One of the problems we are encountering as leaders at this time period is that the global pandemic has shifted homeostasis within the work world and the communities within which we serve. For example, before the pandemic, the notion of virtual meetings and 100% remote work was rarely considered a viable way of doing business. During the pandemic, these were functional solutions and considered acceptable business practice. Before the pandemic, we routinely traveled for business and considered face to face meetings to be the only way to conduct serious negotiations. During and after the pandemic, business travel has declined in order to save money and time. A virtual meeting is now seen as acceptable. In short, normal, pre-pandemic ways of working are being questioned on a regular basis. Homeostasis has shifted at work and at home.
In the body, homeostasis is a state of balance between systems that allows the body to survive and function correctly. For example, our body temperature hovers around 98.6 degrees. This is maintained by a series of control mechanisms functioning at the organ, tissue, and cellular level. The result of homeostasis is that it creates optimal conditions for cellular function. In simple terms, homeostasis creates a relatively stable equilibrium.
In the pre-pandemic world of work, most systems and processes in place created a relatively stable equilibrium, too. Through regular inputs, these systems and processes generated consistent outcomes that could be measured and quantified. However, during the pandemic, this level of stability shifted in a dramatic fashion.
Ron Heifetz, Alexander Glasgow, and Marty Linsky in their article called “Leadership in a (Permanent) Crisis” from the July-August 2009 issue of the Harvard Business Review write that during a crisis there are two distinct phases, namely the emergency phase and the adaptive phase. The former focuses on staying operational while in the later a leader “must adapt what and how things get done in order to thrive in tomorrow’s world.” As Heifetz, Glasgow and Linsky note, “As you consider eliminating practices that seem ill suited to a changing environment, you must distinguish the essential from the expendable. What is so precious and central to an organization’s identity and capacity that it must be preserved?” The goal during the pandemic was to tackle the current crisis and, at the exact same time, to build adaptability and thrive in tomorrow’s world.
Now that we are in a post pandemic period, i.e tomorrow’s world, we must continue to focus on adaptability. However, this time we don’t need to approach it as a crisis and focus on fast and functional solutions. Instead, we need to focus on building a shared mind set and an agreed to set of essential behaviors. Jon Katzenbach, Ilona Steffen and Caroline Kronley in their article called “Cultural Change That Sticks” in the August 2012 issue of the Harvard Business Review present a fascinating set of questions: “If we had the kind of culture we aspired to, in pursuit of the strategy we have chosen, what kind of new behaviors would be common? And what ingrained behaviors would be gone?” I would modify these two questions for this post pandemic in the following manner: If we had the kind of shared adaptive mindset we aspired to, in pursuit of the strategy we have chosen, what kind of new thinking and behaviors would be common? And what ingrained thinking and behaviors would be gone? These two sets of questions, the former and my modified version, would also be wonderful to explore during some structured unstructured time periods with a team.
As we examine this change in homeostasis, I think we need to remember that micro-shifts in thinking and behaving are the pathway to improved outcomes over time. While rapid innovation or change is possible, it often does not have the infrastructure to support it. When challenged, status quo and/or equilibrium will always be assertive and the default within any group or organization. Nevertheless, the best leaders play the long game of change and focus on essential micro-shifts and steady progress, recognizing that as they do this they are building on the strengths of all involved as well as generating a new way of working and thinking. Progress over perfection always makes a difference in times of dynamic change and when homeostasis has shifted.
FYI: To be continued on Tuesday.
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