Strategy for the Next Normal: 3 Questions Leaders Should be Asking

Last year, many organizations made significant changes to keep their businesses afloat–from going after different markets and launching new products and services to implementing across-the-board Work from Home or Work from Anywhere for their employees. By now, most organizations have the data to determine what market and product changes are sustainable for the new economy we are entering, and now is the ideal time to re-think and fine-tune your organization to determine the best strategy, structure, and work design.

Which COVID-era strategies will we keep?

Right now we are perfectly positioned to ask some challenging questions to help us make needed, far-reaching decisions. Which strategic changes made last year should be kept, and which ones should go away? A current client had made a significant pivot in their services in March and April of 2020, and their strategy paid off through the pandemic. Their major market went away in March of 2020, and the change in strategy was required. However, in evaluating data in light of the emerging economy, recently the business made some decisions to stay the course with some strategic decisions from 2020 and to re-define others. For example, there is one particular market the business will return to, as before the pandemic (and already these efforts are proving profitable and sustainable). Additionally, the organization has services introduced during the pandemic they will keep—but on a smaller scale and focusing only on the most profitable sectors and service areas. Other COVID-era services are going away entirely because they are less profitable and less sustainable for the long term. Post pandemic, the organization sharpened its focus and set fewer priorities as they re-designed for growth. And it is paying off. For many organizations, this is the perfect time to re-tune (or perhaps re-pivot) to face the economic upturn.

How will the work get done to drive the strategy?

Probably the most immediate questions companies are asking right now are “what will our work model look like?” and “How will we design our best Hybrid model, to allow for work-life balance as well as operational excellence?” Through 2020, while most organizations were learning that our employees are more productive and less in need of oversight than we thought, our employees were learning that two hours of commute time each day is wasted effort. Going back to the workplace of the past is not advisable if you want to recruit the next employees and retain the best ones you have. It is time (perhaps past time) to create a customized hybrid model. According to a Fast Company Compass newsletter last week, recent McKinsey research indicates that “two-thirds of full-time corporate or government employees surveyed said that their employers haven’t shared a detailed post-pandemic office strategy.” This is horrible news. Additionally, recent Gartner research shows that 58% of employees indicate that a hybrid, flexible workplace is key to staying with their employers. Without a strong, flexible hybrid plan, and a strong, related communication plan, you may soon experience “the great resignation” in 2021 which could be disastrous for your organization. For more information about planning your Hybrid “return to office” refer to our recent blog about 5 Questions Leaders Should be Asking right now. Our next blog will go into more detail about what should be included your return to work plan.

What structural changes should we make to function in the new reality?

Again, focusing on what we learned during the pandemic: many organizations found that productivity did not decrease but significantly improved during 2020 and early 2021. It may have taken management some getting used to, but many leaders found that they could trust their employees to get the job done; and asynchronous, co-located work is not always required. With the adoption of better and long-overdue technologies, many organizations saw improved project flow. Indeed, some managers found themselves feeling threatened because if their role was not that or overseeing the throughput in the physical office, then what was it? A key question to ask is: do we really need as many people in the middle of the organization as we used to have? Harvard Business Review published an interesting article about the pandemic’s toll on Middle Managers and how we should be changing the way we define the middle manager role as well as the pathways for advancement in our organizations: It’s Time to Free the Middle Manager. In fact, while we’re evaluating organizational structure, we need to look at new ways of developing and advancing employees through the organization. In a recent blog, I shared an innovative idea for rethinking your organizational structure for stronger employee development, motivation, and retention, while also building in flexibility for the future business: one organization I spoke with has 85% Millennial employees, has a traditional hierarchical structure (with traditional pay structures within that structure), and it is losing its best employees. The company is evaluating realigning to a more cross-functional structure that would allow employees to enter the organization in one cross-functional process, orient themselves to the organization, move up within months to a new level in that process; then within a few months move up to more of a leader role in that process. Within a year or two, the employee will move to a new cross-functional process. And so forth. For your organization this may sound too “outside the box,” but the question should be asked: is your current organizational structure aligned to meet all your objectives, including your people development and employee retention objectives? Could you improve extrinsic motivation through re-thinking workflows and advancement? In light of the HBR research highlighted above, at a minimum we should evaluate how we develop our future leaders in the organization understanding that leaders will fall into many roles in the organization of the future, not just managing people. For more ideas on practical ideas on developing leadership please see my series of blogs on Leadership. With businesses planning their “next normal,” now is the perfect time to fine-tune your organization so that your structure and work design are truly aligned to more seamlessly achieve your mission. For a complementary 60-minute strategy or planning session, please contact me at [email protected] or through LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/transformingorganizations/.