The Pandemic Revealed the Organization's True Function
observation — attributed to Amy Calvert
Calvert's assessment of the pandemic's effect on the EIC is not damage-focused. What the crisis revealed was that the organization's most important function had been underestimated: to be the place where the industry could find itself when it needed to understand what it was. The certification program was the revenue engine. But the purpose was larger. When the borders closed, practitioners needed someone to tell them what to do next. Thirty-five hundred people attending a webinar in March 2020 is not a data point about sustainability interest. It is a data point about institutional need. The organization that has a clear answer to why it exists finds that answer confirmed when everything else is stripped away.
Calvert's reflection on the COVID-19 pandemic as the event that clarified the EIC's institutional purpose rather than simply disrupting its operations.
institutional-purpose, crisis, community, identity