Every 5th organization is actively getting ready for post-Corona. Are you one of them?

We asked our network to help us understand how their organizations react to these challenging times. Our survey is still running, but with more than 100 responses in, we want to share some first insights.

Don't wait to look into the future

The speed of change is incredible right now. Our first data from the survey is about one week old. This is important, as things change so quickly these days. We have enough to see trends already and with more data coming in, we'll soon have a time series to compare. Very exciting!

For now we already know this from our data: one in five organization is mostly focusing their crisis management on preparing actively for the times after corona by reinventing their business. We must admit that this surprised us:

Yes, about half are still mainly dealing with the immediate impact the crisis has on today's work, another fifth is mostly focusing their efforts on financial health. Still, it is remarkable for another 19% – and probably very smart – to predominantly focus on how you as an organization can come out (digitally) empowered after this crisis!

Activate your organization's potential to innovate

Lots of articles are popping up out there on what we should expect the post-Corona world to look like. This one by McKinsey for example. We at LEAD recommend you don't wait but invest now! Others might use this time to reinvent their business model, go fully digital, or adapt their products and services. Just waiting out the crisis and hoping to survive financially would make you fall behind against the competition!

Our survey confirms just this: We also asked the survey participants about the innovation level in their organizations - before Corona and now. You can see that there is a real surge in perceived innovation happening:

This is quite impressive: Before Corona, one in every third organization was moving fast on innovation, now it's nearly two out of three. This supports the findings above: While the crisis may be harsh on our organizations and on the economy, it might also be an incredible source of innovation.

So if you as a leader are firefighting these days you might be missing a one-time opportunity to innovate and make a leap forward with your organization - despite all the hardship the crisis brings. Think about assembly lines: Right now, for the first time in years, maybe decades, many assembly lines on factory floors are halted. There was never a better time for radical optimization!

Don't get stuck firefighting - it's not a winning strategy!

How can you find the bandwidth for future planning?! I'm not saying it's easy. But this all-time favorite management tool can help – the Eisenhower Matrix:

The Eisenhower Matrix basically explains the paradox of having to deal with urgent matters – stuff you have to do right, and important matters – things that are critical in the long-run. If as a leader you only do the urgent, you stay super busy, but you don't prepare for the future.

In the current Corona crisis, the problem is that most leaders are stuck in the green area. It's very preliminary, but this is what our data seems to suggest so far. The crisis just brings too many urgent and important topics to your plate! The green quadrant is balooning.

Yet couldn't you delegate some of those tasks? Move them to the red, while you as a leader start attacking the blue? This strategy is basically to shave off tasks from the green quadrant and move them to blue and red respectively. A way to do this is to simply make the criteria stronger of what counts as important and urgent. As for the blue quadrant, the future planning, Eisenhower suggests scheduling time for it. Be aware that in Corona-times this means scheduling time this week, not this month or this quarter!

Stay tuned for more findings from our survey. You can sign up for the full report here. Or better, take the survey itself and sign up for the report. And as always: We at LEAD are happy to help you move your organization forward in these difficult times. With our without a budget, that's not our priority right now.