Resilience in Times of Corona
Given the urgent relevance for all of us during these difficult times I will seek to share some stimulating ideas from colleagues and friends to increase resilience during this crisis. I will update this article whenever new posts are published.
1. Top 4 Priorities to Achieve People #Resilience in Times of #COVID19
In a crisis, all focus must be on resilience-
A) Strategic Resilience = Capacity of organization to monitor and respond to changes in context, and stay relevant to customers
B) Operational Resilience = Ability to keep core operations going
C) People Resilience = Capacity of individual employees and leaders to maintain performance in difficult circumstances (Julian Birkinshaw)
People resilience is the foundation for all other layers. Throughout a #crisis, changes in working conditions and organizational setup, lack of skills and tooling, and psychological distress can severely hamper resilience. Listening leaders need to be vigilant and dynamically intervene as needed. Four priorities stand out:
1. Supporting individuals (engagement, physical & mental health)
2. Enabling teams (performance)
3. Helping leaders (effectiveness)
4. Improving organizational setup (short-term adjustments and preparing for post-crisis “new normal”)
Building on an excellent article by Dave Ulrich – adapted to a generic #crisismanagement framework - different phases require targeted interventions and it is key to scenario plan ahead. Plan for a long "hospital" phase 4 and make sure you are set up for resilience! #Leadership #Management
2. Psychology of a Pandemic: “Epidemics of Fear”
Pandemics, beyond tragic medical consequences, are also psychological phenomena (Steven Taylor). A few insights-
1. Fear is complex. In a pandemic, fear is more widespread than medical danger (psychological footprint > medical footprint)
2. A difference exists between “affect” and emotion: Being fearless doesn’t mean eliminating, but knowing how to manage fear
3. Fast emotional contagion occurs through excessive/sensational media coverage. Quarantine and novelty of a virus add distress
4. Fear is amplified if people are already in a state of fear
5. People differ in how they react to psychosocial stressors (from “indifference to fatalism”)
6. Most are resilient to stress and will adapt during the crisis, if given appropriate support
7. Some suffer significant emotional distress. Excessive news checking, “decontamination”, reassurance seeking, refusal to work, pursuit of dubious remedies can signal stress
8. Others are unrealistically optimistic & minimize threat information, failing to take precautionary measures
9. Severe distress can be debilitating & trigger/increase mental health issues. Emotional reactions can be severe & persistent
Managers must be vigilant for signals and actively protect clinically and psychologically vulnerable groups.
3. 5 Critical Levers to Preserve #Performance in a Crisis
“Managers manage tasks, leaders lead people” - effective leadership is complex and requires high self-awareness, empathy and a solid understanding of psychological needs of individuals & teams.
In our experience, individual performance is dependent on both personality & 4 intrinsic human needs:
a) Sense of orientation: task motivation & purpose
b) Self-esteem: sense of value/worth
c) Sense of belonging: closeness & relationships with others
d) Autonomy: self-governance & freedom
When basic needs are fulfilled people are healthier, happier & more engaged. Plus, fairness is an important hygiene factor - if perceived low, motivation drops.
During times of change & crisis, risk for dissatisfaction and performance loss is high
- Autonomy: micromanagement, new tools/processes, constraints in W@H
- Belonging: physical isolation, loneliness, task focus, loss
- Self-esteem: lack of appreciation, sickness, anxiety
- Orientation: uncertainty, role changes, lack of challenge
- Fairness: rules, locations, pay/allowances
Leaders must take extra care of themselves & others to continually sense & adapt. “People won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel”
Note: In self-determination theory (e.g. Dan Pink's Drive), competence (mastery) is also proposed as a basic need. In our view, it highly correlates with self-esteem and autonomy and as such constitutes a secondary driver.
