Three Tips on How to Revitalize Your Organization for 2021!

How can business and HR leaders revitalize their organizations as they anticipate 2021?

The global COVID pandemic, social unrest, political squabbles, economic turbulence, and emotional malaise of 2020 could be labeled the “people/organization” crisis (like the 2008/9 recession was the “financial/economic” crisis).   

Emerging from these crises, business and HR leaders need to revitalize their organizations. This revitalization begins by recognizing that people are the key ingredients of any organization. Without attending to your people, your organization is an empty shell (e.g., a house with no residents, car with no driver, store with no customers, etc.). Recognize that the most important thing that you can give your employees is an organization that succeeds in the marketplace because without succeeding in the marketplace, there is no workplace. Your people are not your most important asset; your people are your CUSTOMER’s most important asset. 

Emerging from these crises moves beyond people to organization. Entering 2021, as socially-distanced individuals re-enter their professional and personal communities, organizations will matter more than ever.  Social connections, often embedded in organizations, are the single biggest predictor of personal well-being (see Harvard Study of Adult Development). In addition, our (and other) research has consistently shown that organization capabilities have 3 to 4 times the impact on business results than individual competencies. When individuals feel connected to their organization community, their individual well-being increases, and their contributions are multiplied. Drawing on insights from organization theory and research (about firms, agencies, teams, tribes, families, and social groups) and from dozens (even hundreds) of advisory engagements, let me suggest three ways to revitalize your organization for 2021.

1.    Personalization

The coronavirus has affected people and organizations differently.  For some, virtual work has been a godsend with less commuting and more time for family; for others working at home with the demands of home school and work/life issues has been emotionally draining. Some organizations have faced the challenge of dramatic growth (e.g., Amazon, Zoom, Netflix, Google) and other industries the challenges of dramatic demise (travel, in-person retail, advisory businesses). As vaccines roll out and herd immunity follows, personalization has two implications for you as a business or HR leader.

First, pay attention to the “E’s”: empathy, emotion, experience, engagement, energy, and e______.  Almost everyone has experienced emotional malaise in the last year. As a leader, show empathy by not just casually listening to your employees, but really hear them as they share their experiences (about the pandemic, racial injustice, or other personal aspects of their lives). Engage them by expressing appreciation and gratitude for their (often heroic) efforts. Help them find personal energy by making your organization a place where employees can believe (find meaning), become (learn and grow), and belong (nurture relationships). Remember that employee experience is a lead indicator of customer experience, investor confidence, and community reputation. 

Second, allow for personalized and flexible work. The boundaries of work are no longer physical (a place where people go), but a set of values that bond employees together and employees with customers. Regardless of where your employees work (at home, in a remote office, in a shared office, in a coffee shop, or at a park) or how they work (in person, on a computer, on the phone, or through a mobile device), they are “at work” when they are creating value for your customers and investors through living your organization’s values. Reinforce the value of your values for employees and customers. 

2.    Agility

The ability to harness the uncertainties of 2020 have required agility, or the ability to face but not be constrained by today’s challenges, discover opportunity in the future, experiment nimbly, and learn always. 

Individual agility comes when people tame their apprehensions, face their fears, and take personal risks. Encourage and celebrate employees who have stepped out of their comfort zone and experimented, both those who have succeeded and those who have not. As Carole Dweck says, “failure is an opportunity to learn.” Pay less attention to an individual’s role and position and more attention to the personal agility competencies of curiosity, self-awareness, risk-taking, growth mindset, and paradox navigation.

Organization agility comes when you anticipate market changes, adapt innovative solutions to respond, and create an organization that focuses resources (time, money, and people) on emerging opportunities.  Be attuned to signals that new markets exist by partnering with innovative customers, sensing changing business conditions, and accessing technological advances. Create a market-oriented ecosystem (see book Reinventing the Organization) where small teams pursue emerging market opportunities.  

As a leader with agility glance backward to be resilient and learn, but fixate forward to discover what can be. Constantly seek new solutions by asking questions, spending time with people (employees, customers, and others) not like you, continuously improving, and being willing to let go of your past as you create your future. Use your power to empower others and your strengths to strengthen others. 

3.    Guidance

One of the great challenges coming out of the 2020 crises is to separate signals that matter from excessive noise. Each day, there are dozens of silver bullets and quick-fix ideas that you hear about. It is dangerous to either dismiss them all or to chase too many of them. Many of the analytics tools of dashboards, scorecards, and even insights focus on what has happened or what is happening. In addition, “best practices” proliferate as many companies experiment with new solutions during these crises. In some ways, these well-intended analytics and best practices only add to the cacophony of noise. 

We found in our research that organizations invest about 1% of their annual revenue in talent, leadership, organization, and HR initiatives, but they seldom have a clear sense of which initiatives will deliver results that matter.  Should we invest in talent acquisition? Training and development? Career planning? New performance management systems? Different work arrangements? Leadership training?  Innovation, social responsibility, efficiency, or collaboration initiatives? 

Allocating scarce resources to those initiatives that deliver results becomes a priority. The Organization Guidance System (OGS) we have created gives business and HR leaders a simple analytics tool to guide investment decisions. The assessment takes 12 to 15 minutes for each of four pathways to results (talent, leadership, organization, and HR). The OGS then prioritizes investments on initiatives that will deliver results.  Best of all, the assessment is FREE for your initial report at www.rbl.ai 

In brief, hopefully, the crises of 2020 lead to personal and organizational revitalization that creates, delivers, and captures value to all stakeholders

………

Dave Ulrich is the Rensis Likert Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and a partner at The RBL Group, a consulting firm focused on helping organizations and leaders deliver value.