To Build an Agile Team, Commit to Organizational Stability

To Build an Agile Team, Commit to Organizational Stability

by Elaine Pulakos and Robert B. Kaiser - April 07, 2020

We’re often told that to cope with sudden and dramatic change, companies need to be agile and resilient. That’s never been more true than today, as we try to respond to the changes brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. But new research that we’ve been involved with suggests, paradoxically, that to achieve genuine agility and resilience, companies first have to commit themselves to stability.

A foundation of organizational stability is what provides people with a sense of confidence, security, and optimism during times of disruptive change in the workplace, which, in turn, allows them to keep calm, act rationally, and adapt effectively as the situation evolves. With that  in mind, we’ve devised seven evidence-based practices that leaders can use to build a stable foundation during the current crisis.

Sharpen Focus

In the throes of significant change, people get distracted. They worry about what’s happening and what might happen next. Extreme, threatening disruptions of the sort we’re experiencing today can prompt counterproductive coping behaviors and poor decisions that range from downplaying the threat to giving in to panic - as seen, for instance, in the frantic hoarding that empties store shelves.

To promote more effective coping, leaders need to set priorities. The top priority right now, of course, is to help people focus on what matters most: health and safety. This means leaders need to do everything they can to enable, reinforce, and perhaps tighten social-distancing measures to contain the outbreak. After that, their next priority is to determine what tasks and functions will be critical in keeping the business running.

Leaders must be disciplined in identifying their top priorities and then communicating them to their teams, almost to the point of over-communicating. Because many employees around the globe are working from home, the potential for new distractions and miscommunication are ripe. So make clear what your priorities are, again and again, and do everything you can to help employees focus on them.

This is not a time to press ahead with “nice to have” initiatives or systemwide transformations. Put these on hold while the company is in survival mode, and reevaluate your priorities. Some drug companies have done this, for example, by suspending work on existing projects and focusing their efforts on the development of pandemic-related antivirals and vaccines.

Break Down Barriers

Leaders have to be on the lookout for barriers to performance, which can undermine stability and shake confidence. We are quickly finding, for example, that our teleworking systems and tools can’t always keep up with the sudden surge in demand for remote work.

Companies have to provide as much support as possible. To help facilitate meetings and connections among employees, companies can offer multiple means of videoconferencing, choosing a couple of alternative apps for backup in case the primary one fails. To provide relief for working parents who also have to manage childcare during the workday, some leaders are scheduling off-hour meetings, and others are posting low-resolution video recordings that can be viewed asynchronously.

As a leader, you need to stay closely attuned to team members as new work tools and processes are put in place. This will help you quickly identify destabilizing forces, nip them in the bud, and come up with creative solutions. Anticipate barriers, plan workarounds, and, whenever necessary, deploy those workarounds rapidly to prevent further disruption.

Optimize Failure

Leaders create psychological safety among teams and employees by welcoming their ideas and trying out their suggestions. They can also do so by using failure as a teachable moment for all, by avoiding blame and instead harvesting lessons about what worked and what didn’t. Dedicated time in weekly recap meetings for these teachable moments can help get the word out.

Leaders can infuse stability by conducting fast-cycle after-action reviews with individuals and entire teams. These need to be safe conversations that surface what team members are learning and best practices as they work toward new ways of interacting as well as experiments that weren’t effective. Documenting these lessons will also help in the post-pandemic world with new models for organizing and coordinating work.

Exemplary work is being done in this vein by Ford, 3M, and GE Healthcare, which have teamed up to rapidly produce equipment ranging from face masks to ventilators. The companies are adapting on the fly with simplified production designs and new supply chains for getting parts and components. It’s a bold, creative initiative that demands the optimization of failure as the team tries to solve a series of unanticipated problems, small and large.

Build Optimism

Napoleon famously said that leaders are “dealers in hope.” In the midst of a crisis, leaders need to project confidence, strength, and positivity. Those are stabilizing qualities - as is optimism.The old cliché is true: Astute leaders know that every problem presents an opportunity. If they call attention to these opportunities and empower teams to capitalize on them, they can create a stabilizing sense of optimism.

None of this means denying reality or sugarcoating bad news, both of which breed cynicism and distrust. Leaders need to straightforwardly acknowledge setbacks and disappointments, and then focus - optimistically but pragmatically - on what can be done to move forward.

