New Mindset/New Realities

Business's journey into re/entry will be mixed.

Broadly speaking we can expect three types of people.

1. Those wanting to return to business as usual and with some denial of the need to change.

2. Others taking the opportunity for radical/wholesale change and innovation. 

3. For the majority a hesitant mixture of mistakes, learning and pragmatism.

Things Are Certain To Be Uncertain

For everyone a lot will have changed. Much of it unknown and yet to play out. Customers, markets and partners will have changed, some never to return.

There are some permanent casualties.

• Supply and demand chains will take time to spring back - some broken irreparably.

• Many parts of the business will need to be completely overhauled. This is an opportunity of course.

• We’ve been given pause - time to think. Many of us will have reassessed what’s important now.

• Our values and principles may have changed. We may have changed behaviours forever - or not.

Discovering The New Terrain

Leaders will already be trying to imagine how things will look on return.

• How should all the systems work differently in the future.

• New ideas are emerging that suggest its time to redefine what skills we will need to avoid the same happening to our business again.

• What capabilities will be important and how work could be done differently and better for all.

Leaders will have to make plans to return the business back to scale but with a very different mindset. Business leaders worth their salt will be reassessing everything and hopefully with a determination to create more resilient and, we hope, more purposeful organisations. 

There will be tough challenges ahead for many firms and (by most predictions) responding to them will take longer that we would like.

A Few Principles Are Emerging

As a minimum we are already seeing some consistent themes.

• Focus will turn to systems and schemes for navigating uncertainty.

• Team structures/organizations may well be more distributed/virtual where appropriate.

• Workforces could become smaller, more flexible and cross-functional. (Interdependence) 

• The key business requirement to stay connected and capable will have forced many to adopt new tools.

• We may have lost, discovered and attracted new/different customers.

• We may have already changed our core propositions, offers and products. We may well have to do that even more. 

Green Shoots

A new framework for thinking is emerging.

• Attitudes, acceptance for change and behaviours will have shifted. It will be important to understand them.

• Some workforces will feel better equipped and happy to do more work from home. 

• A respect for information, data and insight to power thought processes and sharing may be emerging for some. 

• Acceptance that resilience, adaptability and agility is a given and a priorities.

• New opportunities will be presenting themselves - opportunities we couldn't  imagine before and they need to be factored.

• It’s becoming OK to question things we’ve always taken for granted.

These developments could well sound the death-knell for the traditional/rigid top-down organization and there will be levels of management casualty. 

New Rules for Businesses 

This will take time.

• In the short-term for the appropriate kinds of business it might mean continuing with a mixture of back to work and remote/virtual working.

• It will almost certainly call on leaders to establish new/different behaviours for both modes.

• It will call for clear and well defined protocols against the new objectives and vision.

Standards of conversation and communication across all channels need to be dramatically improved.

• Mastering multi-channel team communication is key.

• Methods and channels of communication and engagement (media) will need addressing and the messages, narrative and marketing will require careful attention. 

Information/Insight 2.0

• There was already far too much data for leaders to analyse and turn into useful information.

• New systems will need to emerge that allow teams to gather, share and translate this ocean of information into useful/applicable insight.

Ingenuity and creativity have to be treated as core capabilities. 

• Leaders will need to do more with what they have until there’s a return to growth or profitability.

• This will drive through focus on objective and breakthrough ideas that can come from anywhere in the organisation.

• The new leadership mindset must find ways to harness and motivate creativity at a rate and scale they’ve not managed to do well in the past. 

Business must continue to invest in platforms and processes that enable effective collaboration.

• For a more distributed and agile business to function will have to continue to develop remote working.

• To implement such requirements the business has to to grips with any attendant security and operational challenges.

• Leaders will need to be thoughtful and make intelligent choices about which platform for what purpose will be necessary.

Wellbeing must become a vital consideration.

• Thought will need to be given to the continued development of a real-world/virtual ‘caring culture’.

• Leaders come to terms with the remote wellbeing of people and the non-traditional changes to working hours and performance metrics.

• Whether back at work or working virtually, strong leadership, meaningful engagement, and transparent communication is going to be critical to develop trust and enable everyone to contribute fully.

Most of us would agree it’s been the most challenging time we can remember.

However, there are tentative signs that we may be through the worst of the pandemic. Attention is turning to being ready to get back to work when that moment comes. 

The chances are, if you’ve got this far, you really are thinking about what you will focus on when you get back. Maybe you are well down the track and have plans in place.

Either way, the following questions and ideas may add to those already forming in your mind. 

Being Certain Amongst Uncertainty

On thing’s for sure, very few of us know for sure what’s actually going to happen as we all get back to work.

