Actions to Take When Leading Your Organization through Covid-19

Actions to Take When Leading Your Organization through Covid-19

In looking back at the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918, the one major lesson that we learned was the importance of planning to protect your organization’s greatest asset—its people.

 

Make the Workplace Safe

From your organization’s perspective, the pandemic represents a readiness issue—the availability of your workforce—not a medical problem. To ensure you have the maximum workforce available, first make the workplace as safe as possible. Vaccines and anti-viral medications will not be available for some time, so classical, non-medical public health measures will offer the most significant security. To ensure a healthier workspace do the following:

  • Emphasize basic personal hygiene practices, such as hand washing.
  • Disinfect and sterilize work surfaces.
  • Rearrange the workspace to place distance between people.
  • Restrict or limit movement, activities, and gatherings.

Additional measures that will add to workplace safety preparedness include:

  • Use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers (not to be confused with anti-bacterial soap).
  • Ensuring an ample supply of tissues and disposal receptacles.
  • Moving to a “paperless” society—avoiding the circulation of unnecessary documents.
  • Designating home and remote work locations (telecommuting).
  • Inserting “infectious disease control” clauses in contracts—ensuring that those with whom you do business have tight controls to prevent the spread of disease (particularly crucial for companies serving multiple buildings, such as contract cleaning crews).

 

Manage your Workforce

Managing the available workforce poses tremendous challenges due to the following three psychological responses:

  1. Fear. Everyone will have a level of anxiety and fear about contracting the disease.
  2. Discrimination. There will be blatant and subtle discrimination against groups who are thought of as spreading the disease, i.e., Chinese, Asians, and foreigners.
  3. Psychological trauma from hearing or reading about Covid-19 incidents.

At the group level, various “tipping points” may be reached, such as loss of faith in leaders and the belief that available assets are not being distributed fairly which could significantly influence group behavior. Right now, gun sales are through the roof as people are concern that those without jobs will come and take their “Stuff.” Identify informal group leaders to help keep the workforce organized, and those leaders may serve as trusted sources of information. Consider establishing helplines and providing grief counselors to give the employees assistance through this time.

 

Communicate with the Workforce

As I have written about elsewhere, the most important is the style of communication to the workforce and external constituents. Excellent communication involves four very sophisticated steps:

  1. Avoid errors in decisions and messages.
  2. Maintain trust in the sources of information.
  3. Avoid amplifying the risk.
  4. Encourage individuals, communities, and families to use coping mechanisms.

By keeping your workforce well informed, you will help to reduce the level of anxiety and fear. Thus, how you handle risk communication is critical. Risk communication, as I mentioned before, is not just telling people the “facts;” it is about the “Plan,” the prospect of loss, and about relationships. 

 

Establish a Covid-19 “War Room” Team

Appoint a senior, entirely dedicated COVID-19 “War Room” team, to focus on this all day, every day. As CEO, you must be out in front with a planned cascade of possible actions based on which scenarios unfold. These scenarios need to be more aggressive than your team can imagine right now.

 

You NEED a Plan

A pandemic is not a terrorist or natural catastrophe, and those plans cannot be adapted to fit the flu. Natural disasters, i.e., Hurricanes and floods, are usually characterized by being isolated in time and space, with extensive infrastructure damage. However, the Covid-19 is worldwide and will last longer lasting than a natural disaster. The 1918 pandemic lasted 18 months, with three distinct peaks of increased morbidity and mortality. Current estimates by Imperial College show that by “Flattening the Curve,” the healthcare systems will not be overwhelmed. Still, it will take about 18 months to achieve protection for a vaccine or herd immunity. Thus, your response to the Coronavirus will be distinctly different from the response to a singular, catastrophic event.

While the Federal Government is behind on this issue, States and cities have stepped up and started implementing their plans for Coronavirus. These plans call for all sectors of their societies to prepare. Specifically:

  • Individuals Must Actively Participate. Simple infection-control measures, including handwashing and staying home when ill, are critical. Individuals should actively participate in their communities’ responses.

  • State and Local Governments Must Prepare. State and local governments to varying degrees implementing community-wide measures, such as school closures and suspension of public gatherings, to halt the spread of disease.

  • The Private Sector Must Prepare. The private sector must develop plans to provide essential services, even in the face of sustained and significant absenteeism. Businesses also should integrate their planning into their communities’ planning.

Once your organization has written its Coronavirus plan, you must test it. Simple “tabletop” exercises are an excellent way to look for points of “friction.” Several tabletop exercises may be necessary, using the employees who wrote the plan to role-play more senior officials, until they determine it is ready. Once the plan is prepared, a tabletop exercises including senior-level players, preferably your fully dedicated COVID-19 “war room” team, is required.

 

Additional Considerations

There is a multitude of other considerations, and your organization will have its unique challenges. However, things to consider include:

The Workload

Determine the tasks required for your organization to continue operating and prioritize them. Ensure that “mission essential” tasks can be met, even with only half your staff. Cross-train employees so that everyone is familiar with the mission-essential tasks and can perform them.