Reassure People

Crises and dramatic change create anxiety. So do everything you can to put people’s minds at ease by affirming their roles, value, and future. As above, though, balancing realism and optimism here is crucial. Don’t overpromise; if you do, you’ll erode trust, a cornerstone of stability. Dr. Anthony Fauci has distinguished himself on the White House Coronavirus Task Force as the trusted and most credible authority, and his reassuring media appearances provide a role model that other leaders can emulate.

As much as possible, focus on sharing concrete, positive information - about the financial health of the organization, about specific strategies to survive the economic downturn, about plans that protect employees and their job security. These messages have strong stabilizing effects, because they remove doubt and dispel fear. Likewise, explaining the rationale for cuts in a straightforward and transparent way helps people to understand and better accept their necessity. Tough news delivered right is more stabilizing than misleading or nonexistent communication, which often leave people assuming the worst.

In addition, it’s more important than ever during disruptive change that leaders take extra time to check on their people. It can be as simple as making a phone call (“I had a couple minutes and wanted to see how you are doing”) and then listening carefully for worries and concerns. A good rule of thumb: It’s best to “check in” before you “check on.” That is, first ask how the person you’ve called is doing, and how their families are doing. Let them know you care. Only then ask how their work is going and how you can help them cope.

As a leader, you don’t have to solve every practical or emotional problem to be helpful. Just listening in an empathic way can make a difference. You can provide a stabilizing influence by giving your time, offering emotional support, and expressing appreciation.

Harmonize Resources

“Doing more with less” is a morale killer in the best of times, and even more so when a crisis is sucking up people’s time, energy, and attention. Exhausted, distracted people with too few resources only add more instability to an already taxing situation. So focus your efforts on balancing the work-demands/available-resources equation.

Consider what’s being done to help relieve the enormous pressure being put on medical professionals as they try to do their jobs during this crisis without the tools, space, and personal protective equipment they need. On the demand side, guidelines are being implemented to prioritize and triage patient care; on the supply side, resources are being increased through recycling equipment, building overflow capacity in parking lots, and an expanded supply chain.

A common reaction to economic pressure, of course, belt-tightening: Companies decide to reduce spending, halt hiring, suspend raises and promotions, and even lay off employees. Before taking such drastic measures, though, pause and think through how these actions will land with employees and business partners. Will they stabilize or destabilize things? It may well be necessary to trim costs, but smart leaders think through the impact on their already stressed employees who need to remain strong and healthy, and they work hard to find creative alternatives that can reduce demands and increase resources.

If you decide you have to take a destabilizing action, such as laying off employees, consider very carefully how you will communicate the message. What’s needed to protect the business ,and how can leaders do it in a way that minimizes a destabilizing impact on people? One company we advise had plans to cut down “low-hanging fruit” in one department, but then paused to consider the ramifications - and realized that they could distribute cost-savings more broadly across the organization and ease the burden.

Plan for Recovery

To provide stability as you work toward the new normal, whatever that may look like, develop a recovery plan. It doesn’t have to be perfect; no one has a crystal ball. Just do what you can to let employees know what the first few steps of your recovery might look like. Even a rough recovery plan will give employees something to focus on - and it will make your job feel less daunting when at last you turn the corner. Demonstrating progress against that plan, even as it evolves, can have a psychologically important stabilizing effect.

Develop contingency plans, too. For example, to maintain continuity should people get sick during this crisis, many leaders are identifying backups for key roles and cross-training employees to take on other roles. Such plans boost confidence that teams can absorb jolts. Even if these scenarios do not play out exactly, the act of planning for emergencies creates stability, by providing teams with a blueprint for how to adapt. This builds confidence in their ability to handle the unexpected and will help them work more calmly and return to operations more quickly.

Elaine Pulakos is CEO of PDRI and an expert in building organizational and team capabilities that translate into business growth. She is well-known for her research and writing on agility and resilience and has extensive global experience helping companies build these capabilities to increase their competitive advantage and performance.

Robert B. (Rob) Kaiser is President of Kaiser Leadership Solutions and an advisor, author, and expert on the subject of leadership. He has extensive global experience in executive development, executive assessment, and people analytics and as a strategic talent management advisor to CEOs and HR leaders.