Overnight, almost every business morphed into a startup. Thrust into searching for new business models, products, customer segments. Everything which ran smoothly now has to be revisited and re-validated. 

And on top of that we went from boom to bust in a matter of weeks. Regardless of the health risks, unemployment has jumped the most it ever did. In such a short time span. And each week we stand still, 1/52nd of the world's GDP evaporates into thin air. 

Moreover, everyone (who can) is working from home in awkward circumstances to say the least. Juggling family commitments while still trying to contribute at work. How they can.

And no-one is travelling. And no-one is meeting in person. At least for the foreseeable future.

Any crisis, including this one, only brings out the fault lines in our human relationships. It's an anxious time. Interpersonal dynamics get messy, especially on a team. Everyone is stuck in an endless status meetings. To help soothe fears and anxieties.

Teams want to stay productive. Managers and leaders want to unblock their productivity, and make sure that their people have what they need. And that they remain motivated. And just for sanity's sake, everyone still wants to work. To ship. To hold on to the remaining scaps of our reality from the beginning of the year.  

On the flip side, crises often help people come together. And to help each other out. Opportunities arise during such a time, because of techtonic shifts in the economy. Many of today's massive businesses were started during a recession. Or the Great Depression.

Now, more than ever, you need to open your eyes to see what is happening now. To be sure of your company's strategy. And to align it with what actually happens on each team member's monitor at home. 

This book will help you and your team of knowledge workers transition to a remote-only team format successfully. By focusing on systematic re-alignment. At all levels. You've installed the basic tools. You've had some time to discuss the situation with stakeholders, customers, and team members. Now, you've got to think through what will happen next. 

Consider this book a permission slip. Muscling your way through what you'd originally planned will only get you more stuck. Your previous assumptions may imprison you, if you aren't methodical. If you need to, let yourself and your team off the hook. Reassess your 2020 strategic plan and budget. Because honestly, that will be the fastest path to thriving in a crisis. 

Instead, position your team for maximum productivity. Figure out the best way to spend your time together, now that everything has changed. Take into account all of the details you are aware of. Clarify what needs to happen. Earn buy-in. And make it all happen. Together.

This book will show you how. In it, you will learn:

• Why we need to realign our teams when shifting to remote only
• Why the metrics you agreed before the crisis won't work any more, and why they urgently need to change to adjust to the new normal
• How to maximize team buy-in to the company's strategy, when you are concerned about flagging motivation
• How to choose a useful measure of incremental progress for your team
• How to use metrics humanely, as employees are much more than just resources
• Common traps teams fall into, when settling on a particular set of metrics
• A checklist for confirming that you have a useful set of metrics going forwards
• Hundreds of examples of precise metrics that you can adapt to your situation: enterprise, startup, innovation, you name it

Because alignment is key for our sanity when things are moving a million miles an hour. If you are doing exactly what you should be, you are patient, clear, and productive. You naturally get into flow. You know what to say and do at any given moment. You achieve effortlessly.

Your mindset spills over to a team level, when you lead them through a crisis. In addition to keeping your own head and family life together, you need to coordinate that with everyone else, in order to achieve something meaningful. Aligning execution with strategy is the key to the same patience for companies, and the teams that work within them.