Mark Fields
Guest columnist
You work closely with a group of people for a long time, and you just assume that you know them. You have a clear sense of their individual strengths and weaknesses as employees, but you also know their work habit idiosyncrasies, intra-staff personality conflicts, and even their break-time pop culture obsessions.
But then a crisis comes along, and you discover to your surprise that your colleagues possess a deeper layer of innovative thinking and also dedication to the work and the organization that you didn’t realize was there.
That has been my COVID experience: learning that my co-workers are existentially committed to solving problems and addressing challenges by tapping into their creative spirits.