If we think back to lockdown and the pandemic, the speed of change was insane; projects that once took months took days, and everyone cut through red tape and processes to make things happen. So I ask the question: why does CRISIS = FOCUS = DELIVER?
So in normal day-to-day activities, I wanted to tease out and explore why we can’t switch to a model of NO CRISIS = FOCUS = DELIVER. Why do we, as humans, step up and deliver when the ‘going gets tough’. In our discovery work, we often hear clients talk about a ‘hero’ culture when things are broken, or when systems need that extra push in support, out-of-hours work, or emergency response. The lessons learned document often opens with statements such as ‘ xyz department stepped up, and they were brilliant’. ‘It was all hands on deck, and we made it work, and xyz ... saved the day’. The quote by Reid Hoffman states :
In crisis times, it’s actually not more difficult to motivate your staff, because everyone gets much more focused on how they control their own destiny.
The bottom line is that people step up in a crisis; they become self-motivated and just get on with it. They adopt a Nike mentality: ‘just do it’. Is it because this is the only focus required, the most important and only job to do, the save-the-day hero culture? One or all of these? Plus many others that are situation-specific?
What we do know is that, for many organisations, the COVID pandemic triggered a focus and a crisis response. Clients achieved results that, in almost every scenario we have come across, were impressive in terms of delivering change and making workforces available to work away from the office. Clearly, some were more prepared than others, and whilst everybody had challenges, many people achieved what was deemed impossible.
So if we are to adopt a new mantra of NO CRISIS = FOCUS = DELIVER, then what are the principles? I have concluded we have four to follow :
The "destiny in your own hands" quote above, I think, lets people see they are achieving something and gives them a purpose to carry on rather than aimlessly trying to hit a different target all the time. Ultimately, the four principles above focus minds on a common goal and get everyone on board, creating focus through a shared vision and goals aligned with that vision. In our work, we often see these missing in many of the organisations we work with.
Moving forward, I want to explore these with clients, and I am hoping that over the coming months we see the NO CRISIS = FOCUS = DELIVER mentality prevail. It will be great to get your thoughts and get more insights over the coming weeks and months. Please feel free to comment and provide your personal views.
CoStratify – Forming strong evidence for change