and wait.

We decided to go to Bucharest instead and meet our colleagues from around the world there, little did we know that the pandemic would catch up with us while we were there.

In Bucharest we had to rebook our travel home earlier than planned, and not over Kastrup due to that the airport got closed for us from Sweden, instead we flew directly to Sweden.

Once home, we had to adapt very fast to the new situation, courses had to be converted or in some cases moved to a later date, due to that borders were closed and people could not travel as before.

Ongoing commitments had to be converted to online trainings an upcoming commitments had to be prepared to be run virtually instead.

We also had to prepare us by securing virtual tools and know-how by both training ourselves, but also by being certified to run our trainings online globally.

In our case we were already supposed to launch our online or, as we call it, virtual trainings, so luckily we manage to launch it as planned in the nick of time if you ask me.

In other cases we converted face to face trainings at a conference center into an half day online training with great success.

We decided to run it for the next upcoming months and finish the course here in late June with a last face to face meeting at the conference center.

Basically we manage to get through with just minor adjustments, but not unscarred , we had some minor curve balls and totally new issues we had to handle as they came.

The only thing that really changed for us during these difficult times was “how” we conducted our business not the “why” or the “what” we were doing.

While talking to a lot of different clients it was obvious things was changing around us too and our clients was adjusting themselves to whatever where coming their way.

In hindsight it was obvious trouble was coming our way too and of course all the signs of trouble was there, but why did we, as many others, not react to it earlier?

I must say that trouble will emerge from all kind of directions and not necessarily in a way that we can predict, the only thing we can do is to try and be prepared for it.

Most of the issues, curveballs, troubles, opportunities or whatever that happens to us can in most cases not be predicted.

What we can do is to both plan, and react in a proper way by making sure we have some options to choose from.

Now it’s time for some vacation, a couple of weeks to contemplate what has happened and think about how to find a way through the next 6-12 month.

It is not over yet, we are at best half way through, past point of no return if you ask me, this pandemic will change a lot for us from now on, better adapt and plan forward.

Obviously not everyone will have the possibility to endeavor these times of trouble and opportunities, so if you have a someone in need of support, give them a hand if you can.

Sometimes, out of external help, it can emerge new possibilities and new ways that will help them pass over trouble waters or just find strength enough to get through it all.

Stay safe

Christopher Bell Blomquist Consulting
Managing Director
Lead Negotiator Consultant
Scotwork Sweden