Getting Used to the New Normal
This piece was written by Nik Harwood, Chief Executive, Young Somerset.
“Never waste a good crisis”
That’s an advice I learnt a long time ago from a very wise colleague who supported me in my development as a leader. When Covid-19 led us to lockdown, it quickly became apparent that at Young Somerset we had both a crisis, and an opportunity, on our hands – and that we needed to deal with both.
We quickly established baseline methodologies for internal and external communications, mobilised staff resource and capacity to move our organisational and business infrastructure entirely into the digital realm and began discussions with senior staff about operational delivery capability and capacity. How were we going to continue to provide support to Somerset’s young people across all our work (open access youth work, skills development & enterprise, music, and mental health and wellbeing) – at a time when restrictions meant that any semblance of normality for them had disappeared. Young people were experiencing...