Recovering from Crisis and getting back on track to Healthy

…and what the theory says, Paul West

Healthy organisation are the ones that spend the majority of their time focusing on the important, non-urgent activities, which produce and provide value to their customers, users and clients. They continually improve and grow their business and are structured to capitalise on the expertise of their staff.

In table 1 below, we describe some of the typical activities that are undertaken in each of the four zones – Crisis, Healthy, Low Performing and Danger. It is very vital to a successful transition back to effective operations that your organisation avoids or exits the danger zone as quickly as possible.

Right now, almost every organisation is being seriously impacted by COVID-19, with many already in crisis. Rapidly responding to and managing this crisis is necessary while you deal with any new emergent situation. However, a prolonged state in crisis saps resources, people’s resilience and ultimately is unsustainable.

There are a range of factors currently affecting business performance including resourcing impacts (furlough, redundancy and sickness), customer behaviour (driven by the lockdown) combined with the regular day-to business issues. This will necessitate your business redesigning the business model and organisation design in order to be able deliver business as usual.

The pace that your organisation can exit crisis mode and shift back to being a healthy organisation will be a key determinant of your ability to survive and ultimately to get back to a sound footing after this situation has played out.

Pathways to Recovery

What we know is that the form of your healthy organisation as you knew it yesterday has changed already and will, and will need to be very different into the future. Revalidating what your new healthy is in line with your purpose and proposed outcomes is key to establishing the right recovery pathway.

Broadly speaking, there are three recognised recovery paths organisations take:

Pathway A: They stay in crisis for slightly longer, doing some unnecessary activity before getting clarity on what’s needed to return to Healthy.

Pathway B: Clear leadership, clarity on the Purpose and Outcomes of the organisation during the Crisis and having an adaptive plan to recovery, mobilising resources to move straight to the Healthy Organisation zone.

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Pathway C: Paralysed by crisis, all efforts are focused on dealing with what is in front of them. Unable to refocus on the Purpose and Outcomes of the organisation, they try various attempts to recover and establish appropriate adaptive plans. They will only successfully return to Healthy with the benefit of a large pool of resources, discretionary effort and cash, and will have a burnt-out and unhappy workforce. They are only likely to fully recover with to a change in leadership.

Successful Recovery

The key to a successful recovery is to move as rapidly and purposefully as possible. The ideal is to move directly from the Crisis Zone back to the Healthy Zone (Option B above). To make this happen, you need to get a clear overview of your current situation, undertake some scenario planning, agree a plan and communicate all of this to your management team and staff, so that they can ensure a smooth transition.

To support this, what we would do is to break down the complex problem or scenario into a relatively straightforward series of steps. We typically do the following things:

Prioritise the key areas of change needed to return to the healthy zone
Create the energy and clarity to take action and change at pace
Put in place the working practices and digital solutions that enable remote working and virtual teams
Create and transfer organisation capability to lead and deliver change

We have a long track record with clients – including London Underground, A4e, NHS and Local Authorities – in dealing with the impact of crises. We can get your business back to being high performing through our sensible and well-tested approaches to change and operational improvement. If you want to have a quick chat about any of this or the problems your organisation is currently facing, please give us a shout.

Paul West