The Art of Project Management in an Isolated World

Business Continuity in COVID-19 LOCKDOWN

• Amidst the Global #Shutdown, how Leaders of Organisations carrying out their work? 
• How business leaders ensure #BusinessContinuity when teams are distributed with limited interaction through Online Video Conferencing? 
• In a #SociallyDistant but #ConnectedWorld are online meetings and collaboration tools really helping in speedy Decision Making and Execution? 

These are three questions which I will address in this article. My article is based on the data available in the social media posts from some of the business leaders I follow. At the end of the article, I speak about some solutions which you may wish to evaluate to make the most of this global #Shutdown.

Some leaders are making the most of this Depression, how?

Business leaders are now closer to their teams more than ever. With a lot of business overheads like travel, courtesy calls, conferences and Corporate Showcase events called off, the leaders are making most of the situation by collaborating with not only their close confidants, but reaching out to the Customers, Suppliers, and even Competitors.

Communicate, Communicate and Communicate is the what leaders feel is the only way to get over this mess.

• Thinking beyond the bottom line, the CXOs are setting up collaborations with non-traditional partners to keep their workforce relevant in a post COVID-19 world order. 
• Some industries, particularly who deal in perishable raw materials are finding ways to barter their inventories or identifying means to salvage them. While most of the perishable goods are rotting either in the fields, or dumped in the auctions-markets, a minuscule portion is finding alternative uses. 

How leaders are leveraging Technology to ensure Business continuity?

Video Conferences and Online Meetings

• The stocks of Online Voice and Video based Meeting Service Providers are zooming through the roof.
• Everyday people are logging into the calls and spending hours, listening to, staring at presentations, or looking at the video of other participants without a clue what’s going in each other's minds.

While video calls are definitely more helpful than audio conferences but from the pictures, one cannot guess anything more than what you can guess in a poker game.

• Its very easy to hide emotions in a Video call, which is not the case in a traditional 10 o’clock face to face meeting in a corporate environment,
• Some of the video conferencing service providers facilitates recording. This often helps in capturing the content and using it for posterity, pun intended. Now while this has some merits, yet it is a big hindrance to a free flowing exchange of ideas.

Recordings bring out the natural aversion of human race against capturing their spontaneous actions in a permanent media.

• Fear of recordings comes from the anticipation that it may be used out of context or interpreted in a different way. It takes out the spontaneity and participants project themselves in their best behaviour.

No one wants to talk about the Elephant in the room in a face to face meeting let alone a online meeting.

The bright side of having the lockdown!

• While there could be shortcomings of these online meetings, yet they are here to stay.

The online meetings are going to change the traditional way of conducting business in some industries like Wealth Management and Financial Advisory. Post #ShutDown, High Net-worth Individuals will find it easier to trust an advisor couple of thousand kilometres away over a video call.

• It will save unnecessary travel and bring down the cost of conducting business.
• The old economy industries will see a paradigm shift and now will be open to accepting Virtual Collaboration as a real alternative.

Agriculture especially contract farming will see digital milestone based payments. Manufacturing will see a lot of Artificial intelligence based decision making and IoT based control and support systems. #CollaborateDigitally to succeed

Collaboration in a #SociallyDistant but #ConnectedWorld

• The best example of Collaboration to develop something really big and meaningful comes from the Open Source Software movement.
• Any organisation willing to emulate its success need to imbibe the values and six principles of the Open Source Way

Transparency, Collaboration, Release Early and Often, Meritocracy and Community. 

• While it took 10 years for a bunch of extremely talented and forward thinking visionaries, to achieve this miracle for the software industry, the die is cast for any other industry to mould in.
• The COVID-19 crisis is the best time for organisations to re-discover the art of collaboration. Organisations need to re-evaluate its business processes and digitise them building a layer of Governance and a Communication Framework around it.
• The terms may sound intimidating, but it implementation can be streamlined when you use the right software tools.

Help is at hand

Amigo by Platinum PMO is a Collaboration Tool which can be used to Transform your business processes.

Author Debasish Addy, Founder Director, Addy Digital Analytics Private Limited, can offer you a free 30 minutes consultation on your digital transformation path. 

Finally, Stay Isolated, Stay Safe and let's win this war against COVID-19 TOGETHER.

• (C) Addy Digital Analytics Private Limited
• Photographs used in this article with permission from Debanjan Das ([email protected])