Nature Pushed the Reset-Button
Challenges for Companies and Individuals: Disunity or Global Solidarity
Edited by Linden R. Brown, Ph.D.
“Those who live for their company will emerge from this crisis victoriously, those who live from their company will lose,” posted Belgian economist Geert Noels on March 23, 2020, on LinkedIn. This statement can have different interpretations. One is to regard it as a call to pursue financial profit at any cost. The other is to view it as a call for engagement and contribution. I prefer to believe Geert Noels means engaged employees when referring to those living for their company. If so, he points to a problem that existed pre-coronavirus. If Gallup’s numbers are anywhere near correct, we will have 90% of “losers” in Belgium, the US and Canada will have 69% of them, and Australia deals with 86% “losers.” Nevertheless, as Gallup notes, the solution for a disengaged workforce lies with the workforce and its leaders. More specifically, how can leaders activate their teams around a shared purpose, a strategic intent? Although not easy to achieve, it requires a cultural transformation that deals with how co-workers think about their jobs and their relationships with those around them. Such change requires leadership and commitment to drive continual development and innovation, positivity, and future orientation. Leaders in both the West and East have proven it can result in achieving a competitive advantage. [i]
Nature Pushed the Reset-Button
Then, nature pushes the reset button, the coronavirus hits, and we all wake up -some are still in the process- in a strangely changed world that will be the new normal. Earth has been pushing reset-buttons for a while now, affecting millions of poor people. Nevertheless, this time, the sense of urgency literally confines us to our homes. As of now, “re” is the relevant qualifier of most verbs. To rethink is one of them.
On March 20, 2020, the Financial Times published an article by Yuval Noah Harari titled: “The world after coronavirus.” [ii] In it, the author suggests that most of us will survive but will live in a totally different world. Harari describes how coronavirus enables ultrafast decision-making. For instance, the decision to teach 100% online in schools and universities would typically take years. He boils the crisis down to two questions that are related to “living for or from the company.” The first is the choice between totalitarian surveillance and citizen empowerment. The second is between nationalist isolation and global solidarity. Harari also claims that, as individuals, each of us must choose in the near future. According to the author, that choice can only be to trust scientific data and health experts over conspiracy theories and self-serving politicians.
The Financial Times praised the Belgium government for how it is handling the coronavirus. It states that “the Belgian government shows that a fragmented country can still produce a clear, decisive response to a national crisis.” [iii]
To achieve compliance and collaboration, one needs trust. To solve a global problem like the coronavirus pandemic and in its wake the global economy, we need global cooperation. Bring it down to the local level of one company, and you need the same ingredients: trust and collaboration. Bring it down to the local level of a family, and you still need both. Yet, as Harari points out, in recent years, some politicians have undermined the trust in science, public authorities, and the media. He dismisses not the use of mass surveillance technology but promotes its use to enable citizens as well. Citizens can be kept ignorant and told what to do and to believe, or facts can empower them.
The choice the world is about to make between disunity or global solidarity will redefine cultures. Companies face the same decision at all levels — a fantastic opportunity to reinvigorate or redefine their organizational culture.
Revisiting Organizational Culture
“Culture isn’t just one aspect of the game– — it is the game. In the end, an organization is no more than the collective capacity of its people to create value” (Gerstner, 2002).
For practitioners, organizational culture is the group setting in which people work and how that setting impacts the way they think, act, interact and perceive their jobs. Note the word group; it means that within one organization, different cultures can exist. Organizational cultures can bring out the best and the worst in people. They vary from healthy to toxic, and within a dominant toxic culture, clusters with a healthy culture can co-exist, and vice versa. Many factors influence culture, but organizational culture mainly reflects its leader(s). Although most recognize the value of an influential culture, many leaders fail to grasp the close-knit relationship between effective management, and the building and sustaining of a winning culture.[iv] Effective management is not where the void is; it is in truly understanding and managing culture.
Team Resilience
A group, the word used in the definition of organizational culture, is not a synonym for a team. A group is a collection of individuals who coordinate their efforts. Within such a group, a culture will emerge by default as people spend time together. A team is a group of people who share a purpose and challenging goals. Team members mutually commit to each other and their objectives. Again, a culture will emerge in a team as well, yet it can develop by design.
Resilience is “the ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” Some people are more resilient than others. The courage to face one’s fears, for example, is among the traits of resilient individuals. So are cognitive flexibility, self-control, and a positive attitude. However, a team that consists of resilient team members does not necessarily make for a resilient team. In tough times -just think about all health care workers at the moment- only a resilient team performs reliably and sustains morale over a long time. Resilience only becomes apparent during challenges and prolonged hard times.[v]
And that is something that every organization is discovering as the days and weeks pass.
Leadership in Times of Crisis
It is the senior leader’s job to make both culture and strategy a top priority in decision-making and practices. Should this be any different in times of crisis? Tim Johnson, the author of the book Crisis Leadership, argues it should not. He defines crisis leadership as “the ability of leaders not to show different competencies but rather to display the same competencies under the extreme pressure that characterize a crisis.” The ability to achieve goals when all is uncertain, high levels of emotion exist, decision-making must be swift, and extreme external scrutiny can take place, is a must whether a crisis occurs or not. Mr. Johnson’s advice for top leaders is to focus on three steps. They are (1) challenge one’s optimism bias, (2) cultivate a crisis-ready culture, and (3) prepare the organization and its leaders to respond when things go rancid. [vi]
The resilience of teams and cultures of organizations — ours, yours — are put to the test. Those organizations that have disengaged managers and staff where leaders have not paid enough attention to understanding and testing their culture are at the highest risk in this crisis. Those that do not act now face the gravest of consequences.
Reset, Rethink, redefine, reinvigorate, reinvent, relate.
Between the time I started to write this article and the time I finished, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the US exceeded that of China. However, like Yuval Noah Harari wrote: “This storm will pass. But the choices we make now could change our lives for years to come.” It is time for re-xing. Now is the time to reset by rethinking, reinvigorating, redefining our businesses and test, test, test. Like the spread of COVID-19, each day lost magnifies the risks and the consequences.
References
[i] Gallup, Inc. (2017) State of the global workplace. New York: Gallup Press, pp. 76, 164, 180.
[ii] Noah Harari, Y. (2020) “Yuval Noah Harari: the world after coronavirus”, Financial Times. Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/19d90308-6858-11ea-a3c9-1fe6fedcca75 (Accessed: 25 March 2020).
[iii] The Brussels Times (2020) “Coronavirus: Financial Times praises Belgium’s approach”, The Brussels Times. Available at: https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/102623/coronavirus-financial-times-praises-belgiums-approach/ (Accessed: 26 March 2020).
[iv] Warrick, D. (2017) “What leaders need to know about organizational culture”, Business Horizons, 60(3), pp. 395–404. doi: 10.1016/j.bushor.2017.01.011.
[v] Alliger, G. et al. (2015) “Team resilience”, Organizational Dynamics, 44(3), pp. 176–184. doi: 10.1016/j.orgdyn.2015.05.003.
[vi] Johnson, T. (2018) Crisis Leadership. London: Bloomsbury Business.
