There’s nothing quite like a major crisis to force us out of our comfort zone. In some situations, we just need to step up and do things differently. We need to figure out what’s most important, where to focus our energy and resources, and what to just let go. 

With COVID-19, there are justifiable concerns about health and safety risks that have changed the way we live our lives. That’s just the way it is. But I found that it was often too easy to get distracted by things that were inconvenient, and to completely miss the good things around us. 

Our family experienced its own list of “inconveniences” like cancelling our vacation plans, being stuck at home, having to send just one person to run errands, seeing some shortages in food items – and let’s not even talk about the whole toilet paper fiasco. Every new inconvenience could cause frustration if we let it. 

Working on the Summer/Fall 2020 edition of Exchange has been a great opportunity to revisit what happened and look at the positive outcomes – the changes that occurred as a result of COVID-19 that actually made life better. The lockdown on business travel has meant that my husband has been home for the longest stretch in more than 20 years, and my son (a university student) was suddenly spending all his time with us instead of work, school and his friends. We spent way more time together as a family than we have in years and have some great new memories. Being cut off from people meant that we learned how to use Zoom, including creative solutions like playing Yahtzee with friends, and now I’m modifying my media training and other courses to provide virtual training via Zoom instead – not something I would have done pre-pandemic. So there were challenges, but they resulted in some positive outcomes.

Likewise, local governments across B.C. have been hit with multiple challenges under extremely trying circumstances, and they have risen to the challenge with innovative solutions and quick action. When an Emergency Operations Centre is activated, assessing needs and creating viable solutions becomes a streamlined process, where decisions and actions can move forward within days, if not hours – compared to regular operating procedures that could involve weeks or months for the same outcome. It’s been great to see the responsible and responsive actions by local governments across the province as they took steps to keep their communities safe. Now they are looking ahead to see how to recover and support their communities as we deal with the new reality as COVID-19 continues to affect our communities. 

In Coming Back Stronger: Transformative Change for a Post-Pandemic World, several local governments share examples of how they implemented changes and new initiatives as part of their COVID-19 response that they can now maintain to benefit their organization and their community. We also learn more about what the new reality will look like in our communities, both from an economic standpoint in No More “Business As Usual” and how data can be used to help plan for future needs in Big Data: Finding solutions among the facts and figures.  

Just as we can look back and see the positive outcomes from a challenging situation, it’s clear that we can also look forward and focus on the opportunities ahead. We are in for more interesting days, and I am optimistic about our ability to adapt and create new ways to build a strong community and support each other.