I have heard the word “unprecedented” used daily over the last few weeks and it’s no surprise why. COVID-19 literally changed the world overnight and most likely will continue to do so, I expect, for some time ahead.
With all of this uncertainty, many of us have faced some new stress and even some fear. There have been days when many of us have been distracted, from work or our families, wondering how and when our lives will return to some state of “normal.” At SailPoint, we aspire to be more than just a place to work, through the good times and the more challenging ones. Supporting and caring for our ecosystem of people — customers, partners, and our crew – is always a priority, no matter what circumstances surround us.
While I am always incredibly proud of our crew, I have been particularly so over the last few weeks. Nearly overnight, our entire team transformed into a completely virtual global organization without skipping a step (insert another nautical reference here ;)). While we have always had a good deal of work flexibility, I was thrilled (but not at all surprised) with our team’s calm, professional, nearly instant pivot around the globe. In fact, the immediate rally to support each other was so amazing, we hashtagged it! Through these remarkable times, we are determined to #SAILon.
Driven entirely by our crew, #SAILon has become a rallying call to action and has had an immediate impact on our culture, and our customers and partners:
- #SAILon Slack Channel –just a few weeks ago, we created an internal channel to support our “temporarily remote” crew members and the response has been tremendous. Going far beyond our expectations, the channel serves now to unify our teams all over the world. With nearly half our entire crew actively engaging, people are more connected to those they knew and forging new relationships with colleagues outside of their day to day routines. Imagining the connection points we’ll see in just a few more weeks of the temporary normal gives me so much hope for what will be our forever normal.
- Virtual ‘party on your patio’ – One thing is for sure, SailPointCrew members love a good party. Since moving into our new Austin headquarters, we’ve regularly held ‘parties on the patio,’ to give people a chance to connect and unwind. We held our first virtual party on the patio last week. Seeing several hundred smiling faces, each on their own patios, in living rooms, or together with their families participating as #SailPointCrew members from afar was AWESOME!
- Making virtual connections meaningful – it’s challenging to concisely capture all the incredible work our teams are doing to not only stay connected to each other but also to our customers and partners. I’m seeing and hearing about everything from regular team coffee chats and happy hours over Zoom to morning dance parties to get the day started as ways to stay connected and to infuse positivity while our workforce honors social distancing by working remotely. I’m also hearing of teams stepping up in incredible ways to the benefit of our customer and partner communities – virtual office hours, virtual user group sessions, extended training, just to name a few.
- Leading by example – this is where I put Mark ‘being Mark’ as our true “Chief People Officer”. He has always believed so strongly in the importance of servant leadership and as expected, has been an incredible force through this storm. During this time, his first priority has naturally been the health and safety of our crew members and he has placed additional emphasis on staying connected to our team – not just internally but with our customers and partners as well. His video updates sharing the latest have kept our team and customers informed, and sometimes laughing along the way.
I cannot wait to see how we continue to improve how we work together and our business with the spirit of #SAILon every single day. One thing for which I am very certain (and thankful!) – our core values – Integrity, Innovation, Individual and Impact will continue to guide all that we do. With those, we’ll always #SAILon.