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By Peter Tarhanidis, PhD
As the pandemic stretches on, work-from-home programs continue to keep teams working virtually. During this time, we have performed courageously to deliver our strategic and business outcomes. Here I will share a select review of advice from industry experts as they explore how to build a post-pandemic response strategy.
According to McKinsey (2022), organizations have pivoted to deliver sustainable and inclusive growth toward building a better world. And Harvard Business Review (2020) notes that all types of companies have navigated the pandemic by pivoting their business models in the short term to survive—becoming more resilient in the long term.
Yet not all pivots generated an improved business outcome. Three trends in particular can help ensure a successful pivot:
- Align the pivot to a long-term trend driven by the pandemic
- Extend the firm’s existing capabilities, further solidifying the strategic plan
- Sustain profitability, which preserves and enhances the brand’s value to the customer
PWC’s Global Crisis Survey identified three key lessons that businesses can adopt for long-term resilience:
- Plan and prepare for inevitable disruption by establishing a crisis team
- Integrate teams and cross-company competencies to enable effective responses
- Build resilience governance into the organization’s culture
An opportunity, therefore, exists to consider how to prepare your team’s competence in driving synergy and resilience in order to lead post-pandemic growth strategies—and simultaneously pivot from those same strategies.
Here is a shortlist of what leaders can do to prepare for a post-pandemic recovery and support an organization:
- Develop mental agility to pivot among key strategies and deliver business outcomes as key shifts and business challenges arise
- Allow the process of learning to take effect across key leadership levels
- Integrate PMI and agile frameworks to ensure flexible planning activities
- Employ data analytics to support key insights in customer and marketplace forecasts
- Clarify the governance of key plans and what event would trigger a decisive strategic pivot
- Develop talent to migrate into new areas of company strategies and projects
- Gather teams in person in order to create synergy and move from “norm” to “perform”
In the end, the teams that are ready to execute and can pivot as necessary will be ready for the post-pandemic competitive environment.
Let me know if you have uncovered additional successful strategies—or any pitfalls to avoid—in building team synergy and resilience.
References
- https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk-and-resilience/our-insights/covid-19-implications-for-business
- https://hbr.org/2020/07/how-businesses-have-successfully-pivoted-during-the-pandemic
- https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/crisis-solutions/covid-19.html
