Social Distancing Not Emotional Distancing - Why Ideas still matter?

Lets face it, future-proofing your business with new ideas during volatile circumstances seems like someone was smoking the pipe dream. After all, #agility101 is only the stuff of textbooks. But lets assume during turning the tide, we could surface some of the organisation's comeback story while playing its Greatest hits in the background.

Contrary to our beliefs, the pool of ideas is not generated by a single person but through harnessing the collective capacities of the knowledge-pool of your teams. All parts are valuable in an organization! As you reestablish connection with your teams during our new ways of working, also seek their inputs on what we could be doing to turn things around, diversify or even where we could save the next buck or two. You may find it terribly surprising that the next hot idea was not from a book but surfaced from Joe/Jane Soap.

See the current situation as a turnaround rather than a downtur. It is perhaps a very real opportunity to find the next level of talent within the team. I’ve been through multiple crises where the people who added the most value and impact weren’t the ones sitting around the table at the beginning. I have often found great leaders at all parts of the organisation who are just waiting for an opportunity—and that they can be part of something bigger; hey! saving a company, is often enough to attract and retain them.

And I have found during times of crisis, you only need to retain your humanity for your team to show you theirs. Get people involved in solution rather than making them part of the problem. Talk to them.

Right now, as business and the job space evolves, so too, has the markets needs. We need to have a constant flow of great ideas. We have to become idea people with an execution-oriented mindset.

• When a new problem appears, you must have the skills to come up with unique solutions and bring them to life.
• At every step, you have to see the potential for how things could be improved.
• Even more, from time to time you should “live in the future” and then help build what’s missing.

Right now you have the opportunity to work with your people to do so.

You can only have two problems in your life – a lack of brilliant ideas or too many brilliant ideas. Which will be yours?

In this turnaround, how are you surfacing new ideas from your teams at all levels of the organisation?

Dont be emotionally unavailable during social distancing. As leaders you need to understand the depth of the organization’s capabilities and the strategy to take advantage of rapidly changing circumstances. We need to keep our ears open to all voices. If you listened to the same old source of information and opinions this will simply reinforce your own views carries great risk of missing alternate points of view. This is a confirmation bias. To turn around we need to engage directly with both customers and employees, rather than relying on the hierarchy of communication. Spend time in your market space, and in the headspace of your people to surface new ideas that may be the key to changing the game.

Remember its Social Distancing Not Emotional Distancing

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