Renovate or Design

It certainly is the time to set new rules as we get ready for the post Covid era ! It could be tough to imagine what it would exactly look like specifically cause we still don't even have an end date for the current situation.

The struggle is real for all, maybe at different levels or different depth of impact at work and in personal lives.

So whats the choice you are making?

The easy option is to renovate ! if you ever did renovate your house you know what that takes. You keep the pillars and the beams and move around the easy parts. Less cost and effort though comes with some constraints. Your new design is built on the old one and is fairly similar cause its the same foundation. It does have a new feel but still the old familiarity. A strong "legacy-bias". This is how its always been !!

Design is to create a new plan, from scratch on a clean sheet of paper. This can consider the new norm and build from a new foundation. It will still carry the learning from the past and have the ability to rebuild / leverage the past strengths. On the flip side it does carry more risk and takes more effort. Also it requires courage to tear down what is working (even if not perfectly) as there will be deep emotional connections and bonds that may get uprooted.

While speaking to many leaders across the marketplace I have realized the first wave of changes in organizations being triggered by the COVID disruption are things that were already on the horizon. Strategy that was discussed but not implemented due to prioritization (digital being one of them), Roles eliminated that were already under discussion for performance, productivity or effectiveness. Activities and tasks that were considered important but were not urgent now came to the forefront. A lot of renovation !

I would urge you to try Design. Bring in the grey matter of your organization on a virtual platform and give them a blank sheet of paper and say knowing what you know, doing what we have done, if you could start afresh what would be the new organization design? which customer segments would we go to (not necessarily the ones we always go to)? whats the messages we would carry (not what we have always said)? what are the experiences we would like to create (not what we always do)? what are then the resources we need (not whats available) ?

You could do this personally for your life as well. Don't just renovate', design your future !

If the new design works well, you can say I told you so ! and if it fails or doesn't do as well as we expected it to we can all blame it on the Covid situation! so any case a good time to give Design a shot !