LETTER FROM THE CEO
Thoughts on COVID-19, Being Essential and Lessons Learned leaders in less formal settings, again hearing how they are handling the situation. What I have captured from those conversations I have boiled down to a few lessons learned for you to consider: Most of the leaders are scenario planning on a regular basis, always planning for different scenarios that might occur and how they will react to them. Many have cited the time that means that the work you do is they have paid prior to this crisis very important, but I believe in where they developed their this time it is more about how you do the work that makes this people as some of the most valuable time they spent. They industry essential. You have to have seen their team members be professionals, which means rise to new heights and were being safe, making the necesglad that they had invested in sary changes to keep our team members and our customers out them prior to this crisis. Nearly all have spoken of new of harm’s way and being overly ideas they can use in the future cautious with the health and well-being of everyone we come such as having teams show up in small shifts, instead of all into contact with. Now having once, new ways of teleworking spent a good deal of time with and the critical need to always this industry’s leaders, I know be planning for the unexpected. this comes naturally to all of Let me leave you with this, you, however you must remain you are part of an essential invigilant and stay safe. dustry that is going to continue Speaking of the industry’s to grow and change. Make sure leaders, I have been fortunate you are preparing, staying prothe past several weeks to host fessional and most importantly, the new “Big Green Podcast,” staying safe. where I get to spend about 15 to 20 minutes talking to some of this industry’s best and brightest leaders about how they are handling the COVID-19 situation. I have also Britt Wood, CEO spent time with other industry
WHEN YOU START A PIECE ABOUT CORONAVIRUS, YOU are easily tempted to use phrases like “These are unprecedented times…” or “Never in human history…”. I prefer to take the tact that we have a big situation we are having to deal with, and so far, our industry has been more than up to the task. As a new member of this industry I have been fortunate to observe the COVID-19 crisis as both an insider on the front lines, but also as an outsider who has only been in the industry for a few months. I can tell you one thing I have gathered from both of those perspectives: this industry is going to be fine, moreover it may excel from the lessons we have all learned over the past several weeks. One thing we have learned over the past several weeks is that our industry is essential. I know this is something that we have always believed, but in mid to late March the Department of Homeland Security verified it. So, what does it mean to be essential, and how can we live up to being essential? Well it
6 The Landscape Professional //May/June 2020
