What if the impossible is now possible?

As the World continues to be in the grip of the Covid 19 pandemic and the scale of the tragic loss of life continues to grow, the world is in lock down. Organisations are responding with a dual purpose – first to protect people by sending them home and second to find a way to keep trading if at all possible.

In the face of the crisis some extraordinary things are happening. Take the Mercedes F1 team who helped develop a breathing aid to keep coronavirus patients out of intensive care, in collaborating with a host of other rival teams. Working with clinicians and mechanical engineers from University College London they have created a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device which has been approved by the NHS. The first device was produced in less that 100 hours.

NHS Nightingale, a specially and rapidly commissioned hospital for coronavirus patients at the London Excel Centre, has been built in the space of just two weeks. Plans were drawn up, approved and acted on to create the world’s largest critical care centre.

In these extraordinary times, what was once thought impossible is proving possible. Red tape and bureaucracy are being set aside for speedy progress. Rivalry is being replaced with collaboration. Barriers are being torn down and new conversations are starting. “You do that, I do this, what happens if we try this?”.

These examples are incredible because of the health benefits they provide in the global pandemic and also because the speed at which an idea has become a reality. As both of us have carried projects through what Alan Leyton called “the treacle of the organisation” – risk committees, investment boards, executive meetings, procurement processes, consultation with unions and other stakeholders, we are looking with admiration and envy at the speed with which these ideas have landed into reality.

All organisations will be experiencing a similar shift in behaviour as they make sense of their trading conditions in the crisis. Old bad habits are frozen and new ways of working are being learnt.

Leaders will undoubtedly be on the dance floor a lot during these times and quite rightly so, they are needed there. A large part of their role now is reassurance, along with providing information and instruction. During a crisis we expect our leaders to be visible. Dancefloor conversations are great at understanding what is happening in the here and now and give leaders valuable insight on how to respond. People need to feel their leaders are present.

Leaders also need to create capacity to return to the balcony. Their balcony work will include looking at the new dance in the organisation. Noticing how easily old and perhaps restrictive habits are being set aside in the crisis and asking how we can ensure they stay gone when we restart. There will also be important new habits emerging that will be valuable to continue, including once unthinkable collaborations with competitors and speeding through approval process to release capital to get the right work done. Faced with a crisis, organisations are taking bold steps to survive. The work of Leadership is to recognise those patterns and understand the value in the new patterns that are emerging which would be valuable to sustain. Noticing these changes and beginning the conversation about them now will serve leaders well for the future.

Equally, energy in the time of crisis is rarely repeated in steady state. People are focused, the agenda narrower, generally people are working very long hours as they are committed to getting the work done. This way of working is not sustainable beyond the crisis. However, it is essential to watch and learn from the events. As the barriers that exist in steady state which prevent action or momentum are swept aside, how do we ensure they do not re-emerge in the future?

Perhaps Leadership success is getting through this and thinking about what happens next, responding to this and taking a leap of faith. Is company governance risk management or work avoidance? Is the culture in the organisation geared up to enable people to be bold or to enable the status quo? How do we view organisational threats – to be avoided or a source of collaboration?  Are trade unions a nuisance or a valuable perspective on how to get good work done together, are they an inhibitor, the “other” or an authentic different voice? Not that we advocate all controls are bad, clearly they are not. Rather that this unnatural pause that crisis offers can be a real moment of reflection for organisations.

Who knows what we return to? To continue enterprise into the future may well require a continuation of the speed and momentum that has been illustrated as possible through this crisis. Will that require bold enabled entrepreneurship or will the status quo suffice?

Creating the capacity to think about the “new normal” is important. At the very least recognising that nothing will be the same again is a first step. Imagining how if the impossible is possible may give us hope for some good to come from crisis. 

Anne McCarthy is an experienced leader of change and transformation, supporting business with their people strategy. (+44) 7801 091538.

Murray Cook is experienced at leading change in complex situations and developing creative solutions to strategic challenges. (+44) 7547 504277.