20th April 2020
How to emerge stronger from Covid 19? Your people may be the answer
This post was originally written in a LinkedIn article – If you want to know how to emerge stronger from the Covid crisis – ask your people – to read the full article, click here.
One thing that has always surprised me has been the propensity for leaders to turn to outsiders to get advice on what an organisation should do to improve its performance or innovate its products, services or processes. That may seem a strange thing to say as someone who has built his career on providing advice. But the missing part of the first sentence is … without first asking the people that work in the organisation.
It’s my firm belief that everyone that works in an organisation will have at least one good idea on how to improve something. And, if every leader took advantage of this collective innovative potential, the results would be transformational.
Now’s the time to unlock the innovative capability of everyone that works for you
We are all beginning to see how far-reaching the impact of Covid-19 will be. It is changing almost everything – and very quickly. But this should show us that change, and rapid change, is possible. So why don’t we all use this as a catalyst to really challenge what our organisations do and how we do it? And why don’t we ask our people for their advice? After all they are the ones who run the processes, engage with customers, supplies, colleagues.
There is an inspirational article from the Harvard Business Review entitled Roaring out of Recession, which charts the leadership response to various recessions. It shows that you can’t just cut or promote your way out of a recession. Instead you need to think about how the recession/crisis has changed the world that you will emerge into and adapt what you do to fit that new reality. The article’s authors call this a progressive response because it combines sensible cost reductions with smart innovation.
I believe your people can help you do both – identify sensible cost savings and innovate what you do. All you need to do is ask them.