Making it work in the next normal: what to stop, start, and speed up
Nobody knows what the future holds, and our current present is not what we thought it would be only a few months ago. Whilst many of us want to return to the ‘old normal’, some of us are embracing the remote working way of life and don’t want to return to the office. But what should business owners stop, start, and speed up, in order to navigate successfully through the current climate and beyond?
Stop assuming things will return to the way they were
The global economy has taken a huge hit and it’s difficult to see how things can go back to how they were at the beginning of the year, or indeed whether they should. Gone are the days of bumping into colleagues at the physical water cooler and shaking hands in meetings. Remote working has been successful for many but there is of course the risk that some companies will rely too much on remote working when certain tasks need to be undertaken on-site.
Start establishing effective remote working practices
There is a lot more to remote working than we may have first thought. It’s not as simple as providing your team with the tech tools and leaving them to get on with it. Workplace culture and rhythms of office life are hugely important and can’t be recreated in the same way when working virtually. Team interactions both around work topics and non-work topics should be encouraged to increase engagement. Boundaries are easily blurred and it may help to set “office hours” and discourage out of hours communications or at least make it clear that there is no expectation that emails will be answered outside of a certain timeframe.
Speed up collaborative processes
Perhaps surprisingly, collaboration and inclusion is actually something that can be achieved on a higher level in a virtual environment. Office life is well defined. Everyone knows where their place to go to is. Some office doors stay shut whilst others remain open. Some team members might never get to meet each other unless they spontaneously bumped into each other in the stairwell and decided to start a conversation. Introduce collaborative tools so that networks can form, and team members can meet up in a virtual space and work together.
Stop time-wasting
I think we’ve all realised just how much time has been spent in the past on unnecessary face-to-face meetings. We’d spend hours together, and what did we gain from it? Often very limited action points and a lack of decisions. Things haven’t fallen apart by no longer having these meetings – in fact, it’s been a bit of a revelation for all of us.
Start establishing policies for quicker decision making
The old adage “too many cooks spoils the broth” runs true. Those who move faster, earlier, and more decisively, are the ones who will come out on top. Think about putting together teams to deal with particular issues based on expertise, rather than operating on a basis of relying on a specific rank. Operate with a sense of urgency, with only the necessary personnel, and watch problems get solved quicker.
Speed up the ability to become agile and flexible
Agility is the key to getting through any crisis; i.e. the ability to be able to reconfigure processes, structure, and strategy quickly in order to navigate effectively towards creating and taking advantage of opportunities. Many of us have been forced to be agile because of the current situation and have been reaping positive results because of it. Small businesses are in a perfect position to show off this agility and flexibility, having a flatter decision-making structure. Larger companies can mirror this rather than taking on a more traditional structure. Training and reskilling is also a vital part of being agile and flexible – if you’re always learning, you’re always improving.
Speed up digitisation
Digitisation was in play prior to the current pandemic, but it wasn’t being used universally. Those who press ahead with introducing new and effective digital tools will not only foster flexibility and productivity but will also reduce the costs of operations. Now is the time to create an operating system around technologies and upskill your team in digital tools and cyber security. Put the emphasis on connectivity, communication, and problem-solving capabilities. It’s time to do things differently if you weren’t already before.
For those who are still thinking and hoping that things will go back to exactly as they were before, it’s time to accept the reality that they won’t, but that that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There is light at the end of the tunnel and whilst the future may well be uncertain, we can make it a better one.
To find out more about how blue umbrella Virtual PA Services can help your business, please contact us anytime on 020 3021 0503, or info@blueumbrella.co.uk
“We sense that ‘normal’ isn’t coming back, that we are being born into a ‘new normal’: a new kind of society, a new relationship to the earth, a new experience of being human.”