As a former athlete, court reporter, and firm owner, I’m fascinated by the many parallels between the business world and the world of sports.
Example: When facing competition, whoever has the better game plan, is most prepared, and executes at the highest level generally comes out on top. In sports, and in business.
As a point guard in high school, my job was to take the basketball down the court, pivot around any obstacles or barriers thrown at me by my opponent (full-court presses, man-to-man coverage, screens) and either pass the ball to a teammate or drive to the basket myself, hopefully scoring. As a point guard, I practiced pivoting a lot, knowing that if I couldn’t quickly react to obstacles in my path, change direction, and outmaneuver my opponents, my competition would likely win. Again, the same holds true in business.
A few short months ago, the court reporting industry, along with the rest of the world, found itself staring down one of the most formidable opponents any of us had ever faced in COVID-19. It became eminently clear that to have any chance of coming out ahead of this fierce opponent, it was going to require the ability to pivot quickly, rewrite the playbook, retrain the team, and get back in the game. This might be an appropriate place to insert a standing ovation for Team Veritext, from the “coaches” to the “trainers” to the support staff on down to “the players on the field”—you!
The “coaches” on Team Veritext started immediately working around the clock to put a new game plan in place. The first pivot was to transition its entire (quite large) national staff of employees to their new remote workspace. After we were all safely Sheltered in Place, Veritext quickly pivoted again and began training its court reporters, videographers, and clients on how to navigate the remote deposition platform safely, effectively, and efficiently.
Court Reporters and Videographers Learn to Pivot
It didn’t take long for everyone to realize it was going to be a while before we would be back in conference rooms and therefore any depositions going forward were going to have to occur “virtually.” Court reporters and videographers wasted little time signing up for webinars, ordering headsets, web cameras, an extra laptop—whatever it took to ready themselves to execute the new game plan.
Like most athletes facing a really big game or a really tough opponent, many Veritext teammates found themselves feeling “game-day jitters” as they prepared to take their first remote depo. And as oftentimes happens when conquering those nerves and achieving success, there was a relief and even exhilaration for having seen the obstacle, pivoting around it, and, as we say in sports, “killing it”!
I asked several Veritext teammates to talk about what it was like to pivot into the remote depo realm:
