Coping with changes.

Today we live in the world full of uncertainty and in this case we have to be prepared for situations which can occur unexpectedly.

In these circumstances you need to know how manage, plan and develop you business in order to save your company revenue. From perspective of my experience we are following the next.

1. Establishing a crisis team. Your crisis team should be in place well before any crisis happens. Start by appointing the person who is going to be responsible for the crisis plan. In this stage it is important to make sure that you involve the right people in the process. Try to create training and testing schedules in order to find witch points in your plan you should improve.

2. Identifying the key risks. Take into your account all possible risks: illness or death of key staff members; threats from political developments, such as changes to tax laws or government policy and so on. Use the question “What if?”

Also you can talk to people who were involved in such situation or who have the same experience.

3. Developing the plan. Try to create a plane as detail as possible. It helps avoid stress and confusion within your team and your business will recover faster. Bear in mind that the plan should include procedures, equipment, names with contact details, resources that will be needed in the crisis.

Agree on your plan with managers and ensure that it's communicated to everyone involved. After that you need to test the plan. Take part in a full simulation situation it helps you to discover any shortcomings in your procedures.

4. Plan for full recovery. You should develop a plan how to get back to business as usual and as quickly as possible.

Make a list of critical operations and draw up a plan for bringing them back online after an emergency situation. Don’t forget to think about the services you can offer your employees after a crisis.

Ok, now we are finding ourselves in an emergency situation. But, how can we communicate in such situation effectively? 

Keep in mind, the best thing to do in a crisis is to communicate the facts or issues clearly, quickly, and consistently. Sound simple? But it is not so simple how you can think.

In this way you should always stay in control of communication. The rule of five Cs can help you how to communicate any news:

1. Concerns. Focus your attention on the needs and concerns of the team. Try to acknowledge the concerns of the people and deal with them directly.

2. Clarity. You as a manager shouldn’t leave room for improper assumptions or best guesses. The clearer your message is, the more people will believe you.

3. Control. Remain in control of what is being said.

4. Confidence. You must assure your team that the actions you are taking are in everyone's best interests. Deliver bad news openly, speak with confidence but don't lose sight of your humanity.

5. Competence. Show to your team that you are able to handle the situation. It helps you to reinforce people's belief in your ability to manage the situation in the best way.

To make this posses easier try to develop a crisis communication plan. Include in your plan a crisis communication team and appoint a spokesperson. This person should be chosen from those who have the most direct knowledge of the situation – typically the highest-ranking person of the group. Establish your key message. You should decide the most important message that you want to convey. 

Anticipate questions and before you finalize your key message try to think of all the questions you will get and address as many of them as you can in your communication package. Decide how you are going to convey your message and then determine the communication channels. Try not to withhold information that you intend to share. If you can, tell all the news, all at once. If you can’t you should be honest and say that you can't discuss some information at this time. If you don't know something, be honest about that too.

My favorite topic of those days is about a virtual team and remote working. Today we have many tools and strategies that you can use to work successfully in a virtual team and tackle these challenges head-on. Effective communication is important within a virtual team. Open, honest communication not only helps you to avoid misunderstandings, but it will also increase your effectiveness. In your communication you should give the other person your full attention and listen actively this is a sign of respect, and you'll understand them better, too. When you work in a virtual team, it's important to make an extra effort with relationships. The most important part here is building and maintaining trust. Start by keeping your word and be sensitive to your colleagues especially if they are in different time zones.

The vast majority of employees who are working from home can experience feelings of isolation. If you see that someone in your team is experiencing these feelings, take steps to help him to combat them. Your employees can also feel disconnected from the organization or the team when they work remotely. In this case try to involve the in the decision-making process in order to they feel significance.

If you want to understand you team better you should be aware of stages witch people pass to cope with changes:

1. Shock and Disorientation. On this initial stage, people will likely feel confused and uncertain. People try to seek reliable information and to make sense of the situation. Try to keep your team up to date and share information.

2. Anger and other emotional responses. This is quite natural, and it's a normal step on the way to dealing with the situation. Try to help people to manage their emotion and don’t allow to suppress them.

3. Coming to Terms with the "new normal". The key here is to make a commitment to move on. On this stage people start to explore more deeply what the change means. Try to help your people to search for and emphasize the positive aspects of the situation.

4. Acceptance and moving forward. This is the stage when people come to fully accept their changed circumstances.

Acceptance doesn't mean giving up entirely. People can have valuable memories, skills and relationships.

The key here is to draw up a personal mission statement which includes goals and an action plan to make the most of the new situation.

Put these principals in your practice and you will achieve the great results with your successful team.