When we asked HR and business heads how their people were coping in the pandemic, we heard various anecdotes of isolation, fear, uncertainty and burnout. Many spoke about the need many workers have to upskill/reskill for a digital world, and how they missed the social connection and incidental learning that happens naturally in the office. We also heard stories of courage, compassion and vulnerability.
In the main there was a sense that working virtually wasn’t particularly difficult to adjust to, though it was tiring for many especially the younger people who didn’t have the luxury of a house for themselves, a home office, a garden, etc. The fatigue is accentuated by the lack of clarity around how long will this new way of working last and what changes will organisations need to make if they are to survive the biggest recession the world has seen since World War II.
Complementing our interviews with desk research gave us a neater picture of what we can expect the business environment to look like in the coming months and years.
EMBRACING COMPLEXITY
It’s hard to predict with confidence how the COVID-19 crisis will unfold, however we can assume that the business environment is likely going to be more complex and uncertain, with disruptions caused by climate change, digital technology, and new forms of virus bound to increase in the future. In addition, fundamental changes in consumer behavior, supply chains, and routes to market are likely to make life more difficult for organisations and individuals leading them.
In the short term, government guidance on “reopening” are likely to be elaborated and tortuous, creating more work for time-starved managers. Leaders who were effective in primarily co-located working arrangements will need to learn a new way of leading in a hybrid (i.e. part virtual and part on-site) world. At all levels of organisations, there will be more things to do, at a higher pace and with fewer resources. Teams will need to acquire skills quickly and use resources in a focused manner.
PURSUING INNOVATION
63% of large companies around the world face high levels of industry disruption[1] and 68% of C-level executives expect their industry to be significantly disrupted by new technology-led innovations in the next three years[2].
Now more than ever, organisations need employees to innovate. They need employees’ ideas about what customers want. They need employees’ creativity and enthusiasm in order to survive, adapt and grow. Innovation is problem solving, and a whole lot more. Whether it’s the creation of a new future, continuous improvement, preventing problems or merely solving problems, successful outcomes require a particular set of skills and mindset in the team.
Innovation also requires that organisations evolve their control-oriented personnel policies and recruit team leaders who will encourage – not punish – employees who try innovations that don’t satisfy pre-specified performance targets.
MASTERING LEARNING
The impact of automation is already here, as across sectors and industries robots take over human jobs. The pandemic is going to accelerate this trend with robot cleaners, contactless kiosks, and APPs replacing the need for human skills.
As jobs are automated, the effectiveness of individuals in complex, unfamiliar, creative and relational work activities is dependent on their ability to learn in-the-moment in order to get things done. Understanding and improving leaders and teams’ ability to learn will be a competitive advantage for organisations needing to adapt and change.
In their Future of Jobs Report (2018), The World Economic Forum put ‘active learning’ in the top skills required for success in the 21st Century. Critically, the strongest indicator of the potential to succeed is the ability to learn – not intelligence, expertise, prior experience, or motivation. In agile, human-centered organisations prevalent in a post COVID19 world, teams need to develop this essential skill.
PROTECTING OUR ENVIRONMENT
Protecting our environment will be at the heart of how our society achieves economic prosperity. The COVID19 experience has made us realise that we don’t have to get on a plane and into the same physical room in order to meet a client, work with team members and learn.
With business travel representing 50% or more of an organisation’s greenhouse gas emissions, more and more workers will want to feel that their company is contributing positively to society beyond shareholder revenue. The availability of cost-effective and easy to use technology will make face to face working and learning less socially acceptable as the world unites around safeguarding planet earth.
Even if many of us thrive on face to face collaboration, offices could become less and less a place for people to show up for work. The success of home working will make organisations question whether the high investment in office buildings are needed at all, or whether these could be replaced by more flexible meeting spaces in strategic locations. These “white rooms”, booked through an APP, will enable teams to meet up from time to time when in person collaboration is critical.
CRAVING HUMAN CONNECTION
In a pre-pandemic world, 84% of professionals worked in virtual teams at least part of the time and we can expect virtual working to increase further going forward.[3]
To a certain degree, technology such as video conference systems will alleviate part of the need for human presence that was previously possible in an office. Tools like Zoom and Microsoft Teams will make it easier for workers to get to know colleagues, suppliers and clients in their natural, home environment. However, the lack of face to face interaction with people is likely to pose great threats to mental health leading to increased feelings of isolation, anxiety and depression.
Team leaders, keen to find ways to support and connect with their team members around the world, will need Augmented Reality to increase meaning and a feeling of presence in their virtual meetings.
ACCELERATING THE ADOPTION OF AGILE MODELS
Since 2016, organisationally the world has been heading towards agile as the new dominant paradigm. In a business environment characterised by unpredictable headwinds and changing talent expectations, this trend is accelerating with the “best talent” seeking to challenge traditional ways of working.
Top-down hierarchy, silos and detailed instructions prevalent in traditional organisations give way to adaptable and informal forms of organisations that employ network of teams operating in rapid learning and decision-making cycles. Imagine a 25,000 people company on a giant cruise ship wanting to become 25,000 people in a few hundred yachts.
In agile organisations, teams create a work environment that is physically and technically removed from the bureaucratic decision-making of traditional companies. They also thrive thanks to data, as up to date, relevant data enables teams to take decisions at speed.
Moving to an agile operating model is tough. It requires a compelling aspiration from the top leadership team. It also demands a shift in the collective consciousness and capabilities to deliver the required change.
HARNESSING THE POWER OF PODS
For a few years, organisations have been reinventing themselves to operate as networks of teams, enabling them to keep up with the challenges of a rapid changing world.
Whilst different team typologies – traditional intact teams, project teams, permanent functional units with evolving memberships, etc. – will continue to form the “fabric” of organisations, greater attention will reside on “PODs”: small, virtual or distributed teams, able to solve complex challenges, regardless the physical distance between members.
PODs stands for “Performance Orchestrated (at a) Distance”, underlying the need for virtual teams to work effectively together if they are to achieve their objectives. PODs thrive on autonomy, effective collaboration and a prejudice for quick decisions. Whilst team leaders set goals and overall deadlines for a project, PODs have a loose form of self-organisation determined by the desired business outcomes and agreements made by the team members themselves.
PODs may be long or short-lived, formal or informal, dynamic or static, characterized by deep subject matter expertise or cross-functional, whichever best serves the team in reaching its objectives. Individuals may belong to more than one POD, and a POD may even include external members, e.g. client, supplier or partner.
Team members identify strongly with their POD(s); their POD experience drives how productive, satisfied and resilient they are and ultimately, how long they choose to stay in the broader organisation. Given that the POD experience is a key driver of performance, what can team leaders do to liberate the talent available within the team?
If that’s the direction we are heading, how will organisations generate new value in this age or virtual working?
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