1. Have you created a set of priorities?

2. How were these priorities arrived at?

3. On what basis/criteria were they prioritised?

4. Who have you consulted with in determining these priorities?

5. How certain are you about these priorities?

6. What will it take for you to be more confident in your priorities?

7. How prepared are you to alter these priorities when presented with others?

Open For Business

It’s likely there will be considerable debate, confusion, competition, gaps, frustrations and change. Leadership will be essential and more needed than ever. The pandemic was a shock to the system - we now have to get ready for the shock of re/entry.

1. What will be the biggest challenges facing you as you prepare to get back to business?

2. Do you feel equipped, ready to tackle these challenges and remove the inevitable barriers?

3. What worries you the most as you contemplate re/entry?

4. Have you considered fresh opportunities given the possibility that things can be done differently?

5. If, for example, you were able to continue to work remotely what did you learn through What did you learn about working remotely for this period?

6. How did remote working change the way you think about how the business can/should work?

7. Where are  the biggest areas to improve ways of working?

Principles Of Re/Entry

There’s no one list of principles that can apply perfectly to everyone or every context. However, principles contain powerful concepts, the essence of which can guide and inform the business. 

As a result, the first principle is one of mindset. Without getting too technical our attitude and mentality is the basis upon which everything else rests. 

Without an appropriate mindset - one of (at least) - thoughtfulness, openness, caring, curiosity and determination - much of what follows is likely to be interpreted through a lens of bias and preconception. 

Re/Entry will take real leadership. Before the crisis took hold we were privileged to work with the Synergos institute. A retreat in Holland saw the team think through a future where a new standard of leadership could emerge. 

These leaders would find the principles below second nature and bring their own special blend of execution to the task. 

The Principle Of Bridging Leadership

Bridging leadership is a style of leadership that’s required right now.

It is a new mentality. It rests on some key skills. Listening, empathy and self-awareness. The ability to connect with different audiences/stakeholders. The bridging leader will be secure in themselves, with low ego needs. A systems thinker with the ability to design, convene and manage a process of partnership.

At the core the bridging leader is able to create that safe place for creativity and progress to happen. By creating and sustaining effective working relationships among key partners and stakeholders resolution and the removal of conflict can be found. 

By ‘bridging’ different perspectives and opinions often found across the breadth of different stakeholders, a common agenda can begin to be developed and shared in order to find solutions to social and economic problems.

Nurturing the Right Culture

Organisational cultures don’t grow overnight and they don’t change just because you decide you want a different one. Everything else we are talking about here plays its own part in shaping a culture.

Your organisation’s culture shows up in different ways and is most noticeable in the way things get done - how people collaborate, communicate, the ‘tribes’ that form and what is deemed acceptable behaviour, leadership styles - and the attitude of the workforce to the leadership. All throw out cultural signals.

Yours will have been tested through this crisis - what did you learn? Did the crisis bring out the best in people and did they consistently rise to new challenges? Did you see creativity and ingenuity that had previously been suppressed? Did silos and fragmentation encourage greater tribalism or were existing barriers broken down and new connections made? 

These clues will give you additional insight into the way you can realign the conditions across the organisation to suit the culture you want.

Tuning in to the Market and Societal Dynamics

Knowing what is going on around you - in your industry, in the communities you serve and your consumers as well as broader political, societal and technological trends - has always been important. 

Now that importance has been taken to a whole new level. So many previously held views and norms have been challenged and found wanting as a result of this global crisis. 

Supply chains have suddenly become massively fragmented, some breaking down completely, some businesses have completely switched their core purpose. While these may be temporary blips there may be fresh insights emerging amazing with completely new opportunities. This is worth knowing - your customers have been through their own personal transformations and they may well be rethinking what matters to them. Would be good to know!

• Find out what customers and partners are really thinking about right now

• Revisit your propositions - are you still offering what customers want / need?

• Take note of the latest innovations, what can you learn from them?

• Revisit the effort you currently put into research and insight development

• Make strategising and planning an integral part of work - involve more people in the discussions

• Make sure you have the agility to respond and adapt to changing dynamics

Getting Everyone Aligned with the Focus and Priorities

There is a lot to think about right now. Where you invest time and energy - not to mention budget - deserves some critical thinking. There will be a lot of opinions about this and different views on what is most important. 

Gathering perspectives is an important part of your RE/entry, people will want to feel engaged and involved. But you need an anchor for setting those priorities - a North Star or whatever else you want to call it. Something that is going to revitalize the business and get everyone committed to the same things.  

