Tip for organizational leaders - don't let a good crisis go to waste!

It is fair to say that we are dealing with a lot of crises in the world today. From political and social to moral and environmental. It feels as though the world is more chaotic than ever. Of course, I believe we all have a role to play in our spheres of influence, no matter how small, to address the crises around us. I am reminded of the story of the little bird who was carrying water from the sea in its little beak to pour on a forest fire. When asked why they were doing this, knowing surely that it couldn't put the raging fire out on its own, the bird replied that it simply couldn't do nothing. My focus today though is on organizational crises. The current economic climate means that many companies around the globe are having to adjust. Many are looking for new revenue streams, others are desperately fighting to hold onto market share. Some are aggressively looking to upskill their workforces rapidly to stay relevant and cope with an AI-powered world. Age-old strategies like cost-cutting, at times inevitable, restructuring, mergers have upset the apple cart. We are also seeing from data that global employee engagement numbers are down to 21% , engagement in the US workforce is down at a 10 year low, with managers seeing the greatest decline.

What to do with this as an organizational leader? While avoiding the debate about the true history of the phrase "never let a good crisis go to waste" and being deeply mindful that many of the crises inside and outside organizations have impact on real people and their livelihoods - I think there is some merit to the idea of leveraging the moment that we are in across a lot of organizations. 

Recognize the moment that you are in

I have found on my own journey that employees, the lifeblood of any organization, are smarter than we often give them credit for. If the organization or team is going through a tough time, if the bottom line has suffered a body blow, even if it is existential, be up front and allow folks the agency to decide if they want to remain on the journey with you. Keep as many cards as you can on the table, face-up. Some teams have had to down size, at times significantly. Remainers (I prefer that term to survivors in this context), may feel some guilt, may need to adapt to different responsibilities. It's the truth, it's the reality, let's face it head on as leaders. Acknowledge it. Step into it with courage.

Take and share what you can in the crisis

Imagine for a moment you are a subsistence, hunter-gatherer... stay with me, living in a fertile flood plain. Now imagine you are the leader of that group of hunter-gatherers. The river floods once a year, there's always abundant food, water, shelter, clothing in the plain, but one year, there's a drought. The river doesn't flood. What do you do? Perhaps there are different flora and fauna that appear in the new conditions, perhaps there are new skills to be gained in this new uncertain world. What can the group take from a situation they would never have chosen, but now find themselves in? Without pushing the metaphor too far, I believe this potential exists with organizations dealing with crises. What can we learn? This is not about spinning a bad situation and making it sound better than it is or selling team members "a bill of goods", it's about honestly admitting that while we would not have chosen to be in these circumstances, we would like to deliberately extract learning and stretch ourselves in these moments. Leaders and managers have a crucial role to play in this process. At times, team members are so stressed, that they need an invitation to reflect on what learnings have occurred even in the most stressful of circumstances. I've seen this in my own practice coaching individuals through tough organizational change where upon being invited to reflect, they admit that even though it was stressful, they found themselves deploying and developing different skill sets, mindsets, relationships and habits which they would not have otherwise.

Embed and institutionalize the learning

Revisiting the hunter-gatherer picture for a moment. Say you've come through the dry year, you've developed new skills, found hitherto unexplored food sources. How do you celebrate, maybe even commemorate that success, how do you pass that on to the next generation so to speak, how do you improve the chances that in the future, your tribe is more likely to weather similar (or even entirely different) shocks. What stories or songs will you sing around the campfire, what drawings will you leave behind, what artefacts would you create? Again bringing this to the world of modern organizational life, can you tell your story internally, maybe even externally. Can you write an article, publish a blog, speak at a conference. Can you check in with your team, in one-on-ones or in a broader survey: "we intentionally chose to reframe our organizational challenges as opportunities for learning, how did you find that"? Have open forums to discuss the learnings and the experience, create rich pictures describing not just the learnings, but the feelings as you went through the process. Ask what we would do differently, we can take forward and what kind of organization we hope to become having chosen to approach our crisis in this way.