This may just be the way that entire organization adopts an agile approach

What we have heard from business leaders 7 weeks into COVID and what leaders can prepare for…

·       It felt much longer that many businesses have been struggling to achieve continuity, partially or fully closed, or have been running beyond capacity and stretching their supply chains. 

·       All have experienced restrictions on employee interactions at some level including work from home, increased measures to keep employees safe, new procedures for manufacturing essential services, etc. without a clear end in sight.  

We hear how in this new context organizations have generally:

·       Employees at all levels have generally adapted very quickly to whatever the new current reality is.   

·       Decisions that would typically take months have taken days.   

·       Response teams assembled and put plans in place with imperfect information.  

Many leaders are working around the clock to address everyday business continuity and many leadership teams are becoming weary.  However, now is the time for leaders to shift mindsets and focus from the immediate and present, to scenario planning the near and longer-term business.   It can be quite easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day fire fighting and tell ourselves how it’s too soon to make predictions or decisions beyond now.  But businesses are required to make some projection of future demand for products or services, planning supply chain and commercial requirements, the future of employees, and, in some cases, whether to business strategies require transformation.  Depending on the industry and the maturity of the business, these plans will vary widely and the amount of uncertainty about the economy and business conditions is never-ending.  

How leadership teams utilize some of the learnings from COVID’s immediate response can be viewed as similar to deploying an agile culture and continuous improvement mindset to the overall business.  

·       Do not let perfection get in the way.   

·       Set a few different scenarios from what is known today and what you can predict for the future. 

·       Create multi-functional teams 

·       Break down next steps into milestones and use a pilot approach if possible.  

·       Monitor progress, reflect, and seek input – frequently

·       Adjust as necessary.

How does this resonate with your leadership tendencies and how might you make a shift?

Bree Ranieri

Co-founder Cotalent