How to Stop Complacency During COVID

By Dennis Bhaskaran, Apex CEO & COO, on April 19th, 2021.

The “shutdown” officially started due to COVID-19. Within what felt like moments, the Apex team felt an impact that would ripple across our organization. We had to face the challenge of thinking differently and lean in to identify solutions for: new safety policies, securing our supply line, maintaining our quality product, and ensuring every customer still received exceptional service every day.

Now here we are, just over a year later, and our team has started to reflect on what we experienced. During our reflection, we identified three key takeaways that arose from the challenges of 2020.

• Pivot: As many learned in 2020, learning to pivot became crucial in our everyday operations. Our team was dedicated to supporting Apex in our efforts to pivot which built a muscle that we will continue to use moving forward.
• Adjust: The Apex team quickly adopted strategies to shift and adjust without affecting the integrity of our products and service.
• Charge Forward: No matter the circumstances we face, we face them together. As a team, we charged forward together and delivered exceptional work to our customers.

We are committed to excellence and the company culture at Apex reflects that. Our foundation is built on a set of values that drive us to push through any situation. Our goal is not to be average, or even good for our customers, we want to be exceptional. The weight and uncertainty of an epidemic can make it easy to lose focus and miss tiny details within a project, but our ability to pivot, adjust, and charge forward provided us with clarity and energy to strive ahead.

Another reflection from this past year is rooted in the word: complacency. Every organization, Apex included, is faced with the challenge of complacency. During a season of constant change and uncertainty, it is easy for complacency to sneak in and hang around until it’s ready to pounce. If it gets to this point, it can stop excellence in its tracks. The challenges of COVID-19 make it a prime time for complacency to show it’s ugly face and ruin company goals, plans, positive momentum, and ultimately hinder the success of your organization — but it doesn’t have to.

Years ago, our team at Apex developed the 3 Keys to Stopping Complacency. This is an internal guide that exemplifies how we attack complacency each and every day. With a focus on how dangerous complacency is to an organization, this tool is a daily reminder that every individual within Apex has a role to play in fighting complacency. They are a key player in ensuring we can be the best supplier, employer, and community partner we can be.

I want to share this tool with you. Below, you can download THE 3 KEYS TO STOPPING COMPLACENCY that has been our guide in being a better company.