But how about diversity of thinking?

It got me thinking though … for many businesses, a new dawn is approaching. The start of a new post-COVID-19 era. The opportunity to completely transform how they operate. The once-in-a-lifetime chance to re-establish their business with an innovative approach that is based on a “what if we started again” mindset. The opportunity to create an organisation that really meets the changed needs and expectations of their customers, employees and shareholders.

I have spoken to a number of businesses who are placing an emphasis on the word SHOULD. When this is over, we SHOULD change our processes, we SHOULD let our staff work from home when they can, we SHOULD review the way we operate, etc, etc.

Let’s step through them one at a time …

The first step is accept the fact that there is a new normal. We don’t know what that looks like for your business specifically but we do know that the old normal is not where you want to focusing your attention. Things have changed and will continue to change dramatically as the post-COVID-19 world starts to emerge.

I also suggested that there is a massive opportunity to reshape the future for your organisation. You might have noticed that there has been a bit of a theme throughout the past few Untypical Thoughts – that is, that you cannot afford to be constrained in your thinking by the way things used to be done within your organisation.

One option is to keep going as your business currently operates – the meticulously planned or cobbled together business continuity model that has been employed for the past month or two. Having said that it is, I don’t think that it really is an option.

Literally, no business is exempt or unaffected.

Even those that have become busier due to the goods and services they provide have had to have a serious re-think about how they operate.

At some point, if you want to learn to swim, you are going to have to leave the side of the pool and remove the safety net of being able to reach out and grab the ladder. Sure, there are steps you need to take and knowledge you need to learn before letting go but if you are ever going to learn to swim, you’ll need to just let go and give it a crack.

One thing I have learned during my years of managing change and, more recently, transformation projects is that the only thing we can be certain of is that one size fits one.

Give yourself the time and space to imagine.

I go back to a time in the late 1980s when I had decided to leave teaching to try something different. I had done all of the “normal things” to find something – responded to job ads, spoken to members of my network, etc but, try as I might, I simply couldn’t find a new opportunity anywhere.

But, upon reflection, I wondered whether I should be impressed or concerned for her and the company she works for.

One of the great statements of change resistance is “yes, but the problem is…”. Every time someone puts up an idea for change, out come the hurdles, typically led by one of two phrases – either “yes, but the problem is …” or the other old chestnut “but that’s not the way we do things around here”.

I am all for people challenging new ideas and proposals for change but there is a difference between challenging and building roadblocks.

Yes, we need to keep track of progress – but seriously, how many weekly, fortnightly and monthly reports is too many? And, given the structure of many organisations, once these reports are consolidated and sanitised for senior consumption, how accurate are they anyway – are they presenting the true state of play or presenting an upward impression that might be less than 100% accurate?

Colleague:  How are you?

You:  Really busy

Colleague:  Tell me about it

So, two things fall out of this.

One physicist who is regularly quoted as a philosopher is Albert Einstein – if you don’t believe me, enter “Albert Einstein quotations” into your favourite search engine. One of his most quoted (and, often, misquoted) statements relates to his definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. But I prefer to use a variation on the same theme, that is – if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got. In other words, unless you do something different today, tomorrow will be exactly the same.

Can you picture it?

Of the emails that you receive, what proportion of them do you read, digest and act upon? 10%? 20%?

It seems to me that email is becoming (has become?) another form of “white noise”. Sure, every now and again, you’ll see an email from your boss or an important client which will grab your attention – you might even have a rule set up within your email program to highlight those ones. But how much critical information is just getting lost in the flood?

Sure, the level of responsibility associated with roles tends to increase the further you travel up that diagram but, typically, so does the remuneration. They sort of balance each other out, don’t they?

Unfortunately, the workplace is often like a human pyramid.

Firstly, the recent conversation as told by my client …

“A new employee was being introduced to some of the people she was going to be working with and after providing the name of each person, the introducer told her that they were the senior, the officer and the assistant. Nothing more was said. No mention of what each of these people did. No mention of how the new employee might interact with each person … just a statement of rank and implied importance”.

You ask someone how they are and there it is … same old, same old. Ask them how their day is going … same s**t, different day.

To me, both phrases translate to much the same thing – a statement of acceptance of mediocre circumstances. It says to me “I am just going through the motions and can’t be bothered doing anything to change it“.

I have noticed that many organisations have started using an even more automated process for their acceptance of resumes and cover letters using application systems (e.g. Taleo) . Typically, these are used by the big corporates in the market who have seemingly ditched the recruitment companies and started advertising directly through job boards and other networks like LinkedIn.

And before I go any further, my apologies to the few recruiters who I think do a great job – you know who you are.

As you would know if you were to visit my LinkedIn profile, I have what could be best described as an eclectic background when it comes to employment history and skill set. I clearly don’t fit the traditional model of accountant, personal assistant, project manager, school teacher (I was once), mechanic, etc, etc.

There are two quite distinct meanings (probably more) of the word – one to do with intelligence and ability and the other to do with glittering, sparkling, shining brightly.

Time to dust off the soapbox and address one of my pet hates …

Why, in business, do we continually use euphemisms for people?

COMPLEXIFICATION – the often sub-conscious urge to take something that was once simple, re-engineer it and produce a result that is significantly more complex than the original version. It is the direct opposite of simplification (the deliberate act of taking something complex and making it simple).