4. How to control staff working at Home? (W@H)
The answer is: Don’t. Already before the crisis for most of us it didn't matter from where we worked. The question is not where we work, but how to create value & craft an engaging culture. Research shows: home workers are often more productive & happier- yet it also suggests W@H takes time, support & it is not for everyone. A few ABCs -
A) Autonomy
1. Trust your team
2. Intentionally agree rules of engagement (boundaries, turnaround times, deadlines)
3. Craft a digital workplace (e.g. video for 121s, Whatsapp for urgent text)
4. Build ownership. Focus on outcomes, not tasks
5. Connect mission & role to purpose
6. Create transparency
B) Belonging
1. Listen for signals & tailor your approach
2. Frequent, rhythmic communication. Never cancel 121s
3. Invest in social bonds between remote people
4. Emotionally proofread text messages
5. Offer encouragement, coaching & emotional support
C) Competence (Self-esteem & Orientation)
1. Set personal development plans
2. Train for digital tools
3. Share information, learning & ideas on virtual whiteboard
4. Schedule impromptu conversations but don’t overload
5. Make room for mini-breaks
6. Celebrate progress
The person you report to at work is “more important for your health than your family doctor”. Let’s get it right!
5. Working #Agile From Home: Top 10 Best Practices to Make it Work
1. Maintain daily virtual check-in to sense how everybody feels. Pay special attention to people taking care of children or suffering distress
2. Establish transparency through daily monitoring so that status is clear, productivity visible and operational #management can be performed remotely
3. Plan for change. Install workload balancing so that teams can support each other in case of shifting demand
4. Plan for less. #Productivity will initially suffer. Make upfront choices & agree priorities for activities with customer impact or those required to keep up resilience
5. Maintain operational rigour. Be clear on expectations & clarify outcomes, results and issues through daily stand-ups
6. Make time to enable teams to collectively agree how to self-organize and allocate tasks whilst working from home
7. Proactively monitor changes in customer/business demand. Establish frequent connections with key stakeholders to dynamically align
8. Keep motivation high. Ensure frequent social team interactions & wider cross-functional virtual watercoolers
9. Engage Chapter Leads & Agile coaches frequently to support continuous improvement
10. Avoid meeting overload by combining key meetings & continuously revising your governance
6. Four actions for customer experience in a time of coronavirus (McKinsey)
In difficult economic times, the return on great customer experience is higher than ever (see exhibit).
(1) Focus on care and concern: (a) Reach out, but with support, not marketing; (b) Make a priority of employees and community; (c) Stay true to company purpose and values;
(2) Meet your customers where they are today: (a) Innovate digital models; (b) Expand home delivery options; (c) Make physical operations touch-free;
(3) Reimagine the post-COVID-19 world: (a) Economic hard times will force cost cuts; (b) Migrate customers to digital channels; (c) Brick-and-mortar stores may look very different post-crisis; and
(4) Build agile capabilities for fluid times: (a) Tap social media, not surveys, for quick customer readings; (b) Solicit employees for ear-to-the-ground insights; (c) Save time with "test and scale" labs; and (d) Pay attention to "failure modes" indicating you've missed customer signals.
7. 10 Critical Questions to Avoid a False Sense of Security in the #COVID19 Crisis
1. Have you mitigated all single points of failure - critical employees, skills & roles - in your organization?
2. Are all business-critical processes and procedures fully documented to allow others to perform critical functions in the event of unexpected absences?
3. Have you established cross-skill training & skill sharing to enable staff to react to possible changes in demand?
4. Have you developed succession contingencies for all major executives & key leaders in the organization?
5. Have you actively hardened your digital channels and IT systems and deployed data leak protection in home office environments?
6. Have you developed detailed scenarios for top markets of your business to stress test your P&L, and are you planning actively for a worst case scenario?
7. Have you identified at least 5 specific short-term opportunities to support customers & growth?
8. Have you identified specific long-term projects to accelerate in order to increase the robustness & future readiness of your organization?
9. Have you developed plans for a gradual return to on-site operations, whenever it might happen?
10. Have you clearly defined what you want to be known for in this crisis? Are you actively doing good?
Professor of Strategic Leadership at Tias School for Business & Society, Tilburg University & Antwerp Management School, University of Antwerp
4 年Thanks Otti, very useful. Most of your points seem to be directed towards robustness, not resilience. Robustness is about not being fragile and maintaining performance, while resilience is about bouncing back from difficulties/ poor results. The ability to dig yourself out of a hole is different than the ability to avoid falling in the hole. But of course in these times we need both!