QUESTIONS FOR LEADERS IN THIS TIME OF TRANSITION

It’s a confusing time. 

In some ways, the world feels more confusing now than it did a few weeks ago. 

We’ve settled in. We’ve been sheltering at home. We’ve been figuring out how to work remotely, we’ve been escaping to the laundry room with our laptop, we’ve been telling the kiddos to go play outside or to finish their virtual lesson or that they’ll make 25 cents for every section of baseboard that they clean (brilliant). 

We’re doing the thing. Not necessarily perfectly or even well; not in a way that’s tidy or shiny or buttoned up; but we’re doing it. Together. We’ve settled in.

But now, we’re being asked to figure out a different type of seemingly impossible conundrum. Do we keep doing what we’re doing, as testing continues to expand and confirmed cases increase?

Or do we return - to our offices, to work, to some level of pre-COVID-19-normalcy, whatever the heck that means anymore? 

Do we ease ourselves out of this time as our shelter at home orders are lifted?

Or, do we play it safe and avoid rushing it?

Depending on who we ask and where we live, the answer to this question might be wildly different. Some areas and organizations are hunkered down, with no plans to return to the office in the foreseeable future. Others have never had formal shelter in place orders and are moving monitors back to the office at this very moment. Many are considering a staggered approach, bringing people back in shifts and phases, ranging from June to October. And some have been coming into the office all the while. 

To say this is a complicated and complex problem would be an understatement.

There is no single right answer, and no clear and well defined path forward. We can’t look to “what others have done in times like these” because there have never been times like these. We can’t look at industry best practices, because best practices don’t exist for something we’ve never done. And we can’t even look to our crisis management plans, because we wrote them before Zoom existed and while we might have a paragraph somewhere in there about a pandemic, it sure doesn’t cover this. 

Rather than trying to find solutions for something where no clear solution exists, we can begin by asking questions. 

Here are some of the questions that we might consider. 

Overall:

• What data do we have?

• What is that data telling us?

• What conclusions can we draw from the data that we have? 

• How can I use the best possible data that I can find to make the best possible decisions in this time?

As Jim Barksdale, who was the CEO of Netscape, says, “If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.” 

For When To or Whether To Return to the Office:

• What work needs to be done in person, and why?

• What is driving our decision to return to the office?

• What is our compelling Why for returning to the office?

• What is our stake in the ground - the thing that matters most, the thing that we are willing to take a risk for - that is driving this decision?

• What is the risk? What is the reward? How do these two things stack up? 

• What would happen if we changed nothing, and continued working the way we are?

• What would happen if we went back to “normal” - how things were before? 

• What makes it worth it? 

• What do our team members say?

• What do people need in order to work most effectively? 

• How can we foster collaboration remotely? How does this compare to the ways that we foster collaboration in the office? 

• How are we keeping track of outcomes and impact during this time? How does this compare to outcome and impact pre-COVID-19?

For How to Return to the Office Safely when We Do:

• What regulations are in place (for my industry, for my geographic area, for my state) that I need to be aware of and follow?

• What do employees need in order to feel safe?

• What do we, as an organization, need to do to create a safe environment for our team?

• What are we missing?

• What aren’t we thinking of?

For Learning from This Era:

• What efficiencies have we gained during this time of remote work? 

• How can we learn from these efficiencies as we move forward?

• What previous processes or policies might we want to revisit? 

• How can we carry forward the lessons and learnings of this time?

• What is the biggest surprise that we uncovered over the last several months?

• What is the one thing that could change everything as we look to the future?

For Supporting our Team Members Throughout:

• What are we doing to support team members mentally, emotionally, and physically during this time? 

• What do team members need in order to feel valued, appreciated, and cared for?

• What are we doing to check in on our team members as whole people? 

• How are managers checking in with team members? What conversations are they having?

• How are we keeping people informed and in-the-know?

• What are we doing to communicate big changes and updates? 

• How can we keep our leaders in the loop about these big changes and updates so that they can best support their team members? 

For Defining the Future:

• Who do we want to be moving forward?

• How might this be different than who we were in the past?

• What do we want to bring back from “pre-COVID-19?”

• What do we want to shed, release, or let go of? 

• What does the next chapter look like for us? 

• What’s the most important thing we need to do in order to get there? 

What about you? What questions are you currently asking as we navigate this time together? I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to leave a comment, or drop us a note.