COVID-19 Recovery for the Social Sector

Were you and your team fully prepared and ready for COVID-19? 

This can feel like an impossible question to say “yes” to. With everything you’re working to address, Coronavirus can feel like it came out of nowhere. But here's another question: Do you currently feel prepared and ready for the next 12 months? 

If your answer is yes, write us a note and share some of your plans. If not, let’s dig into some of the challenges and share some strategies and tactics from the worlds of Design Thinking and Emergency Preparedness that can help get you ready for the future. Many social sector organizations were blindsided by this virus and found themselves underprepared. We want to make sure that doesn’t happen again.  We've prepared two resources to help you fortify your organization so it can still function when the next crisis comes, whether it’s a natural disaster, negative press, or a sudden decrease in funding.

1. The first is this article that explains the activities you can use to ensure you're ready for the next crisis.
2. The second, is a free webinar we put together to walk you step by step through the activities this article covers. That webinar goes into a bit more detail and offers additional examples, so check that out below if that's your preferred approach.

For those sticking with this article, below are links to two documents that can help you work through crises. Make a personal copy for use on the exercises ahead. Both are explained in detail later in this post.

• Stoplight Chart
• Circles of Control and Influence

Alright! Let's begin.

Step 1: Be confident. 

The number one thing we see over and over again in a crisis is that people lose confidence. Confidence often translates directly to decision-making. Lack of confidence results in slowed, erratic, or non-existent decision-making. One of the things that gives us confidence is being prepared, even imperfectly, ahead of time. As a quote often attributed to General George Patton states, "A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow." Give yourself that future confidence by creating a plan now while the biggest effects of the current crisis are clear to you. 

Step 2: Assess the good and the bad

This pandemic has likely highlighted your organization’s strengths and weaknesses. We’re going to help you think about the health of your organizational pillars. First, we will introduce and describe each pillar. Next, we will give you a framework called a Stoplight Chart to help you identify your biggest pain points. We’ll give you some structure with this chart to help you capture your ideas. You’ll assess the good, the bad, and a desired end state. As we describe each pillar, write down at least one thing that is going well and one thing that could use improvement. 

Pillars

Regardless of your size or sector, your organization or department likely has these core pillars. Some will play a larger role than others, but all of these pillars likely affect your organization and the outcomes you’re able to achieve. 

• Staff: These are your people. They are your most important assets and are internal to your organization. 
• Policies and Procedures: These dictate how you do your work. These always need tweaking and will definitely change during COVID-19.
• Service Delivery: This is your actual work output. These are the things or ideas you hold up at the end of the day that help your clients/customers/constituents.
• Funding/Revenue: This is what pays the bills and keeps your doors open.
• Infrastructure: These are the physical and digital assets that enable you to do your work.
• Communications: This is how you talk, what you say, and who you say it to, both internally and externally. 
• Partners: These are the external people and groups you have to work with on a regular basis. What they do and how they act affects you.

Now that we’ve identified the pillars, take a few minutes to finish filling out the pillars chart with the strengths and weaknesses you thought about for each category. 

Step 3: Take action on your pillars

Now that you’ve thought through what went well and what hasn’t, let’s do a quick assessment of which areas need the most attention. For that, we’ll use a common tool in emergency management called a stoplight chart. At first this exercise might seem trivial, but the hard part is establishing the discipline to come back to this every day and work through one obstacle at a time. For each pillar, quickly label each as Red, Yellow, or Green. Red is bad, yellow is okay, and Green is good. It should look something like this:

(You can make a copy of this google doc we created for you)

This format allows you and your team to quickly notice where you’re hurting the most. It forces you to identify your biggest hotspots without overthinking them. From here you can start addressing the problems.  

Step 4: Define your end states

Now you’ve thought through what went well, what hasn’t, and identified the pillars most in need of attention. Let’s think about end states. In our design philosophy, end states are hypothetical futures you want to create. You’re going to create an end state for each pillar. 

Here’s an example. Say your staff didn’t have the knowledge needed to keep delivering services during the pandemic. The end state for this pillar might be, “Staff is able to adapt to major changes in our work style to continue delivering services through various alternative methods.” Ask yourself, “What is the future end state you want to see?” Then, dig one level deeper and try to be more specific. What do you REALLY want to see? Go back to your chart and create an end state for each pillar. Think about these end states as you continue reading.

Step 5: Decide where to focus

Now decide which area you’re going to take action on first. We suggest starting with your reds to see how you can get those into yellow. A squeaky car that still drives is better than one sitting on the side of the road.

To identify the biggest obstacles keeping you from making the progress you want, we’ll use one more tool called Circles of Control and Influence. 

Step 6: Focus on Circles of Control and Influence

One strategy that helps to triage obstacles is to focus on the spheres of control and influence. Draw a circle and in the center write “control.” Now draw a big circle that encompasses the first and inside the big circle write “influence.”

(You can make a copy of this google doc we created for you.)

Think about a broad or specific problem. What can you control about this problem? Put that attribute in your circle of control. This is where the majority of your time and energy should be focused. Now think about what you can influence. Put those things into your circle of influence. If you can’t control or influence something, let it go. 

Now, think about your end states. What can you control within each pillar that will help you arrive at that end state? For example, if your end state is “Staff are able to adapt to major changes in our work style to continue delivering services through various alternative methods.” You might train staff in two to three different methods of service delivery and then change their work setting so they get used to those different delivery modes.

Conclusion

We hope that some of these strategies and mindsets listed here will be helpful to your teams now and in the future. If you want help implementing these changes in your organization, we’re here to help you. If you want training for your team in developing the mindsets that are necessary to rise above this crisis, we’re here to help you.

Coronavirus is just the first crisis. Experience can either be forgotten or it can be used to make sure our mistakes aren’t repeated. The people most affected by the pandemic are the people that you serve. As a mission-driven organization, that means that you need to make sure that you’re ready no matter what crisis hits next.

Bios

Durell Coleman is the founder and CEO of DC Design, a social impact strategy & design consultancy that uses Human-Centered Design to reduce structural inequality and reshape America's systems to work better for everyone. He has collaborated with governments, foundations, and other social impact organizations to redesign aspects of the foster care system, develop new approaches to criminal justice reform, reimagine healthcare service models, create apps that connect communities, and develop new educational models for the 21st century. 

Luke Beckman is the founder and Chief Disaster Officer for BeckmanReady, a social impact organization with a mission to make preparedness easy and readiness a state of mind. He has been leading and coordinating public health and disaster operations for the past 15 years at the local, state, national, and international levels. He has a passion for training and has worked with individuals, businesses, and governments to empower teams to swarm intelligently during crises. 

*Register today for a free COVID-19 Recovery for the Social Sector Webinar. We will teach you an easy-to-use, actionable, practical six-step process to help guide you to action, gain confidence, and move forward! START WEBINAR!

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