https://cfo.co.za/article/returning-to-work-businesses-after-lockdown-are-like-athletes-after-a-serious-injury-

“We’re obviously not on the other side of Covid-19 and the associated lockdowns, but it will be incredibly important for leaders to look ahead at least a few weeks as we begin to see lockdowns easing and more discussions around “re-opening”. Among the talk around how quickly to re-open different sectors of the economy, there have been extensive debates about what the “new normal” will be for societal norms, business imperatives, and economic conditions. 

While it’s possible to predict some trends for specific organisations or industries, there is no clarity on how the world in general will look in a few months’ time. What leaders can do right now, however, is look ahead at how their organisation is likely to respond to its own re-opening. The exact conditions might differ, but the broad strokes will be the same for virtually every organisation returning from the trauma of Covid-19; the main issues to consider can be neatly encapsulated with the metaphor of someone returning from a significant injury.”

https://youtu.be/yL-Hxv9d8zg

As various countries start to relax their lockdowns and leaders (political and those of organizations) start to think about re-opening, there are some tips to keep in mind to make it as successful as possible. I use the metaphor of the athlete returning from injury here, as we need to be really clear about what scars (in terms of our business, our organizational and individual health, and societal norms) we’re dealing with as we try to re-open. The main takeaways: don’t try to “go back to normal”; recognize that even if you wanted to go back to “business as usual”, you probably can’t anyway; get input from your people about what they’re dealing with and how we can support each other as we move into a new phase (of society, careers, and our relationships as colleagues).

https://youtu.be/CZgM4wwt0wM

The systemic and systematic racial inequality that has led to the #BlackLivesMatter movement has been incredibly impactful over the last few weeks around the world. This has led many organizations (and their leaders) to make public statements of support for the movement. While that is a good start, it’s also imperative that the statement does not stand at odds with what your organization does in practice. This video emphasizes the need to back up your statement with concrete actions in the short-, medium-, and long-term. Two other recent videos provide more depth to this thinking:

Organizational Design 101: https://youtu.be/5qGcbqsWUn0

Creating Vision Statements That Matter: https://youtu.be/ywA0xNAS8rI

https://youtu.be/ywA0xNAS8rI

Vision statements are often sort of throw-away paragraphs we put up on our “About Us” page and then don’t think about again. If you actually invest in the time to create a good vision statement, however, you’ll find that it can be really useful for bringing your people together around a shared focal point. It’s the difference between everyone being out for themselves, and everyone trying to hit their targets but recognizing how each target fits together (keep an eye out for an upcoming video on Success Criteria which builds on this!). Crucially, your vision statement shouldn’t talk about what you do on a daily basis, it should tell people why your organization exists (its purpose) and what’s most important to it (its values).

https://youtu.be/JGWoEqKKMrw

Change is always talked about throughout organizations and is incredibly thoroughly researched because it’s so central to the human (and organizational/business) experience. What can often happen, however, is that someone will latch onto a specific model or theory of change and try to base all of their change initiatives on that piece. The problem that stems from that is approaching each change as its own, discrete challenge and leaders fail to build up a culture of change within the organization. This video is a quick primer for ensuring that you are clear about whether you’re dealing with a specific challenging change initiative, or if you have an organizational challenge with change (in terms of your structures, culture, or people) and that specific project is just a symptom of deeper, underlying issues that need to be addressed.

https://youtu.be/o4viNbrREJI

We often default to talking about “leadership” as being about a single person. While that’s fine in casual discussion, it can lead to real problems in organizations. Leadership should be a mindset that’s encouraged throughout your organization and a skill-set you invest in building for everyone, not just those with the right titles. If you see leadership as a collective exercise, you build a much stronger culture and a more impactful, resilient organization.

