Post-covid: what if firefighters had the solution?

Written by Laurence de Fontenay and Emelina Corrales

According to some analysts, the post-covid recession is likely to be at least more than 5 times bigger than 2009. This is massive! When companies start huge restructurings, they will trigger the vicious cycle: unemployment, bankruptcies, more unemployment… 

Some companies lost almost all their business in the first two weeks of the lockdown, with no opportunity to recover before months if not years. For those who have the possibility to maintain their business alive, it might come with costs mitigation.

There is a risk that some companies will be willing to accrue all the costs in 2020 and consider it to be a “white year” for shareholders. They will start restructuring as soon as possible to make sure all costs are accounted by the end of the year.

If our society was a forest and companies were trees, we could see the Covid19 as a forest fire. It is the fire that is consuming a large variety of levels in our society. In a forest fire these levels are named crown, surface and ground fire which can be related as follow to the actual crisis: 

Crown fire : Sanitary Crisis / lockdown: which means that hospitals were close to collapse  and a large amount of economic activity has ceased. The effect related to this situation has touched many other levels of our global society.

Surface fire : economic crisis  / unemployment: related to the resilience and adaptation capacity of businesses following the economic activity lack during lockdown and slow activity in the reopening process.  

Ground fire : social crisis which we do not yet see. It is generated by unemployment and the economic and psychological difficulties; linked to lock down and the generalized anxiety of a new disease we all know is going to be part of our lives. 

The way in which the fire can migrate into different levels is called the ladder effect. To avoid this fire migration we need to create firewalls; represented by the relevant measures taken by the governments, institutions and individuals. Since our individual and collective actions can trigger a new sanitary crisis or deepen the social and economic existing one. 

Not only the visible parts of the fire are to be taken care of, firefighters know that ground fire (social and psychological crisis in our analogy) is also demanding solid measures to avoid the fire to start all over again.

What can we learn from fire management to overcome our sanitary, economic and social crisis?

We observe there are different actions to take at different times. The order is as important as the exact time you take action. Same as with leadership styles: both democratic and directive styles are needed when you manage a team ; the trick is to use them when the situation is requiring one or the other.

For companies, going through the fire management process means, in this exact order:

• Make an inventory of the situation: employees, customers, what is left of the eco-system, who can do what and when…
• Focus on security to avoid additional damages: It might require to organize home office when possible, provide masks and various protections, give remote IT access, regular and thorough cleaning of offices, air conditioning checks and any other action to secure people. About the existing business, it might be adapting some of the services to avoid multiple risks.
• Hazard identification is about avoiding to create the conditions for a 2nd wave to hit the people and the business.
• Right after, time has come to organize a planning to save what can be saved. Laid off workers procedure is something that needs to be part of the planning: who, how long, how deep…are questions that are crucial to secure the business. Important to notice that in some countries, such procedures don’t exist which puts much more pressure on employees. Regarding the customers, this planning phase might be adapting some of the contracts or services, and taking any action that is securing the future. Also, at this stage, there are some financial aspects that need to be addressed: cash flow is crucial for the company and thorough management of treasury is key.
• Suppression or adaptation of non key activities is actually almost like a reflex: all conventions, seminars have been either cancelled, delayed or re organized in a remote format. Although the decisions are obviously right for sanitary reasons, they will contribute to add on to the economic crisis which will inevitably follow rather sooner than later. 

All across the whole firefighting process, other actions are necessary:

• Safety and wellness is all about the way we support the employees through the crisis: by starting or improving help desk available 24h to listen to those who feel vulnerable. Also, supporting the managers when managing their team remotely, some are probably not used to it and might not know how to handle it the right way. On this particular aspect, the crisis is likely to be more healthy in the long term, as it will mitigate the over control behavior some managers used to show in the past.
• Communication is key in these times: regular, short, coming back to the bare minimum together with the essential: safety for people and basic information about the business. It is also the right time for the leadership team to deliver strong messages of support, showing that although the situation is tough, the captain is there to stay on track and maintain core values.
• Cooperation with authorities is crucial during the whole process as companies would need to both send information and gather some guidelines.
• Teaming  is a way to gather experts from alldivisions and disciplines into temporary groups to tackle unexpected problems and identify emerging opportunities. It is also a way of taking advantage of all the competencies of the employees and should be understood as adaptative teamwork.  

In order to succeed through all of the steps above, companies need engaged leaders who have a strong vision and are able to show values such as solidarity, caring, responsibility and commitment. 

During the lockdown, some wise groups have shown this direction e.g. Sodexo, Air Canada, Boeing. Their CEOs and Executive Committee gave up some of their remuneration to support the most fragile employees and mitigate the consequences of unemployment. Inevitably, these types of behaviors during the crisis will have positive consequences later on, both internally and externally. 

They have planted seeds of hope that will manifest later, just like nature can recover and find new ways to generate new ecosystems.

If your are interested in ways to put this into practice contact us at: laurence fontenay@vastmindcoaching.com oremelinacorrales@vastmindcoaching.com