The last thing you need at what is going to be a pretty messy and unpredictable time is to have everyone charging off in different directions.

• Set clear objectives and results

• Share the rationale and criteria for decisions that have been made

• Be clear on what good looks like and how that will be measured

• Make sure everyone knows what is expected of them - and that they share your definitions

Creating the Conditions for Operations to Flow

One thing we should all have learned is that things can get done quickly when needed - without formal processes getting in the way in many cases. There are some great lessons to be learned from this period of lockdown. We have to make sure we learn the right ones and put them into the right context. 

It’s likely that we will need to continue some practices that we adopted during full lockdown - and of course we can’t rule out further lockdown scenarios in the future. 

• Create the ideal team size

• Build on the informal relationships - where things really get done

• Consider restructuring - make it easy to support cross functional collaboration

• Build on the flexible working patterns that have been established during lockdown

• Consider capitalising on the remote working model - what needs to change for that?

• Establish clear principles and protocols that empower the workforce and free them from bureaucracy

• Delegate and decentralise decision making to place it where it is most needed

Prioritising the Skills and Capabilities that Matter the Most

It took a crisis of this magnitude to show us that the skills and jobs that we may have seen as ‘inferior’ in the past are actually amongst the most important. Suddenly we are clapping each week for people we have taken for granted for years. 

In every organisation it’s possible that we have people who we have taken for granted, overlooked or simply forgotten about. We may have found ourselves totally dependent on people we hardly knew before the crisis. 

What has that taught us about the skills, expertise and capabilities that really keep our business running - and what should we be doing to recognise and nurture those skills in the future? Did we discover that we were missing key skills that would have made a difference to us? Or are we about to shift the direction of the business as a result of this experience and in a way that will demand new skills?

• Forget previous conceptions of importance and map skills to their (genuine) criticality to the business

• Consider the skills / expertise that will most help you to recover the business and help it to flourish

• Look beyond formal qualifications and into qualities and traits, as well as practical experience

• Identify those who showed their natural leadership skills and empower them to lead

Investing in systems and tools that enable teams and remove barriers

That old excuse ‘the system won’t let us do that’ has been well and truly busted now. We have seen the biggest systems in the country bypassed to get things done. It hasn’t always worked smoothly when changes have been implemented but that didn’t get in the way this time.

It was more important to do something and then respond to challenges as they arose - and while there is undoubtedly a lot still to learn, why wouldn’t that become the new ‘way’ in the future?

Now is not the time to allow artificial constraints to get in the way. One of the positives that must come from this crisis is the sense of liberation when we just made decisions and got things done. Now is the time to take on all the bureaucracy that has been allowed to slow things down and constrain innovation.

Working remotely made online communication a critical enabler for the business. Now we are all Zooming like never before. It’s likely we had to quickly adopt other tools that we may have shied away from in the past - for all the obvious reasons. 

• Identify the systems that really do enable and those that serve no value

• Be courageous - stop doing things that simply make no sense

• Overcome the fears and concerns about adopting new tools

• Invest in learning how to maximise new systems and tools

• Make sure that new ways of working really are aligned / integrated with the systems and tools now being adopted

Measuring What Matters

You are what you measure (assuming you hold people accountable for these things as well). The metrics that sit inside dashboards and scorecards are an indication of what we care most about. All too often the majority of our metrics are tangible, quantifiable things - typically a mix of growth, profitability, revenue and satisfaction / reputation. These are the signs of success for most businesses.

We do see other ‘softer’ measures like well being but it’s less obvious that they get the same attention that the other measures get. Maybe this is the time to change that?

A lot of things that really matter can easily be measured in terms of how well they contributed to growth or profit and therefore they fall into the ‘too hard to measure’ bucket. That doesn’t have to be the case - at least not if we approach measurement with a very different mindset and value definition.

• Be prepared to throw away the old KPI dashboard! 

• Introduce novel ways to measure 

• Extend the range and definition of what gets measured

• Determine how you will evidence that

• Establish monitoring and feedback mechanisms so that you can learn from your measurement model

Raising the Leadership Stakes

This was a make or break time for leaders. You either led and kept the workforce on board and committed or you allowed events to drive your destiny. 

Leaders need to stand up and be counted like never before. And we need to recognise leadership anywhere in the organisation - not just in the traditional hierarchical definition. People are going to be desperate for strong leadership and to feel confident that a new direction is being shaped and that it’s a direction that makes sense and inspires everyone to be a part of it.

Leaders need to break down barriers wherever they exist - so that the things we have described here can be allowed to happen. They need to be willing to say ‘I don’t know’ and to call on others to provide answers - wherever they sit in the organisation.