It’s wishful thinking to assume that the post-covid-19 world will be the same as it was before. The current crisis has exposed too many weaknesses and operational disfunctions the world over to be able to pretend as if nothing had happened. Most people’s expectations and priorities have already changed or will change in the coming weeks and months. Personal and public health, and sustainable development, will become more and more important to us. Our habits will change.
Companies cannot ignore this state of affairs and will need to reinvent the way they work, at least if they want to survive.
This is an opportunity to accelerate transformation and change in the enterprise. In change management we call this a “Burning Platform”, that is, an event or situation that gives you no other choice than to do things differently in order to survive. It’s up to us to build the vision of what that change will bring about.
But once we’ve recognized what’s coming, it’s important to act quickly. We can’t waste time dithering or talking about “how great things were before”, nor should we let our old reflexes take over. Companies must take action here and now. This pandemic is having a major impact on our world and on all of our expectations, including those of your clients, your clients’ clients, and your employees. Take this change seriously if you want to survive.
Six tips to help management teams reinvent themselves
As with any company-wide change, it must start with a top-down approach. The example must be set at the highest levels of the company.
- The management team must, starting today, reinvent the way it works by applying new rules to the game. The longer you wait, the more you put your company at risk by reducing its ability to take action.
- The management team must learn to make decisions quickly and ensure they are put into action just as quickly. Action must be the priority, and the status quo the enemy.
- The management team must learn to work with incomplete, or as-of-yet unverified information, as well as talk about their intuitions and hunches, and make decisions based on those.
- The management team must learn to propose estimated projections built on those decisions and infused with their own expertise as well as weak signals from the company’s markets.
- The management team must be willing to question its own decisions based on the results obtained and changes in the market. It’s a new world, and we must accept the failures so long as we understand why the decision fell short and learn from our mistakes.
- The management team must learn to guide the execution of its strategy by linking the company’s RUN, its short-term objectives, and its medium-term objectives. It must make short-term decisions while keeping in mind the impact of these decisions on its medium-term strategy.
Once the management team has set an example of this new way of operating, it can then cascade down through the organization so that decisions are made at the level at which a competent decision can be made in order to speed up its implementation.
Companies must get back in the running, and management teams must reinvent the way they work to prepare for the post-covid-19 era, and be willing to take actions which seemed unimaginable only a few short months ago.
