Managing teams in times of uncertainty

As we navigate what seems to be the final stages of COVID-19 pandemic, we are now facing subsequent crises regarding the uncertainty and volatility involving multiple dimensions of the business management ecosystem. Some key perspectives I’d like to point out are:??

• Cost, escalating and unpredictable inflationary pressures with exponential increases in the fuel and energy buckets;?
• Supply chain, heavily disrupted systems impacting the way we plan, source, and procure;?
• Labor pressures, severe workforce disruptions because of the great resignation, stagnant immigration (pandemic related), and a redistribution of the traditional labor segments (reduced focus on skilled trades).?

?Interestingly enough, these key points are exacerbated by the retirement of Baby Boomers and current market disruptions due to multiple strikes affecting a wide number of industry segments.?

?So, how to navigate our current scenario?

?When markets are stable and variables predictable, our objectives, commitments, and action plans can have a mid to long-term horizon. We set the direction of the ship, define the milestones or markers, and set it on course, focusing on execution and adjusting course periodically as required.

?However, in my opinion, our approach needs to be radically adjusted in the current scenario. For instance, think about the offshore fishing vessel captain that encounters a storm. They need to actively manage the ship's throttle as they navigate every wave, enough to go over it, but not too much as to sink the bow on the next wave. The captain is actively managing the controls on a much shorter timeline, wave to wave versus milestone to milestone.?

?The same applies to our businesses, our leadership teams need to be focused on the immediate term and ready to make drastic adjustments. This requires:

• ?Understanding human nature: We have a tendency to perceive the current status quo as permanent. This may lead us to become complacent when times are favorable, and when the contrary is true, either overreact or become demotivated.?

?As leaders, having increased awareness of our human nature and our own state of mind becomes critical - we need to be able to step back and recognize that the current situation is temporary. In Canada, for example, our business management fundamentals are still strong, which means we don't need a full course correction, but active management to navigate the temporary storm. We need to be able to communicate this perspective to our teams to reassure them of our clarity of path, the temporary nature of our measures, and the confidence in our success. To do this effectively, we must assess our team's emotional state as well as gauge our own and make sure it matches the bigger picture reality.

• ?A fluid mindset: We should be ready to recognize that the variables that we used last quarter to set our direction may be obsolete by now. For example, pricing strategies at the beginning of the year on a 3% inflationary context are irrelevant by mid-year on a 7% inflationary path. This forces us to reduce our attachment to mid-term KPI's and assumptions. Although the main coordinates remain the same, be ready to change the targets, ambitions and expectations as needed.
• ?Transparency: As our teams are forced to shorten the terms of our commitments, for instance, from annual to quarterly or monthly commitments, they may be headed into difficult discussions with customers or vendors. In these settings, transparency is our best ally to find a common resolution based on trust that reinforces our relationships.?
• ?Real time data and integrated systems: To be able to have transparency you need to clearly understand the facts on our key variables and how their evolution affects our business. This requires real time data that is ready to be used by multiple teams within an organization. The acceleration of digital tools and systems integrations is now critical not only to make decisions, but also to confidently support our business interactions.
• ?Increased communication: As we are required to make faster and more frequent decisions, it is critical to over communicate, not only to maintain the coordination between our functions, but also to have a consistent understanding within our organization of the environment that we are navigating and the reasoning driving the decisions. This becomes critical as our employees may be asked to deliver ambitions significantly above traditional expectations or pushed into making difficult decisions. If they don't understand the rationale behind these demands, they can become disengaged and misaligned. It is also important to equip our teams with the skills and knowledge required to have informed discussions that add value to our customers and assist them in finding the right solutions for their businesses.
• ?Prioritization: One of the key and most challenging decisions when facing a crisis is deciding, "what gets dropped" in order to allow our teams to focus on the key priorities.?

?Interesting story, I was on a recent flight from Toronto to Ottawa, and as we encountered turbulence the captain made an announcement: "Given the rough ride along the way and in order to prioritize the safety of our crew, we are forced to suspend the beverage service on this flight". This is a great example of defining priorities, in this case: i) Safely arriving at destination; ii) Safety of our crew, and dropping services that may impact one of these priorities. This can be hard to do in a corporate environment with multiple stakeholders and global initiatives, however critical, to allow teams to focus on what matters the most.

• ?Keeping an eye on the future: While the current instability may last 6 months or 2 years, eventually it will stabilize and we need to be ready to continue to evolve our businesses and innovate. However, how can we do that? We need teams or functions that are thinking long-term on the key trends and initiatives that will ensure future success.?

?At Lafarge Canada, for example, we know that our journey to Net Zero is critical, therefore, we will continue to look for opportunities to for example, grow our circular economy initiatives, reduce our carbon footprint, and invest in People & Nature. We know that our ambition to grow into sustainable niche segments, be it through new technologies or acquisitions relies on mid to long-term planning and execution cycles. We know that to become more effective and offer increasingly better service to our customers we will continue to rely on digitalization, better access to data and systems integration. Maintaining the focus on these key long-term priorities is necessary regardless of the immediate volatility.

?Finally, and perhaps one of the most critical elements to keep in mind, is that we are all in this together and we need to acknowledge that a crisis may impact our employees in different ways and levels. Empathy and building a support system that improves our team’s resilience is crucial in ensuring that we navigate the storm together and quickly bounce back and get on track when it's over.