Proportionate Absenteeism

If your organization can perform remotely, then office absenteeism does not necessarily mean that an employee’s absenteeism will cost eight hours of work. While some workers will be ill at home and unavailable for work, others will be well, but needed at home to care for those who are sick. Depending upon the circumstances, (i) severity of illness, and (ii) the number of infected people at home, an absent employee may be able to complete a few hours of work during a day. Other workers who are well may be unavailable because they need to care for children out of school. However, they may still be available for a full or partial day’s work.

24-Hours a Day

If possible, establish a 24-hour work cycle. By moving to eight-hour shifts, you reduce the number of people at your workplace by two thirds, significantly aiding the effort to establish social distancing.

Establish Helplines

Dedicate phone lines and numbers as employee helplines. Identify individuals to man the hotlines and train them now. Establish hotlines at the lowest possible level, i.e., each distinct group within your organization would have a specific number to call, and the group members would know the person answering the phone.

Review of Personnel Policies

Check there are no legal or regulatory implications to your plan. Also, make sure your workforces fully understand the policies on leave and telecommuting.

The Golden Egg

The U.S. public and private sectors spent an estimated $114 billion preparing for Y2K, and some estimates are that worldwide Y2K expenditures may have exceeded $600 billion. As companies corrected their computer code to avoid the Y2K problem, they found and eliminated unnecessary code, resulting in substantial savings in data storage and processing costs. As Y2K preparation resulted in unexpected benefits for corporate America, there may be an upside to the preparation for Covid-19. Revisit all your processes and ask the following questions:

  • “If we didn’t do it this way already, how would we do it?”

  • “If you had to do what you do a budget = 50% of the current budget, how would you do it?”

  • “Where can we cut waste?” Look at Toyota’s Seven Wastes for an understanding of where there is waste in your organization

While the instinctive reaction of most employees is to say, “Not possible,” I ask you to think of Apollo 13 when they had to restart the command module. There was no easy way, but they worked a team and figured it out. That is what is required now!

Preparing the workplace for telecommuting may require additional expenses on IT upgrades that will eventually result in increased productivity. You may need all employees to have high-speed Internet connections, and improvements in web-based applications may improve usage and performance.

Getting Started

Prepare for the worst and be thankful if it doesn’t eventuate; “A Wait and See” approach is a non-starter. YOU DO NOT HAVE THE LUXURY OF WAITING.

Several websites provide plans for specific organizations. It is doubtful that any of these plans will meet your organization’s needs. However, plagiarism is not a crime in this instance! Use the smorgasbord approach, pick to choose form what looks applicable to create something you can use. 

Tabletop Exercises

Several websites provide tabletop exercises that can be adapted to fit your organization’s particular needs.

Organizational Tabletop Top Exercises – Customizable Hazard Specific Scenarios

Tabletop exercise template By the Editorial Staff of SearchDisasterRecovery

Tabletop Exercises – Some thoughts from DHS

Designing, conducting, and evaluating tabletop exercises: A primer on optimizing this important planning tool

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Leadership in a Time of Crisis

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Face it; we are in a time of crisis, and leaders earn their pay when the proverbial “solids hit the air conditioning.” 

While many in the Administration, including the President, claimed that no one could have forecast Covid-19 and when it would hit, many people, including the Administration, had produced papers and done “war games” on a pandemic hitting the world. Unfortunately, those at the top had not read them or did want to hear the bad news. That is failed leadership as leaders get the big bucks to deal with ambiguity, and during crises, uncertainty becomes exponential. Know what is coming helps that and denial of what you don’t want to hear is not leadership.

Research has shown that three of the four qualities of a great business leader are:

  1. Sets vision and strategy;
  2. Drives growth;
  3. Displays financial acumen.
  4. Crisis management. This skill is underappreciated, overlooked, and often not even one of the top requirements — until a crisis hits.

So, where does the leader start in times like this? Start with Maslow’s Hierarchy. In a crisis, people are scared, and before they are willing to consider the position of the company, they need to know their most basic needs are met, and they feel safe. If they cannot buy hand sanitizer, a significant other is lost their job, or a loved one is sick, you are unlikely to get much attention on the corporate strategy. Blaming others will not help.

Once you have addressed their essential needs, then the panic moves towards the organization, and people turn to the leader for definitive answers. However, as the situation is fluid, sometimes the answer is, “I don’t know right now.” While that is the answer, it doesn’t satisfy the people. Thus leaders have to quickly follow such a reply with, “but we are going to do X.” Having a response to ambiguity is essential and comfort for your employees. When dealing with a crisis like we are today,  leaders need more than a plan; they need Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D as well. As Bain Consulting put it in a recent document, whatever you imagine the worst-case scenario to be, it will be worse.

What will become obvious during a crisis is the culture of the organization. If the culture is bad, there is little a leader can do to save it. Culture is key from the beginning. However, Korn Ferry has identified six steps for leaders to plan and comfort their people.

  1. Anticipate. Predict what lies ahead
  2. Navigate. Course correcting in real-time
  3. Communicate. Continually and honestly
  4. Listen. To what you don’t want to hear
  5. Learn. Learn from the experience and apply in the future
  6. Lead. Improve yourself to elevate others

 

Communication

I believe the key is communication.

