Three things that managing through #CoronaVirus is teaching us

I live in the North of #Italy, and like every one else in my country our lives and work habits have been shocked by the explosion of the #COVID-19 #emergency in February 2020.

This situation has not precedents for my generation: the virus is highly contagious and the disease it creates can be extremely violent in some cases. For this reason, the Italian Government has implemented very restrictive measures to social contacts, including closing schools, banning big events (from theatrical shows to weddings) and establishing police controls for the ones moving from a town to another without justified motivations. The name of this campaign, 'I stay at home', is pretty self-explanatory.

Like many others, I am also #SmartWorking now while trying to manage, together with my partner, our family life (our 3 years old daughter is at home as well) and professional commitments. At the same time, I believe this crazy situation forces us all, and in particular business leaders and people managers, to slow down, stop, and reconsider the habitual madness of our standard thinking and working style at least around three main areas.

1. We are one interconnected species

Corona Virus is demonstrating - once again - that, as a species, we are deeply interdependent and interconnected with each other, and with the non-human beings of the Earth's biosphere.

Even though this seems like an obvious platitude, it still has a very limited impact on our production and consumption choices worldwide. The pandemic is teaching us the lesson through our very vulnerable and exposed physical bodies, and it is difficult this time not to listen.

The disease was apparently originated in Wuhan thanks to the brutal conditions in which wildlife live stocks are stored and slaughtered in China. Literally, this time, how we treat animal life in one side of the world is having a direct sanitary and economical impact on the rest of the world. No national boundary, anti-immigration wall or fiscal heaven can protect us from this.

As business #leaders, we can no longer ignore the impact of our business operations on the wider interaction between human life, non human life and natural (so called) resources. Our decisions today may extend their impact in space and time in ways so far unforeseen - and we are accountable for these decisions in front of present and future generations.

Failing to move away from a purely shareholder-centered approach does not only result in high risks for brand image and people engagement, but exposes also economy and society to un-necessary human-made risks for crisis and dangers.

We need to craft our business goals and strategies with the principles of what Michael Porter calls a #SharedValue, integrating social impact and environmental concerns at the very core of our business operations. We can not wait any longer for business leaders to critically think about the true ends of business endeavors - rather than limiting the application of their capabilities to implementing more efficient means for these ends. We can not longer wait for authentically #purpose-centered organizations.

2. Managing emotional contagions

The Virus COVID19 is highly infectious, but it is dangerous especially when affecting elderly people or patients with co-morbidities. Also, its symptoms may manifest only after 7-14 days, therefore many of us may be carrying the virus and, without knowing, acting as unwilling agents of infection for other more vulnerable individuals.

Again, limiting social contacts is a commitment we need to have towards the safety of others, even before towards our own safety. This is a meaningful training in seeing how much our very simple choices impact others around us, and the responsibility which comes with it.

I find myself considering in these days how much better our organizations would be if we applied the same prudence and responsibility also to manage emotional contagions. Researchers have shown how much leaders' emotional states condition the climate and emotional tones of the people they lead. Our anger, fear, attitude to blaming and criticizing can spread exactly like a virus, activating stress response systems in others' brains and bodies, and making them literally less capable of clear thinking and more exposed to the risks of chronic distress - which include also immunity depression.

In this very moment, we are learning that developing awareness of our emotional and thinking patterns, and nourishing #appreciation and #trust towards ourselves and others, is one of the best services we can provide our people with in such a time of increased uncertainty and sanitary emergency.

3. We are ready to embrace new ways of working

Even if we can not move from home, Italy must still be running. Not only essential services, but also regular business operations are adjusting to experiment new ways of working thanks to the opportunities offered by communication technologies and digital workspaces. This may not be true for all job families, but it certainly is for many more than we are used to.

What else is possible is we strengthen and expand our capacity to working smartly?

I believe this is not anymore a technological challenge, but a developmental challenge considering the direct-and-control-based leadership culture that many organizations are still replicating.

Researchers like Frederic Laloux (Reinventing Organizations, 2016) have shown the advantages of fostering #self-management and teamwork while transforming the role of traditional managers into the one of organizational coaches, focalizers and advisors.

The biggest potential of this kind cultural evolution can be perceived at many levels, not only in terms of engagement and productivity, but even more in terms of #agility and capacity to adapt to the increasing complexity and uncertainty of the beautiful interconnected world we live in.

#CoronaVirus #COVID19 #Leadership #SmartWorking #Purpose #Organizations #SharedValue #Meaningfulwork @TPCLeadership #tpcleadership