With corporate insolvencies currently running 80% higher than this time last year, many hitherto stable businesses may face moments of crisis in the coming months. SO how can we prepare for that moment and ensure that we don't damage the business more than is necessary?
Firstly, it is worth saying organisations that weather a crisis tend to be those that have measures in place. In order to do so, there must be measures in place to ensure their stability before the crisis struck.
If you want to improve the stability and resilience of your organisation, you could look redesigning the organisation in order to flatten hierarchies, promoting flexibility and autonomy in the workforce, enhancing the use of technology to automate routine processes and assist employees, improving communications, and stimulating learning and creativity in the workforce. Once a crisis is upon you, you won't have time for those measures, so it is worth thinking ahead.
By building a resilient organisation, we improve the probability of survival, but we don't guarantee it. A prudent organisation will make a plan to deal with possible crises.
"The crisis you have to worry about most is the one you don't see coming." – Mike Mansfield, politician and diplomat
Strategic planning is vital if the preparations for a crisis are to be carried through without seriously affecting the line management, the workforce, the customers and the suppliers. Essentially, we need to ensure that we don't affect important stakeholders in the programme of resilience.
As we move through changes, it is integral that we keep people in the loop. Losing commitment during any step can seriously damage the whole project.
Any significant change in processes is cultural and, consequently, takes time. The workforce needs to understand the nature of the change and the rationale for it. This cannot be done by holding mass meetings and sending out memos and bulletins. Management must be totally involved, prepared to take the time to effect the changes needed.
This is why the process requires total commitment from senior and line management. Many people will be afraid of change and worried that it is a prelude to cost cutting and driving down wages. These fears are very real and must be addressed.
Keeping open lines
The key to this is communication. Senior management must make their vision clear from the outset. The process must be transparent and employee concerns must be taken into account at every stage.
Communication must be clear, and it must be a dialogue. It would go against the principles of building a resilient, agile organisation if the process of building it was by order from above rather than by consensus. Senior managers have to carry the workforce with them, otherwise the project fails and the end result is a mishmash of half-built teams, confused processes, duplications and gaps.
This means promoting a clear understanding of the business' objectives and goals, clarifying the role of the workforce in achieving those objectives, explaining the process in detail and justifying changes, listening to all the doubts, fears and objections and dealing with them, and setting out the timetable and the levels of involvement of line management in the change process.
It is important to announce each step in the process far in advance of it coming into effect. This gives people time to think about it, to raise any objections, and to get used to the idea before any action is taken. The key tactic here is to announce each step as a challenge, rather than allow employees to believe it's a dangerous leap into the unknown.
Engaged employees
Presented with challenges, the vast majority of the workforce will feel engaged. However, this is only true if senior managers are involving themselves in a way that convinces the employees that they are actively involved. Senior management will also have to feel confident that employees have trust in them, feel they are committed to the process, and listen to issues that may arise.
Allaying the fears of employees is important. Their involvement in self-managed teams is likely to make their working day a more interesting and fulfilling one, and the ability of the teams to influence outcomes is likely to make employees feel less like a very small cog in a very large machine. This helps to raise employee satisfaction levels, and eases the pathways to change.
A group effort
Key to making this work are supervisors, team leaders and first line managers. They are the ones most directly in touch with the workforce, and will have first-hand information about the effect of the changes on the workforce. Supervisors are directly involved in coaching and leading teams, so their commitment to the process will be vital in embedding change in the operational levels of the organisation. They are key to encouraging teams, promoting resilience, and driving training and learning within the team.
Consequently, senior management must recognise those roles. Note that this does not necessarily have to be a monetary reward, but it must acknowledge their importance within the organisation.
This also has advantages in reinforcing a commitment to lifelong learning. The commercial world changes rapidly, and continuous learning and upskilling is a significant factor in maintaining an effective workforce. A self-managed team is likely to encourage individuals to grow and develop.
This blog is an extract from John Taylor’s course, Corporate Resilience and Business Recovery
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