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An opportunity of COVID-19 for the companies: to place people in the spotlight.

April 2020,
By Santiago Sena

The quarantine and its restrictions for working impose unprecedented challenges for any organization. Teams are at the centre of it and they are required to deploy new strategies so that they can perform properly.

The unexpected happened. It did not come without a warning, but even the death that comes after an agony can give raise to a hopeless feeling of surprise. Following the existentialist philosopher Karl Jaspers, coronavirus constitutes a limit situation; it broke normality, redefined the axiological scale and made people face the unappealability of their existence. Before this, hours were not enough, now, we have hours to spare. And in that unavoidable leisure time, a diversity of feelings are distinguished: fear, frustration, anger, boredom, anguish, sadness, loneliness, anxiety. And ambivalence.

In the face of events like to appearance of COVID-19, there are different possible reactions. The first one, denial, acting as if nothing has happened which is exteriorized with phrases such as “this is nothing, it is a collective delirium.” The second one, paralysis, the impossibility of focusing in whatever it could be that puts us in motion and is our vital centre: being taken over by anguish and watching the news nonstoppingly. The third option is to accept and integrate whatever has occurred. To act in accordance with the new reality and to be attentive to the context, but without letting fear or anxiety annul ourselves. It is in these critical moments when character flourishes and whatever each one of us is materializes. This occurs both at a personal and organizational levels. This crisis is an opportunity. The opportunity for organizations to put people on the spotlight, to reinforce healthy leadership and to align work teams behind the purpose that summons them, the “what for.”

How could this be done?

As an essential condition, initially, it is necessary to significantly reinforce communication and containment, and tolerate the decrease in the workflow rhythm. You cannot go on as if nothing has occurred. People is deeply affected by an exogenous fact that changed life for everyone: they cannot go out, they cannot release tensions, they are isolated at their homes, either alone or with their families. It is in this scenario that they will face home office… If they are that lucky and do not suffer the uncertainty and anguish arising from working in industries that are completely closed, such as the automotive, gastronomic, tourism, or textile industries, some professional services, etc.

First, knowing the conditions of the context in which people will work. Just like before, when the company took care of the connectivity of the office and the day-to-day work environment, the company must now understand whether their employees: have children and their ages, if they have elder people under their care, if their partners or spouses also work, if they have connectivity, resources and actual time so as to comply with the objectives established, if they are emotionally affected by the context. Without taking these aspects into account, the company may be expecting pears from an elm tree.

Second, reinforcing internal communication. Each organization has its own channels but, disregarding which they are, this is a key moment for being connected. Hre is an idea: an open office. A videoconference where the top management may comment on the news of the week, share a good news and, above all, unify the messages for the work team. Failure to do this could imply risking the communication being managed by other and generating rumours and gossiping. This could increase the feelings of uncertainty, discomfort and anguish.

Third, proposing “channels of normality.” There are persons that perhaps are alone, that miss meeting with co-workers and need some environment for distractions. Proposing virtual lunch times (where -as a rule- no work talk would be allowed) or create environments of “celebrations” -actions of easy implementation and cost-free, but of a great impact- would help people remember that they are part of something bigger: a team, an organization. It may seem odd to celebrate in a complex and highly volatile context as this one, but there is an example of this: the daily clapping of the Argentinians honouring the health workers.

Fourth, providing tools for the most complex management: our own. Integrating the situation implies adapting ourselves to it and not answering wit our own defence mechanisms. This type of reactions may lead people to burnout by channelling stress by excessively focusing of work issues, denying the relevance of the events in our own lives and the lives of the others; or to panic. Either of these models are dysfunctional to the work environment. The integration should be performed adaptively. For that, mindfulness, meditation, relaxation exercises, or conscious reflection through writing are very helpful. It is necessary to enable and facilitate these environments.

Fifth, once the emotional management has been addressed, work management should be refocused. However, the work model has changed. This is not a typical home-office scheme for two reasons: everyone is doing home-office simultaneously, and it is done all the time. It has become necessary to make new work agreements, to accept “new diversities and differences” and not to assume so much, because nothing is as obvious as it was last week. If a model is set up for enough time, work agreements will emerge by themselves at the expense of conflicts and emotional distress. Therefore, it would be ideal to propose the building of said agreements in a collective, bottom up and participatory manner, so as to channel the learning curve, conscientiously working on them and avoid the wear and tear caused by conflicts.

Finally, those who have people in their charge may find many benefits in organizing two very short meetings at the beginning and at the closure of the work-day. In the morning to establish objectives and establish responsibilities. In the afternoon, to asses their completion and close the day.

COVID-19 has provided us with the chance to show the people whom we work with that we care for them. Acting (and demanding things in the immediate term) as if nothing has happened or paralysing ourselves will reveal the contrary. Notwithstanding the enormous risk that this crisis presupposes and the demolishing impact that the quarantine has over the economic activity, there still remain tools of control for some variables related to team management. It will be up to each organization to manage their talents in a manner that may create an epic account of the crisis or another drama.

By Santiago A. Sena, philosopher, PhD in Management and Professor at IEEM Business School, Uruguay.

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SENA & BERTON MORENO was founded in 1937 by ALFREDO SENA and ERNESTO E. BERTON MORENO as a Patent and Trademarks Agency with a stable staff of only four people. Since then, the Firm has grown to reach its current size of forty people, working at our offices located only two blocks away from the Government House and at the heart of the commercial and financial district of the city. Ver más