When ‘What’s Next’ Feels Like a Blind Leap

“Planning for After”   “Return to Normal”  “In the Aftermath”  “Get Back to Before”
“Open Up the Country”

I’ve been trying to guess what comes “after” the Covid 19 crisis. What will a return to normal look like? What will never be the same?

For some business leaders (and perhaps many people in general) these questions aren’t even on their minds. Near-term survival is the only focus for so many. Thinking beyond the next couple of months is a distraction. If we don’t survive in the short term, there is no after. If the doors are closed and revenues are MIA; if our valued employees are furloughed or laid off and suffering; if there are bureaucratic obstacles to financial aid, then life ahead can feel tenuous if not desperate. 

The pandemic sorely tests our fortitude, optimism, creativity and sense of hope and control.

“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” 

That’s a quote from then General Eisenhower. It feels incredibly relevant today. All those well-thought-out yearly plans and long-range strategies are obsolete. The growth you foresaw, the earnings you promised, maybe even the plan for the sale of your business and retirement have been invalidated. So why bother with planning now?

I spoke to a few of my current and former business-leader clients about how they are dealing with shredded forecasts, investment and operating plans. I heard two consistent messages:

1. The need to keep their people safe now
2. The need to begin thinking about what’s on the other side of the crisis

Somehow, they found the leadership bifocals that let them see what was urgent and what was strategically important. They were in action mode short-term and in planning mode with a longer view.

I emphasize the and because together, action and planning feed our fortitude, optimism, creativity and sense of hope and control.

In one case, the leaders had decided to keep all the staff working (from home) but since client work had ground to a near halt, they refocused the minds and creative skills of their people on the business. “We are always so busy focused on our customers’ businesses we never have time to focus on our own.” How did they want to position themselves post pandemic?

In another case, the company was fortunate to be in an industry that did not suffer the same shocks as in retail or travel or entertainment. Even still, this CEO felt that the world would be fundamentally different post Covid 19 and yet, impossible to know for certain in what ways. So, what might have been a typical two-day crisis session focused on survival, will now also include strategic thinking sessions focused on post-Corona virus recovery to “think about what they should look like when the pandemic has run its course.”

Leadership bifocals

Let me suggest what your bifocals should focus upon, so you get the survival and the recovery you want.

Short Term Planning

Focus First — What’s in place, what’s missing, where is there support?

1. Safety — in our environment and for our people and customers
2. Cash Flow – run or burn rates, supplier and banking negotiations
3. Sustainability Support – local, state, federal and foundations or fund raisers for businesses

Biggest Mistake – Too busy doing #1 and 2 to take care of #3.

“After” Planning

Focus also on – What’s changed, what’s known, what’s still true about your mission?

1. Your Assumptions – what has changed; what’s still valid; what’s still a guess?
2. The Analysis – what are the experts’ base case, bull case, worst case analyses for your industry or for the US/Global economic, technology and political landscapes?
3. Aspirations and Realities – to what do you aspire within and beyond today’s realities? Hope along with reality spur us to action and prevent us from being paralyzed by what-ifs, fear and obstacles.

Biggest Mistake – So involved in the analytics and hypothesis-making (which will never be 100% correct) that you lose sight of #3

Loosen the blindfold so you can leap

This pandemic and economic disruption will subside and, with hope for a therapeutic drug and a vaccine in the next year, it may not ever return with such severity. In the meantime, we gain a semblance of control when we focus on the practicalities of the near-term. We gain a sense of hope when we can begin to also focus on our vision of what comes after. These two actions together loosen the blindfold and make leaping into an unknown future much less fearful.

 

Are You Wearing Bifocals or Blindfolds?