ABSTRACT
In the words of Oscar Wilde, “To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.” When the COVID-19 pandemic spread throughout the US in March of 2020, companies in all sectors of the economy learned that it is imperative to quickly respond to the unexpected. Companies needed to leverage their organizations' core values to adapt and implement a crisis strategy that met the needs of the COVID-19 pandemic while evolving the value offered to stakeholders. This paper is a case study on how Argonne National Laboratory, the organizing committee of an advanced vehicle technology competition developed a “contingency thinking” strategy to pivot and address stakeholder's needs despite the uncertain impacts of COVID-19. Contingency thinking is an adaptive planning strategy based on the principles of design thinking and value assessment. This strategy is an iterative process which includes: assessing the value of activities, developing contingency plans with increasing fidelity, collecting feedback from stakeholders, and incorporating feedback into the next iteration of contingency plans. Competition organizers employed this process because it reinforced the core mission of the competition and delivered minimum viable value irrespective of the ever-changing COVID-19 implications. The contingency thinking process resulted in the collegiate competition's first ever virtual semester - “Career Connected Learning.” Career Connected Learning was a five-part virtual initiative providing students with resources to excel in the competition, collaborate with other universities, and meet stakeholders' expectations. This dynamic initiative tailored activities to universities' unique circumstances and was praised by all stakeholders. This case study reviews the competition organizer's successful implementation of the contingency thinking process. As this was the first time the organizers implemented a highly adaptive process, the organizers faced many challenges including a compressed timeline, ever changing constraints for planning events, and the impacts of COVID-19 on team morale. Throughout this process, the organizers learned the importance of communicating a clear problem statement, collecting structured stakeholder feedback early, keeping an open mind, utilizing low fidelity prototypes, and employing project management tools. Over the past year, organizers gained experience from their successes and failures, and these valuable lessons can be applied to any organization seeking to manage the unexpected. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021