How to communicate. Often!

But in what method? Looking at two great crisis leaders, many will think of Roosevelt and Churchill. Many CEOs are not able to write speeches like Churchill, nor should they try. Instead, Roosevelt’s fireside talks are a better model. In crisis communication, the style is as critical as much as having the right message.

The CEO has to communicate a message to two audiences: the workforce and the customers. The message needs to demonstrate that the company has a plan to deal with the crisis. In the case of Covid-19, this may involve Work From Home or Supply Chain adjustments to ensure production. Staff and customers need reassuring that the company has sufficient financial resources to survive the economic downturn.

  • Be Honest. Shawn Engbrecht, a former US Army ranger, says in his book, “Invisible Leadership,” “As a leader, you can promise everything to the many until you are unable to deliver even a little to the few.” In the end, “Failure to tell the truth rapidly erodes trust and confidence in higher command.”

  • Face the Bad News. As Jim Collins says in “Good to Great,” “Who tells you the bad news?” Further, as Ben Horowitz in the “Hard Thing About Hard Things” notes that your employees know there is a crisis, trying to hide it from them and pretend all is well is not reassuring, but by doing so, you fail them and the organization. Tell the bad news, or as Mr. Engbrecht advocates, “embracing the suck.” You need to accept where you are at a given moment: “Wishing, hoping, and praying the problem away does not work, so don’t waste your time with coulda, shoulda, or woulda.” In short, no sugarcoating.

 

Anticipate
To anticipate the “unknown” of the current crisis against the “known” of previous ones, leaders gain perspective, identify patterns, connect the dots, and determine appropriate and timely responses. Too often, people don’t consider all the possibilities. It is critical to be out in front with a planned cascade of possible actions based on which scenarios unfold, likely more aggressive than your team can imagine right now. Anticipation becomes a Monte Carlo simulation in action. At times like this, move to think in ranges using probabilistic analysis rather than certainty, the latter is bound to be wrong. As most project management looks to Critical Path, probabilistic analysis shows Critical Bottlenecks. A good quick read is Why Can’t You Just Give Me the Number?

At each stage, what are the implications for employees, customers, and investors? A strategy is making a bet, and the skill of anticipating improves one’s odds. For the broader strategy, take a look at the National Defence University (NDU) ‘s “Weathering the Storm: Leading Your Organisation Through a Pandemic.” Produced in 2006, it is a useful and prescient document. Leaders need to analyze the tasks required for the organization to continue operating and prioritize them. Ensure the performance of essential functions, and employees are trained across different disciplines. Have succession plans throughout the organization, so your employees know who will cover for each other if someone is sick.

 

Navigate
As you manage through the crisis, plans may no longer be viable or workable. You need to change quickly and pivot to a new strategy. Darwin did not say, “It is survival of the fittest,” as many have claimed, but those that are the quickest to adapt to the changing environment survive. Daily briefings, updating everyone with the latest information to determine if the plans are still viable and, if not, what changes are required.

 

Lead
Many leaders’ natural inclination in a crisis is to go into a command-and-control mode. That’s not leadership. As David Marquet noted in “Turn the Ship Around,” move the decision making to where the information is. You, as the leader, cannot make all the decisions, too much information is coming in, and there are too many decisions during a crisis. Thus, leadership is creating a “bottom-up” culture to accurately perceive today to predict tomorrow. Also, create a fully dedicated crisis “war room” team to help through this; you cannot do it alone.

  • Urgent vs. Important. The constant battle in our lives! The urgent emails and claims on our time, take us away from what is essential. We have all become Pavlov’s dogs, responding to the urgent, that we don’t see what is critical. During a crisis, everything blurs as events and their implications continuously change. What’s important often becomes urgent, and what’s urgent becomes critical. However, leaders must delegate the urgent by empowering others to lead around a common purpose.

  • Leave No One Behind. In a crisis, effective leaders must connect with, motivate, and inspire others, and show genuine compassion. As I have said before, leadership is hard, and it is not about you, but about those you lead. Military leaders who put the safety and well-being of others before themselves best reflect this leadership. Those military leaders who say, “I’ve never lost a soldier” reveal a deep mindset of humility and accountability, rather than hubris and bravado.

  • Know What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do. In a crisis, learning either accelerates or you fail. The agility to learning to the “Nth” degree, applying past lessons to new and unfamiliar situations, is now essential. You need to know what to do when you don’t know what to do, but be willing to pivot at a moment’s notice if new information requires it.

 

Listen
A good leader must listen to staff concerns and answer their questions. During a crisis, that may require some patience as dismissing their concerns reveals a lack of empathy, destroying trust. However, as Mr. Engbrecht’s notes, “the quieter you become, the more you can hear.” Given where we are with Covid-19, online town-hall gatherings are great. My Vistage groups are having weekly Zoom meetings to check-in, support each other, and share best practices.

So, have a clear message, keep calm and honest. Do not sugarcoat things, blame others, and remember who this about. Share the pain, i.e. take a larger pay cut than the employees. Good leaders show they face at least some of the same dangers as their troops.

I wish you all the best, and may you all survive!

 

Copyright (c) 2020, Marc A. Borrelli