2021: HOLD MY BEER! Since 2020 Threw Everyones Crisis Playbook Out the Window

2021: HOLD MY BEER!

Since 2020 Threw Everyones Crisis Playbook Out the Window

 

I wrote this initial commentary a year ago. 

Reflecting on an 'unknown' that fast became a reality, causing all forms of crisis and 'emergency' situations for businesses everywhere. While 2020 posed new challenges, especially as brands grappled with new modes of operation, channels and forms of communication, and general uncertainty; 2021 was hoped to be the long awaited return to normality.

Now, 2022 has that honour, as the 2021 'sh1tstorm' really did say "hold my beer" and unraveled even more uncertainty for brand guardians, and reinforced the need for crisis planning, business continuity planning, and the like. 

But something was different! 

The fact that we had at least eight (8) month experience of the situation, started to bring certainty into our equation. New lockdowns were "repeat events" - brands had been through it before and were more equipped to respond and pivot accordingly. SOP's had been refined, so a quicker realignment to new expectations was possible. The 2020 playbook remained somewhat relevant, as we had that deeper understanding of what we faced. Not a complete understanding though; it still throws curveballs at us; but collectively, as a society, and individually, as brands, as people, we are more attune to the situation, and to possible responses and solutions.

Cold comfort though; it doesn't make the fight any less stressful. It only makes us marginally more informed. 

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Has crisis management changed because of 2020? The answer is both a convincing Yes and No. It has changed things; business continuity planning now takes greater precedence in our crisis planning structures, interpretations of “expect the unexpected” and “plan for the unplanned” have certainly taken on new meaning, this time with a vividly convincing case study; and our general appreciation of the immense speed at which things unfold now inform us (global collective for all businesses and people, not just us at Orchan) with more urgency and understanding of such urgency.

 

Conversely, it also reinforced that the principles of crisis planning, communication, and management are on-point! Best practice developed through decades of refinement, upgrading to meet new trends and technology; all remain valid and relevant today.

 

With that in mind, there have been some interesting lessons from 2020. Some of these are nicely summated in the following Forbes article, ‘Crisis Management When Everything is a Crisis’. We think 2020 fits that description pretty aptly.

 

Whats been your key lesson from managing 2020?

 

Crisis Management When Everything is a Crisis

 

Question: When did you last consider the Australian wildfires? 

 

Seems forever ago? The Australian wildfires could be considered one of the very first crises of 2020, a tragic carry-over from 2019 that left the country with some 49 million scorched acres. 

 

Since then, the pandemic, along with seemingly hundreds of other crises, has forced many companies into survival mode, focused only on the emergency of the day. While such fly by-the-seat-of-your-pants management is necessary in extreme cases, when this becomes the organization’s core strategy (or rather, lack thereof) the damage can be permanent. 

 

Some argue that crises are not, in fact, increasing in frequency, only that public awareness of them is growing. That point seems true. Leaders also recognize it’s irrelevant: In our “culture of crisis,” every senior leader needs to adapt their strategies and communications to account for the vast shifts taking place. 

 

That is, what does crisis management look like in 2020, when everything is a crisis?

A good argument can be made for maintaining a focus on brand purpose — that is, reminding employees why you do what you do. When well defined and authentic, purpose serves as a lighthouse by which employees can navigate back to the organization’s core mission, no matter the particular storm. 

 

Unfortunately, despite several months of social distancing, the pandemic, and the global recession it has generated, isn’t disappearing anytime soon — if anything, the landscape for business is more confusing than ever. What’s more, global attitudes about the state of the economy are, in many countries, more negative than they were during the Great Recession. The U.S. has 11 million fewer jobs than it did prior to the pandemic, and it took more than four years for the country to recover the 8 million jobs lost during the 2007-2009 recession. 

 

In the wake of such change, brands of all types have been forced to rapidly evolve or face extinction. 

 

For example, Fifth Season, a connected consumer experience and vertical farming provider located in Pittsburgh, was forced to immediately pivot their operations from a focus on wholesale to the consumer. (Full disclosure: Fifth Season is a former client of Spectacle.)

In response to temporary purchasing holds announced by its partner retailers, Fifth Season successfully launched a new line of pre-packaged salad kits for delivery aimed at consumers in the greater Pittsburgh area. This required the company to quickly shift its operations and develop a new business centered around contactless residential delivery.

 

How can your organization successfully accomplish such a dramatic pivot? Gaining authentic buy-in from employees is key, obviously. Here are a few high-level tips for improving employee engagement during times of crisis: 

 

Remain visible: Leaders do tough stuff visibly. In times of dramatic change, there’s no substitute for senior leadership visibility in minimizing negative employee speculation and fostering positive attitudes. If continued social distancing or travel limitations prevent leadership from being in-person physically, increase your use of digital tools to do so virtually.

 

Paint a clear picture of the future: Good crisis managers communicate early and often to employees the organization's long-term vision and growth plans — that is, they take a step back and remind their employees about the amazing future they are building, collectively. By focusing on the long-term change or outcome your company is driving and how individual people or teams contribute to the effort, leadership can shift focus from the incident at hand while quelling anxieties by reminding employees of the organization’s higher purpose and values.

 

Not all companies are struggling, of course. ETI Tech, a 30-year old provider of flight hardware parts and ground support equipment for the defense and aerospace industry, is one of few in its sector seeing growth. Revenue accretion in aerospace in 2020 stands in sharp relief to a majority of the sector, where titans such as Boeing have seen their stock values nearly halved.

 

ETI Tech has cited employee creativity as the key to navigating crises. Alongside traditional crisis management, which is focused on having defined crisis-related processes and procedures and rooted in incident severity planning, organizations are wise to hire creative people to ensure the company is fundamentally designed to solve hard, unstructured problems, with minimal panic.

 

While increasing innovation is almost always a top-five CEO goal, facilitating innovation on an ongoing basis is a much different story. Based on my work with category leaders across sectors, as well as my experience running a successful professional services firm for more than a decade, I consider the following practices critical to innovation:

 

Encourage nonconforming behaviors: According to Harvard Business Review, less than 10% of companies regularly encourage nonconformity. In order to address novel challenges, organizations cannot always apply the same decision-making frameworks as before or continue to accept any innovation-killing internal dynamics. Seek to promote constructive nonconforming behaviors and you stand to gain significantly more value from your team. 

 

Make the goal crystal clear, but allow for autonomy: Many young leaders make the mistake of micromanaging, which causes unnecessary stress and drives a wedge between them and their employees. Instead, vividly paint a picture of the goal and critical KPIs that will help your team assess its performance, and then trust your people to figure it out. 

 

Don’t make perfection the goal: Perfectionism can, of course, be a positive force — such as in the case of Olympic athletes who have perfected their craft. In the workplace, however, perfectionism often leads to frustration, fear and burnout. Today’s highest-performing companies have learned to fail fast and accept that imperfection is almost always better than inaction.

 

Don’t hire creative people if you don’t plan to use their ideas: Among the many things senior leadership must avoid while seeking to instill innovation is the temptation to make creative hires and then force those people to work within the same structural confines as, say, your accounting team. To commit to innovation, you need to commit to feeling comfortable with letting others run with their good ideas. 

 

With all the doom and gloom, it's important for business leaders to be efficient and tactical when managing during a crisis. Gaining authentic buy-in from employees and facilitating innovation are two ways leaders can spark success.

 

 

Article Source: Council Post: Crisis Management When Everything Is A Crisis (forbes.com)