Covid-19 is like a surprise school exam, that your teacher told you would be coming. It was in the syllabus, the teacher reminded the class several times, and yet when it arrives, it’s abrupt chaos! It is tough being human.

I am eager to learn best practices from others re: Covid-19. Here is what we did at Kernel this week:

Daily Covid-19 strategy planning

Each morning, company leaders and I met to digest daily news, the most recent science and recommendations to determine the day’s specific actions. Circumstances were changing, our company goals remained the same.

Psychological reconciliation

We had an all-company meeting on Monday to level set ourselves:

this is a crisis of unknown proportions and duration

best if we remain thoughtful about our individual experiencing of the seven stages of grief and strive for cognitive meta awareness for sound decision making (with inspiration from the Dunning Kruger effect)

the majority of us will likely contract Covid-19, it is just a matter of time

some people are more vulnerable to Covid-19 which means that this is a team sport, not each for their own

we build hardware and do neuroscience at Kernel, which, like many others in the world, requires some physical presence considerations. Our worldwide collective safety and basic functioning depends on a substantial percent of the population to be physically present somewhere, on the front lines, whether in factories or hospitals.

Covid-19 is with us for the long run, best if we settle in and figure out how we can flatten the curve and quickly adapt to this new norm

we will be proactive, adaptable, measured and take care of one another

we will create stronger and more durable bonds as we are forged in the foundry of Covid-19

New social norms

We made new social norms safe for everyone to immediately practice:

vigorously and frequently wash hands for 20 seconds, posting signs in all bathrooms and by all sinks reminding of appropriate hand washing procedures

no handshakes, maintain physical distance

best to avoid touching your face

stay at home if you feel ill and get tested asap (if even possible 😐)

During our all-company meeting, a colleague of ours asked everyone to help him avoid touching his face, a tick he had developed over the years and that he wanted to immediately change. He asked that people gently call this behavior to his attention. His cheerfulness and lighthearted nature allowed all of us to make it a company joke and also a meme that led to the creation of a company chat channel #stoptouchingyourface.

New company norms

Watching what happened in Wuhan, we began making preparations in January which paid off:

we deployed industrial grade disinfectant in spray bottles company wide, within reach of every personal and shared space, and began encouraging 2x daily cleaning, in addition to the professional cleaning services that were being done nightly

we eliminated as many shared surfaces as possible, including taking the cabinet doors off

we left entrance and exit doors open to avoid needing to touch shared surface handles

Any external visitor had to be approved by me personally. Upon arriving, we followed a staged protocol 1) asked questions of their health and recent travel 2) rigorous hand washing (which we oversaw) 3) limited to certain areas which could then be cleaned.

my co-workers and I took turns serving our colleagues lunch each day, eliminating the shared touch point of serving utensils and reinforcing the importance of new social norms

we carefully examined all workstreams and each individual’s role in those activities, and implemented plans for physical distancing, reduced density, WFH, and on-site coordination — also anticipating that schools would be closing.

created new protocols and processes for interviewing

we offered to pay for anyone getting tested for Covid-19 (if even possible 😐)

we purchased nutritional items that would help upregulate people’s immune system to lessen the effects if/when Covid-19 was/will be contracted [1]

Moving forward

On Monday, for those of us who will be in the office, we will have non-contact thermometers to regularly measure our temperatures. If one of us becomes ill, we will immediately go home, which is not ideal from a containment perspective as we will then infect those we live with (if they are not already), but for now in the U.S., home quarantine is sadly the only option we have.

Monday is nearly 48 hours from now, and given how fast this is moving, I am sure that we will be implementing a host of other measures as well and carefully reevaluating everything we put into place this week.

We would appreciate learning from others. What are you doing?