https://youtu.be/IK128UkSLXM

We all make mistakes, but some mistakes are more easily avoided than others! These crisis times cause us to make more blunders than normal, but I’m seeing a lot of leaders (of both non-profit and for-profit organizations) talking in ways that point to starting off the re-opening from COVID-19 shutdowns in incredibly damaging ways. This video lays out four of the most common and damaging ones I’m hearing frequently in May and why they are so problematic. Hopefully you don’t fall into these traps!

https://youtu.be/5qGcbqsWUn0

Most of what goes wrong in organizations can be traced back to a drift away from what’s really important (the organization’s purpose and core values) to a fixation on keeping track of a series of isolated outcomes. What results is a backwards looking, slow-to-react, rigid organization (and organizational culture) which is always struggling to keep up with a rapidly changing world. If you get your structures, culture, and people focused back to purpose and core values, you start to weed out outdated processes, generate more diverse viewpoints, and develop the ability to change more quickly and with less trauma. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?!

Pre-crisis work- https://bit.ly/3cVHF0U

Defining crisis- https://bit.ly/3eW9yrD

Communication- https://bit.ly/3aNZLAy

Planning- https://bit.ly/3f3xKYY

Strategy- https://bit.ly/2W9QmxR

As leaders of all types of organizations (companies, non-profits, and government agencies) deal with the ongoing challenges of COVID-19, I thought this video series on leading during crisis would be helpful. I actually co-wrote a book on leading during crisis (focused on the education sector, but the research/lessons are cross-sectoral and multi-disciplinary) years ago and, sadly, the coronavirus has made it incredibly relevant again.

https://www.capetalk.co.za/podcasts/140/today-with-kieno-kammies/300555/a-guide-to-managing-your-remote-workers

Leadership is always tricky and leadership in crisis is even moreso. As many organizations move to work from home arrangements, a new situation is causing confusion for both workers and leaders/managers. This interview focused on what leaders need to consider in making this new arrangement successful, while also pointing out that the easy trap (that people should avoid at all costs!) is to simply use technology to reprooduce the “normal” work environment. The reason this is a trap is that many organizations have disengaged workers, poor people management practices, and flawed organizational cultures! While some normalcy is good to not shock people, now is a great time to take stock of bad practices and start to come up with ways of doing things better.

https://cfo.co.za/article/the-coronavirus-has-hitwhat-now-for-business

Coronavirus has quickly changed the landscape for global trade, industries, and day-to-day working habits around the world. While obviously some industries were going to be hit more powerfully than others due to the nature of the virus’s impacts, there are a large number of organizations around the world who are realizing that their organizational models and leadership approaches have put them at even greater risk. This article draws on a book I wrote with some colleagues a few years ago (Leading Schools During Crisis) to offer insights into how to lead during this crisis to hopefully navigate your organization to better times.

http://www.capetalk.co.za/podcasts/140/today-with-kieno-kammies/297734/distance-learning

The social distancing required for dealing with coronavirus has thrown just about every educational institution around the world (from kindergarten through universities and Executive Education) into a frantic race to move from face-to-face teaching and learning to online approaches. In this interview, we speak to the fact that most educational systems and institutions were not sufficiently using technology to improve their teaching and learning before the crisis, which made the change to fully online approaches extremely haphazard and likely to be ineffective. Key areas to watch for (access to technology, changes in pedagogy, and a greater recognition that online teaching//earning is inherently different than face-to-face approaches) are discussed to help teachers and leaders at all level help make the transition as painless as possible.

https://cfo.co.za/article/what-to-look-for-and-not-now-that-eskom-has-a-new-ceo-

Unfortunately, I feel like I have to write pieces like this quite often, but I think this one is still worth a read!

“As is often the case when a big company or SOE makes the news for the wrong reasons, Eskom has responded to its most recent dire situation by making a move to replace the leadership at the top of the organisation. Such a leadership change to deal with very public organisational failure is, of course, not unique to South Africa or its SOEs (or even to Eskom specifically). It has always been a savvy PR move; this is even more true in an era when most people are inundated with information, rarely getting past the headlines of even the bigger stories.”