Reform: Divesting the 'old normal'

This is the fifth and final installment of the original article I wrote based on the McKinsey 5 'Rs'.

"Before we rush back to ‘business as usual’ we must consider what part of the ‘usual’ we’d like to bring with us."

If our communities and organisations need to emerge into a post-viral era and a “new normal”, leaders and managers must consider which bits of the ‘old normal’ we want to replicate. While recognising the tragic human and immense economic costs, this pandemic-induced schism will bring about a profound restructuring of social constructs and conventions. Before we rush back to ‘business as usual’ we must consider what part of the ‘usual’ we’d like to bring with us. 

Business leaders might consider the ways in which their commercial organisations exist within communities and how they interact with institutions such as governments and universities. Collaboration between public, private and government entities has already paid dividends. When the consequences of working in isolation are too bleak to contemplate, we’ve seen swift advancement. How can this be continued in more stable times?

While theorised for some time and practiced some, differing notions of what work is, how and where it is done has been forced onto others.  Will this allow leaders and managers to rethink workplace structure and practice? If a revision of the notion of work is undertaken will we also see a genuinely more inclusive workplace emerge, where implicit bias and entrenched partiality are managed out to leverage the well stated moral and evidenced business case for diversity?

"Reforming how our organisations and institutions work is key to generating positive outcomes from a period of social and economic crisis"

Leaders operating in commercial, third sector or public institutions are now charged not only with navigating through volatility in the short term, but with reforming the ‘new normal’ for the mid to longer term too. Reimagining how fairness of organisational process can be enhanced and how governance structures might be re-envisioned for a more compassionate, creative and authentic organisational norm is key. Circular economies, revised social contracts, expansive stakeholder-based organisation and examining the displacement of labour due to automation and other technological advances are perhaps in sharper focus as we consider widespread reformation.  Can the remnants of command and control leadership in grinding bureaucracies make way for collaborative structures that flex with technology and human engagement for reformed notions of productivity, inclusion, sustainability and innovation?

Reforming how our organisations and institutions work is key to generating positive outcomes from a period of social and economic crisis. Leaders have a central role to play in reimagining the impact and nature of reform. Leadership and management as enacted disciplines are now forced into a period of transformation and this includes revising the skills and capabilities required of managers and leaders.  

We already know much about the value of inclusion, collaboration, emergent leadership capability, social cohesion and more humane work practices, but have been reticent to realise the transformational capacities associated with them. New learning and better leadership capabilities will be key to implement what leaders have known to be good/better/best practice, but failed to put in place in ‘business as usual’ contexts.

Perhaps, if such notions can be truly be embedded into a reformed ‘new normal’, our organisations may just emerge from this pandemic in better shape to rebuild.

View all the previous posts that make up the bigger article.

The first post on 'Resolve' can be viewed here

The second post on 'Resilience' can be viewed here

The third post on 'Return' can be viewed here

The fourth post on 'Reimagine' can be viewed here

The original McKinsey article can be found here along with a range of other COVID-19 articles.