Crisis management: Leadership during coronavirus
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with gold lacquer, turning shattered pieces into artworks of even greater value.
In times of crisis, when normal business is suspended and the usual models fall apart, managers are tasked with maintaining calm and preserving value for their organizations. Management consulting advice tends to focus on managing the flow of information and communication, handling employee needs or stabilizing supply chains. Yet the true winners in the current coronavirus crisis will be those organizations that not only show resilience, but also adapt quickly to achieve their goals in novel ways, positioning themselves for post-traumatic growth.
Jeremy Berkovits, the British-born financial adviser and owner’s representative to the American Colony Hotel, describes the challenge facing the hotel industry frankly: “The latest projections show occupancy at 0-10% over the next few months, and no certainty as to when the crisis will be over. Managers are scrambling to cut expenses, while treating employees as fairly as possible.”
Large numbers of employees are being dismissed across the industry on temporary unemployment benefits along with contract freezes with subcontractors. For Berkovits, crisis management means “not panicking. Acting quickly but not precipitously. Being very flexible and ready to change decisions on a daily basis. But there are real choices to make. For example, should we adapt our services, or should we just close down?”
With incidents still rising and Israel’s health system rushing to contain and slow the spread of the virus, and the school system, restaurants and all places of entertainment shutting down, many managers are facing decisions like Berkovits. Part of the challenge is the rapidly changing boundaries and guidelines.
“What was valid last night is not necessarily valid the next morning,” says Caroline Shapiro, director of international public relations at the Tower of David Museum.
The increasing severity of the situation, the hourly updates on social media, the fake news scares and subsequent corrections leave many managers sorting through the deluge of updates in order to remain informed.
This is certainly not the first crisis to its economy Israel has faced. In fact, resilience in the face of adversity has become part of the mantra of the Start-Up Nation. While online services and medical supply companies have seen their value soar, organizations that have traditionally relied on travel and interpersonal interaction face a serious challenge.
Nefesh B’Nefesh, the successful nonprofit that assists aliyah from North America and the UK, recently had to announce the cancellation of its biggest annual event – the Mega Aliyah Event set to take place in New Jersey. An expo for potential olim, the Mega has routinely drawn nearly 1,500 participants from across the US.
It quickly became clear that the event was “no longer prudent,” says Rabbi Yehoshua Fass, the organization’s co-founder and executive director, “but we realized that this was a chance to pilot a new model of a virtual Mega and continue to offer the same resources and services digitally.”
The organization now has close to 1,000 participants registered for the online event. In the same vein, the Education Ministry is scaling up its virtual learning platforms to offer a response for Israel’s newly homebound students, and many teams globally are now transitioning to remote working arrangements.
However, virtual responses are only one solution. Research shows that when people act under stressful situations, all their mental energies go into averting the imminent threat. This is effective in the short term but dangerous in the long term, as it narrows people’s focus and compromises decision-making capacity. It also reinforces conservative behaviors and diverts resources from the creative thinking areas of our brains. While the threat is very real and many companies may not survive, those that do will need to recall their larger goals and think creatively: to consider innovative solutions like unusual collaborations and partnerships with other stakeholders, clients, customers and competitors; using modularity and diversification to protect and insulate units within the larger organization; and building flexible offerings that evolve as circumstances change.
“We will weather this crisis, as we have other crises in the past, but we will need to be creative,” says Shapiro. “The real challenge is staying relevant and finding ways to continue to tell the story of Jerusalem, despite the lack of visitors and income.”
In fact, the Tower of David’s highly successful Innovation Lab was born out of a collaboration developed between the museum and digital content producers at a time when visitor numbers to the museum were disastrously low due to a spate of knife attacks in Jerusalem in 2015-16.
Similarly, Berkovits suggests, “Hotels with cash reserves can use this time to invest in renovation – which is usually problematic to accommodate when the hotel is running normally. Or, with government approval, they could turn parts of their hotel into quarantine-friendly environments for stranded tourists. They could even use their kitchens to supply food to local populations. There are lots of possibilities.”
The question is, in this stressful environment, how many will think 10 steps ahead?
The writer is a Jerusalem-based organizational consultant and development specialist.