As a native New Yorker, I almost get the feeling I’ve seen this movie before. I saw 9/11 up close. I experienced the 2008 financial crash from inside Goldman Sachs. I’ve been through bomb threats, water main ruptures, and a hundred other predicaments too banal to remember distinctly. But even having worked and lead teams through all that, I still find the COVID-19 crisis challenging to navigate.

According to research by small business marketing platform, FiveStars, customer visits to local businesses in the U.S. and Canada dropped by 70 percent between March 8 and April 12. It doesn’t take a statistician to realize that losing that many customers in one month represents a serious blow. But not every mom and pop shop is collapsing. With a significant amount of determination, creativity, and reskilling, some small businesses have found unique ways to reach their customers despite the chaos.

We’re many weeks into the COVID-19 crisis and, I don’t know about you, but things still feel chaotic to me. Part of it is trying to work from home while also homeschooling a 6-year old and 9-year old. Part of it is trying to keep up with all the recommendations and requirements from our public health officials. The big reason things feel chaotic to me, though, is all the uncertainty.

Let’s face it: agile methodologies weren’t exactly created for remote teams. Early agile teams were overwhelmingly co-located in offices, mostly because video conferencing, chat, and other technology that makes remote work possible were laughably primitive and clunky at that time. These days, with so many people working remotely, gathering your team in the same room isn’t realistic. That doesn’t mean remote retrospectives are impossible, however.

[This article was written in the wonderful age before coronavirus.] A week ago I spilled a full glass of water all over my computer. Horrified, I mopped up my laptop, turned it upside down, and let it dry in the sun. By some miracle, it still worked. But when morning came the next day, it was totally fried. As I waited for my IT manager to configure my new laptop, I turned to my phone to scroll emails and my work apps.

In the past two months, companies everywhere have shifted their workforces from office cubicles and conference rooms to home offices and dining room tables. The coronavirus pandemic’s thunderous impact – bolstered by government mandates to maintain social distancing protocols and shut down non-essential workplaces – has forced companies to pivot hard and fast to a new reality, whether they’re ready for it or not.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the COVID-19 pandemic so far, it’s that existential threats don’t just go away. Not even if you ignore them. (Actually, they get worse if you ignore them.) We’ve all been touched by the events of the past few months and we need a new way forward. Whether it’s climate change or public health, we need to face these threats head-on and solve them.

In a drastic worldwide attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19, one third of the global population is now experiencing some form of lockdown. For the millions of Americans who have filed for unemployment over the last few weeks, there is nothing to do but wait. But for those on the frontline, time has never felt so limited. As hospitals around the world face buckling under the pressure of wave after wave of new patients, increasing the capacity of our healthcare systems has become our priority.

I’m into my third week of working from home and I’m starting to feel it. My back is playing up, my neck and shoulders are tight, and my legs are getting increasingly more restless. My make-shift remote work setup consists of a little desk and a dining table chair. Not exactly the ergonomic home office setup the health and safety department would recommend. Everyone is working under different circumstances, but we all want to be as productive as we can. Some of you may still be in an office.

One day you’re grabbing your to-go latte, responding to Slack messages on your subway commute, and arriving at work to find a coworker waiting by your desk with a broken computer… and the next, you find yourself at home, sipping on plain old drip coffee while making huge decisions about remote work that will affect your entire organization – all with only a day’s notice.