Trying To Feel Good About Covid-19

As Covid-19 spread across the world in early 2020, scientists, health professionals, governments, NGO’s, businesses and individuals tried to make sense of what was happening and what to do next.  As restrictions on movement manifested many businesses confronted an existential crisis.  Essential services needed to radically adjust their business models to safely meet customers’ basic needs. Non-essential services needed to determine how government assistance might affect their costs and ability to sustain themselves and their employees, and for how long.  

The crisis is not over, and front-line heroes in healthcare and border control continue to bear the brunt of the contagion. However in some quarters managers have been amazed at what has been accomplished in these trying circumstances which lacked process and procedure, lead time and governance.  For some a euphoria of accomplishment has led to a yearning to maintain a momentum of accomplishment, with the often repeated motto “Never waste a crisis.”

Is this momentum of cutting through to action and accomplishment sustainable and how might this come about?

In their book “Fast/Forward” authors Julian Birkinshaw and Jonas Ridderstråle define an organisation type the call “Adhocracy” - “action infused with emotion”.  According to the authors adhocracy thrives when the focus is external, the business environment is uncertain, and there is a fast rate of knowledge accumulation.  For businesses to survive in this environment “their success is usually derived from having a clear purpose that channels creativity and energises employees.”

Even before Covid we have seen businesses spending more time developing their purpose by way of empowering employees and to earn their social license to operate through signalling to the broader public.  Covid has reinforced purpose for some and provided a beacon for others.  We also know that according to Maslow’s hierarchy providing employees an opportunity to be creative is one of the best motivators possible.  Bernard Salt observes in The Australian a significant growth in creative vocations amongst displaced workers as a result of the pandemic (“Coronavirus: Green-shoot dreams blooming amid devastation”).

Birkinshaw and Ridderstråle also observe the “Adhocracy” organisational construct may sit along others such as bureaucracy and meritocracy within the same organisation, depending on the mission of the business unit, but also observe firms are moving to sustain adhocracy via agile transformations.  

For companies to sustain the euphoria of “action with purpose” we think they need to enter the “transformation as usual” zone of operating.  While adhocracy is a building block other elements are required.  

The proponents of “High Reliability Organisations” assert good process documentation and procedures are required for agile operations. Paradoxically this discipline allows employees to be creative in uncertain situations because they have process and procedure to fall back on for the bulk of their work, and as a guide in what needs to be changed.  

Adhocracy also benefits from good problem solving and critical thinking skills, where problem statements lead to hypotheses and appropriate testing via collaboration to avoid boiling the ocean and reinventing the wheel.

And companies can consider their asset position as the “value platform” for the organisation where assets should be value accretive and relevant to creating customer value.

This relates to another key aspect of transformation confronting companies, pivoting to meeting current customer needs.  Some Covid responses such as moving to online sales and contactless delivery, catering for individuals and teams “working from home” (WFH), introducing click ‘n collect channels, virtualising products and services, etc. require companies to invest in new assets or accelerate transformations, and to consider when and how to shed other assets and their support costs.

The Covid crisis has been painful for most, but also an opportunity to experience a different way of decision making, empowering the organisation, and operating a leaner business model.  We believe this can lead to a sustainable state of positive momentum and with the right tool set can help organisations thrive in an environment of ongoing challenge and change.

The good news is the current crisis provides the environment to make the required shifts, and build on current momentum by leveraging this sense of empowered change.   

The not so good news is more transformative drivers are inevitably on their way.  WFH has become mainstream for many organisations during the Covid crisis and now is an expected part of the mix for employees, but leaves companies looking for collaboration and productivity measures and office block owners looking for asset utilisation.  Social unrest surrounding the “Black Lives Matter” protests are causing the public to further question companies’ and governments’ social license.  Ambitions to leverage government support to emerge greener from Covid-19 will challenge organisations near-term operating strategies.  Increasing tensions in the South China Sea and related trade disputes may further disrupt markets, supply chains and government regulations.

 It appears preparing for transformation as usual is no longer an option.