The Global BRM Community Responds to Crisis through Caremongering
These are uncertain times, undoubtedly. As events unfold, sometimes situations change daily leaving many of you asking, “Now what?”
And that’s just the first of many questions we are all attempting to address as we adapt to a new reality.
As BRMs, you know that now more than ever, connecting with your communities is a step in the right direction. For that reason, the BRM Communities of Interest are hosting regular virtual sessions by industry to support “caremongering: the spreading of care”. Now is the time to care for and support one another as we aim to make the best out of this surreal situation.
Scaremongering Versus Caremongering
Scaremongering is a problem in today’s new reality. In an effort to change the narrative, BRMs around the globe are gathering virtually to connect, share perspectives, discuss challenges and simply talk about the new day-to-day realities.
Together, BRMs within the same industries are tackling what is working, what isn’t and how to help one another.
“During this global pandemic, BRMs are playing a key role in surfacing business partner needs, orchestrating, and communicating enterprise-level priorities and decisions, and working tirelessly to ensure all business units are operating optimally to serve the needs of those who consume their organization’s products and services. As people settle into the “new normal”, it is time to begin building a value story on how enormous efforts were accomplished and what lessons were learned. Examples include the importance of the following:
- How integrated architecture enabled the successful and timely response and why it should be relevant to strategic partners moving forward
- How business resiliency planning enabled organizations to effectively respond to these unexpected events
- The criticality of business relationship management in connecting, orchestrating, and navigating through organizational structure, decision-making, and priorities
There is good that can and will come from this unfortunate event; the teamwork, integration with business units, and the goodwill generated through IT response, and (perhaps most importantly) the human connections (relationships) made throughout the ordeal. All these set the stage to move from ‘now to new’, as our lives and businesses will be changed from this point forward.”
BRM Communities of Interest Key Takeaways
Be the Connector. With an abundance of communications by multiple teams and the rapidly changing situation with new developments almost daily, BRM is playing the role of clarifying communications and informing key partners and leaders.
Be the Navigator. Priorities are shifting quickly and are dependent on many outside factors. BRM supports decision-making by guiding its partners focus on what is most valuable in the given moment.
Be the Orchestrator. In times like this, innovation may look more like triaging issues as they arise and finding swift solutions. BRM continues to unify through leading innovation appropriate to the adapting situation.
Be Human. No one has all the answers to every question being asked right now. Many of you may be adapting to working remotely for the first time, which is challenging by itself. Give yourself, your coworkers, your family time to pause for a breath.
These are a few ways that BRMs have shared how they are caring for their teams on a human level:
- Set up virtual “happy hours” or “morning coffee chats” to socialize and have non-work conversations
- Create a private channel for connection while we continue physical distancing, such as:
- A Slack channel to share pictures of pets and new work-from-home life
- Local group chat for coordinating food delivery for those in need or sharing food recipes for those who typically don’t cook at home often
- Organizing daily/weekly contests that promote physical and mental health
- Simply maintaining communication. Check in with your people regularly!