COVID19: Eight Months In – Part Two – Dealing with Burnout

Crisis Management Teams – Burnout

Crisis Management Teams (CMT) are not immune to burnout and overload. They are managing their routine jobs, all of the family issues and the pandemic impacts on their lives. You must work to ensure that they are able to continue their regular job AND their crisis management job. How do you do that?

Here is a short list of ideas to consider.

Spin off the COVID Response - No longer a Crisis Management Activity

o  Some of our clients have spun off the COVID response to more of a business operational issue - as many of the processes are now the new BAU. Some has stood up a small team to continue to manage the response and provide briefings to the CMT. In many companies their remote work is now scheduled into the summer or fall of 2021 and this is the new operational normal. Consider this as a possibility and release the CMT for the next crisis.

Staffing and Rotations

o  You should have staffing ideally three deep on all of your positions. Now is the time to use that. Develop staffing charts and a rotation schedule. Teams should be on OR off…not on all of the time. That is why you have three deep on your positions.

o  Staffing charts should run for a three-week period of time. If you are in a maintenance mode, consider one week (or one month) assignments. For each position, you have three staff – A, B, C. Person A works week one, Person B works week two and Person C works week three. If you are NOT on that week, you don’t call into meetings, you don’t engage in the team (unless of course there is an emergency). You are off. This is to give you a chance to get your life back.

o  Schedule a changeover so Team A informs Team B of the status in a short and tightly managed call. Between the call and the review of the IAP, the new team member should be ready to go AND will be fresh from having a two-week break.

o  Lead by example. The CMT leader must participate in the rotation and the break and lead by example. If the leader begins to engage and interfere, it is an example of “do what I say not what I do” and will be detrimental to the entire team.

Incident Action Plans

o  For any sustained operation, you still must be developing Incident Action Plans (IAP) for each meeting with clearly defined tasks and assignments, a summary of the current status and the operational period (your next meeting date and time). 

o  These IAPs are being sent to the entire team so they can be kept abreast of the pandemic response and be ready to assume their role when their rotation comes up.

Quarterly CMT debriefing sessions

o  Many teams activated in a hurry and haven’t thought much about how it is working and what improvements are needed. Conducted quarterly, debrief sessions about the performance of the team are critical. Just ask two questions: what is working and what needs improvement. Ask for a frank discussion and lead by example.

o  Listen openly and honestly to all feedback and then make a plan to correct and improve the team’s performance.

Incentives and acknowledgement

o  Award COVID cash bonuses for crisis team employees. Some of my clients have done this on the six-month anniversary of their activation. It is a tangible recognition of the incredible effort that team members have made.

o  Asking senior leaders to publicly acknowledge the work of the team and any major contributions is critical.

 Crisis Management Teams – How to be ready for the next Crisis

It is highly likely that during this long pandemic, another crisis will occur. The catastrophic wildfires in California or the hurricanes colliding into the Gulf Coast or striking the East Coast are examples. Cyberattacks have intensified with so many companies using work from home as their primary COVID strategy. Life goes on.

Many of our clients have turned the COVID-19 crisis management response into a maintenance mode with a small number of individuals actively engaged. Regular weekly incident action reports and weekly or bi-weekly briefings are now routine. This allows you to stand up your full time if and when the next crisis starts. Plan ahead for dual activations – it could easily happen to you over the next 18 – 24 months.

You still need to do some type of non-COVID training and exercises for your Crisis Management Teams (CMT). But people are tired and they feel like that they know their job – after all, we have been activated for months. All of that is true, however an event like a wildfire or earthquake is markedly different than a pandemic. 

How can you train them with other scenarios in a well-crafted and short experience that will broaden their experience and knowledge and get them ready for the next Crisis? By developing “ripped from the news” exercises. “Ripped from the News” exercises can provide an easy way to allow the CMT to practice their roles. Start with doing a notification of an incident. Then conduct an Incident Assessment Team meeting, review the scenario and then run a call and review the criteria for activation. The answer will of course be yes and then instruct teams develop their Incident Action Plan (IAP) objectives. This simple 60 to 90-minute exercise can be designed from any incident that was in the news recently. Just pick one and assemble the team to discuss it from the standpoint of “this has just happened to us; what would we do?” Easy and effective.

Going Forward – Any magic that can save us?

Sadly, there is no silver bullet nor magic drug that will save us from our current pandemic life. One of the best things you can do is to simply shift your attitude. Not an easy task to be sure but one that is essential. Beating on your chest and screaming from the rooftops might give you short term relief but it is an internal shift that is required. This is after all…our life.

We need to continue to care for ourselves and our families the best we can. Be rested, get a good nights sleep, eat well, stay hydrated, get some daily exercise and be aware of healthy ways to manage our stress. And of course, all of those basic health tips still apply…the things that we know all too well, but perhaps fail to practice from time to time. Wash your hands a lot, stop touching your face, stay physically distanced but socially connected and wear a face mask always when out.

One day at a time and eventually…this too shall pass.