In Times of Anxiety and Near Panic, Restore A Sense of Trust

Many people drown in less than 3 feet of water. The main reason is panic. Therefore, the first thing a trusted Water Safety Instructor (WSI) does is to teach their students an easy-to-remember heuristic when learning how to swim: 

“Stay in shallow water and when you get nervous or panicked ‘just stand up’. That will save your life.”

However before the Covid-19 crisis, trust in leadership, like a WSI, was already in short supply. Now that we have a crisis on our hands, that lack of trust is creating exponentially increasing problems both on the ground and for global business. In addition, it’s difficult in the digital age under any circumstances to know what to believe. With the current situation, there are many online who are purposely trying to peddle fear for their own purposes alongside experts trying to help. So it’s difficult to get the “true” signals through all the chaotic communication noise.

At this particular junction, when there’s a “crisis of a leadership” coupled with confusion over what’s true, business leaders are well served by focusing on restoring trust to effectively reduce panic and anxiety, ensure optimal business continuity and help employees meaningfully get through these stressful times.

But you can’t just turn on a switch and trust is suddenly strengthened. To increase trust quickly leaders need to implement specific and predictive Virtual Distance practices.

The equivalent of the “just stand up” heuristic in this crisis is to quickly implement shortcuts to reduce Virtual Distance as remote work ramps up. Our data has shown for over a decade, that high Virtual Distance is the statistical equivalent of distrust.

However reducing Virtual Distance predictively leads to stronger trust and higher levels of leader effectiveness and organizational citizenship behaviors (helping behaviors): the three outcomes needed most as soon as possible.

Leaders can use this proven, tested and causal relationship to address the current crisis faster and more efficiently using specific targeted tactics.

Here is a table showing the powerful relationship between Virtual Distance and its impact on outcomes under the global business circumstance prior to the Coronavirus outbreak: 

Focus on Operational Distance Solutions

Operational Distance is one of the three main factors of Virtual Distance. It’s defined as the things that get in the way of meaningful and fluid communication on a day-to-day basis. It’s characterized by a lack of shared context which results in individuals trying to decode messages using information about other people or claims that's hard - if not impossible - to validate. 

However, when people unconsciously substitute a context or “frame” around which to decipher meaning in the absence of real context and instead, based on their own experiences, and then apply it, it doesn’t work well even under more normal circumstance because we’re bad at guessing at what others are thinking. We're also not good at using our own context to make sense out of something we don’t understand well – like how serious something is in proportion to our own situation.

This is happening in the extreme during the Covid-19 crisis. It shows up in examples like emails that go out to cruise ship leadership that never even get read because the sender doesn’t consider enough context around what’s happening on board. If the sender and the leadership of the organization they work for was part of a more coordinated communication team focused on restoring trust by reducing Virtual Distance during this crisis as a high priority, he or she would have sent out the message in multiple communication modes using deliberate and straight-forward language, making sure they got someone on the phone “live” as part of that process.

So even in what can now be seen as relatively “better” business dynamics that were not fraught by panic and uncertainty with hindsight relative to Covid-19 specifically, its obvious that reducing Virtual Distance is critical to improve outcomes in this crisis.

In particular, if leadership can reduce Operational Distance, effectively sharing more context through all communication modes in a way that is regularly scheduled with reliable information and repeated with surety as much as possible during these uncertain days and weeks to come, people will start to be able to "recover from the initial panic" enough to hear the signals through the noise and more effectively shift gears into remote work (more on this in an upcoming post).

To reduce Operational Distance most quickly to get the benefit of predictable increases in trust, leaders need to prioritize the following:

Regularly communicate authoritative context

• People have to truly believe there are capable people running coordinated virus response teams within the organization - preferably and visibly led by the highest levels of leadership depending on the company and specific situations. 
• It’s tricky because before the current crisis there had already been brewing many leadership crises. 
• Therefore demonstrable authenticity and a believable sense there’s an ability to deal with the crisis effectively must come through the corporate messaging clearly

Leaders must coordinate and communicate consistent messages at regularly scheduled intervals at the same time(s) every day through all channels simultaneously. These include:

• Audio
• Video
• Email that is short on text and contains recorded copies of the audio and video that are broadcast live. This provides the best chance that as many people as possible can at least listen to the same message at the same time. This is important so that consistent messaging prevails - decreasing the potential for rumors and misinterpretations.
• People are most effectively reassured when they can hear someone’s voice and when possible see their face. However that may not be possible for some so ensure at a minimum your regular communications include voice. 
• Not everyone in all countries has enough high speed bandwidth to play video
• If internet is unavailable, its likely they’ll have phone. So all channels must be used.

Use email carefully 

• Email carries the least amount of shareable context that will be decoded in the same way by multiple people. 
• Therefore email should not be used for “descriptions” of anything that can easily be misunderstood. 
• When email is used, it should contain a video file of the most senior leader possible along with the accompanying audio file alone. These should be brief but long enough to be able to provide enough detail so it's obvious the company has a good handle on the situation. Try for approximately 5-10 minutes of video and audio updates.
• Email is also best used to announce when the live updates will occur - it's important to establish a reliable routinized communication process.
• Email is also very good for listing links to resources the company has confirmed have the most reliable updates about the science of the virus (only use one or two established resources like the WHO and perhaps a country expert that has established authority and deep expertise). Links to high-level business continuity plans can also decrease employee stress.

Simplicity and brevity is key.  When people are nervous and suddenly thrown into a new situation panic often ensues as we’ve seen in this situation on a global scale. The challenge is highly complex. Therefore, it’s even more critical that leadership deliberately and skillfully use simple language that’s robust enough to quickly cut through the noise and is easy to remember under duress.

During major crises, a “just stand up” message needs to get through in order to avoid employees from drowning in information that's confusing and may not be true and instead, can be trusted. Company leadership can provide that if they are trusted. Virtual Distance tactics in emergencies like this are predictably helpful. Therefore implementing them will streamline and quicken the pace to successful next steps like putting remote work plans in place on a global scale to ensure optimal business continuity and employee calm. More on how to do this in an upcoming post.

Please Note: By coincidence, my next book entitled The Power of Virtual Distance: A Guide to Productivity and Happiness in the Age of Remote Work is scheduled for release in the next few weeks. It includes 15 years of Virtual Distance data and its impact on critical success factors and workplace information based on more than 1400 studies from 55 countries crossing more than 36 industries, government organizations and educational institutions. If you want to subscribe for more updates on how to reduce Virtual Distance to get the best business continuity possible and promote workforce ease with remote work during the Covid-19, please go to www.thepowerofvirtualdistance.com. You can also contact us either at that site or www.virtualdistance.com.