This is the fourth in a series of questions I am asking to help us pause for a moment to notice what we are learning about ourselves and our organizations.
There is no doubt that the next disruptive change will be different than this one. That is what will make it disruptive. Nonetheless, it is useful to think about how limitations in our curiosity about how we were organizing our businesses left us particularly vulnerable to the impact of the changes the pandemic has necessitated.
For many years, one of my clients, the executive director of a large nonprofit here in DC, pushed her board of directors to allow telework. We worked on a strategy for implementing it nearly 10 years ago! Ironically the rationale she used to justify the change was “disaster preparedness.” Was she prescient or was she simply willing to consider alternatives models for working that met the needs of both the employees and her organization?
On Monday I asked what you are learning; on Tuesday I asked what has surprised you; on Wednesday I asked you to think about what superpower you or your organization have that is enabling you to adjust to the changes the pandemic has forced upon us.
Today’s question is:
If you had known this was coming, what would you have done differently in your business to prepare?
If you are not willing to respond here, but willing to share, you can contact me at joanne.irving@i2aa.com. I will keep all responses anonymous.