Positives from Negatives

I recently chaired an online forum of Human Resource Leaders from various corporates around Asia Pacific. While the business issues tabled were pertinent and urgent in current times, what struck me most was a few insights about humanity from the perspective of the participants.

Assumptions

I am a creature of habit. I wake up automatically at 6am every workday (weekends and public holidays included actually!) and then head for the fitness centre near my office. I never thought twice about the bus not arriving nor the fitness centre being not available. Post workout, I get to the office to start the day with the rest of my colleagues. With social distancing, all these went for a toss.

For corporates, lots of things went for a toss! The 2020 business plans, the incentive schemes, manpower plans and countless many others. In any planning, we talk about risk and mitigation but when the impact is so seismic, BCP or not, every organization was caught.

As the forum pondered during the meeting on the positives, we agreed that it was a good wake up call to re-visit the norm and our assumptions down to our everyday operations. This is an opportunity to clean the house and prepare it for a new dawn.

Inter-connected

Through this time, one of the hardest things for me is not seeing my friends and colleagues. Since February when statistics were inching up, our office started work-from-home in parts and I stopped going for social gatherings. This is my way of raising invisible walls.

Imagine now a country raising its invisible wall as we see worldwide. The movement of individuals and other goods throughout the country is now seriously limited. Many corporates with manufacturing facilities are grappling with issues pertaining to import of supplies and export of finished goods. Each country has started to preserve its resources for its own use, forgetting that they themselves do not have all the resources they need and inviting a tic-for-tac play. If this momentum builds up, beyond the scars from a battered economy, what would be the lasting socio-political implications?

It is perfectly understandable that in a survivor mode, humans will look inward. However, the world is now more inter-connected than ever before: we need one another. It is never good if only one part of the world is doing well and another not, because over time everyone loses.

Heart

During the call, there was one common thread from the HR Leaders of their respective companies: safety of their staff and keeping their staff employed. Corporates are generally deemed heartless and number focused. I did not hear that during the call. The tone and the words used by the leaders around the table were one of care in the face of fast deteriorating commercial landscape, almost akin to making sure a loved one who is ill to feel as comfortable as one could. That is the heart in corporates.

Conclude

They say either the best or the worst will be brought to fore in a crisis. I would urge more leaders charting directions during this time to remember to challenge their assumptions, remember we are all in this together and think first of the implications to the people they are leading.