Next, as is typically the case, I've been thinking about this situation in the light of my past. In doing this, there are a couple of things which present themselves. The first is about change in and of itself.
Through years of managing and leading people and organizations, I discovered an undeniable truth about change. It isn't the old situation people have issue with, and it isn't the new. The problem period is always during the actual change as people don't like uncertainty. As a leader, I always knew my primary job through transitions was to inform everyone as best I could, and then make the change occur as quickly as possible. You know, get people to the "new" place.
A large fear in the current situation for is that we have no idea what the new normal looks like, or when it will get here. If we had an answer to either piece of this question, we'd be better equipped to handle the current environment. And (my opinion totally), we worry that the people who know how bad this will get and what we need to prepare for it aren't telling the entire truth. Again, circle back to my original comments about managing through change. It is important to inform people as well as possible. I'm not sure our leadership is accomplishing this.
Last Friday evening I had the opportunity to attend a virtual cocktail party with several people I have professional, and personal relationships with. We talked about business and our personal lives. One of the biggest things I noticed was there was more conversation about family and pets than I ever remember. Many of the people on the call are working from home, and family/pets are now part of the daily landscape. I don't think this is a bad thing, and I hope it is one of the items we keep as we come out of on the other side. Another was how easily we had transformed to a "work from home" environment. Some people on the call were incredibly well prepared and had this situation included in their disaster recovery documentation. For those not so well prepared, the speed that this had come together to get people isolated was amazing. I can't even imagine what this would have been like ten years ago, when working from home was more of an idea than a reality.
One other thing we need to consider at this time is what our businesses will look like going forward. I once worked for a manager who asked us to look at the entire organization as though we were building it from scratch whenever we had a personnel opening. I hated that exercise, but also knew that at the end of the task, we would have a stronger, more agile organization than before. As I speak with folks, I've been told that with the removal of travel and meetings, some of the most senior folks in organizations are wondering if they add value to their company. This is a powerful question and now might be a good time to think about how your company would look, given today's business, if you built it today. Then comes the question of how close you are able to get to the ideal structure. This is where you add the humanity to the program and get as close as you can while helping as many of your employees as you can.
One final note. Go for a walk and look around. It is amazing at how many homes suddenly have a chair outside the front door, or how many neighbors are going for walks in the evening. My household has started riding bikes again. In some type of twisted way, this emergency could be helping us to get back to a simpler, more family-based time. This is absolutely not the way any of us would have done this, but there it is, it might be part of the new normal when we finally get there.
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