“Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
-Winston Churchill
A crisis unmoors us, but while it casts us into the unfamiliar, it releases us from the habitual. It gives us the terrifying opportunity to examine the assumptions we hold dear. Is the way we’ve always done it the best way to do it? Did our path become so deeply rutted that we’re no longer able to see our direction, much less our destination?
Hopefully, we’re on the backside of our crisis, and while some of us have found a new bearing, some have been disoriented. How do we do business in this post-pandemic world? How do managers manage, employees work? It’s an unfamiliar environment to traverse made even more difficult by the economic winds of rising inflation and a tight labor market.
But there are landmarks that remain unchanged. It’s still the responsibility of management to set the shape and tone of the workplace, to define the corporate purpose and structure and to communicate the vision and goals specifically. It’s still the responsibility of the employees –no matter where they are in the hierarchy— to be curious, to learn, develop, implement strategy and be mindful of the corporate ideals.
The challenge, then, is to find ways to translate tried and true into the language of the new environment. Let’s not go back to work; let’s find a way to go forward into a new world of work.
