If you feel like you’ve heard “unprecedented” and “together” over and over again, you’re not imagining things. In fact, the descriptors capture the spirit of how the world was caught off-guard as COVID-19 challenged our way of life, and how collaborative solutions are needed to lessen the pain of those most affected.

It should be no surprise that COVID-related terms are currently the most popular searches on Google. The coronavirus pandemic has upended almost every aspect of our lives, and we’re still waiting for answers on many questions about the disease and what comes next. So it makes sense that one of the best ways for businesses to stay agile is by tapping into consumer trends and understanding how people search for information during a crisis.

It’s difficult to imagine what life was like a century ago when 675,000 people in the US succumbed to the Spanish flu pandemic. Historians have found a number of similarities between the 1918 policies of social distancing and work stoppages to the current response to COVID-19. Except we have the internet.

Historians are already calling 2020 the Great Lockdown, a time that will be remembered globally for social distancing and stay-at-home directives. It’s also a time when creators saw a big spike in content consumption.

You know the saying, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”? As communicators obsessed with language, we have adapted this adage to read “when the going gets tough, the tough get creative.”

It’s never been more critical to consider how your team gets work done and what they need to do it. With threats of the novel coronavirus dominating the media and fears of the spread of the pandemic at an all-time high, it’s time to eliminate in-person encounters and establishing a remote working environment.