As firms start to consider how to emerge from the pandemic, hopefully in better shape than before, it is also time to take stock and evaluate what went well, what did not, and what can be retained and harnessed for a better future.
Nimble was the name of the game when it became apparent that Covid-19 would be a full-blown, global crisis, and firms responded in innovative and agile ways to meet the urgent need for different systems, workflows, processes and technologies. Harnessing those learnings and then looking for ways to embed that knowledge throughout will be a challenge in itself.
Firm leaders could start by evaluating their performance on the following areas:
- Decision making – were we faster, more effective, more responsive and if so, how?
- Strategic opportunities – have new areas of practice become apparent, and what new skills, resources, or ways of thinking might we need to capture those opportunities?
- Leadership pipeline – have new leaders emerged or did existing leaders reveal new strengths (or weaknesses), should succession plans be re-visited and re-evaluated, how did leaders perform overall through the crisis and how can we adapt and transfer these new skills and competencies more widely throughout the firm?
- Communication – did we communicate enough, across all levels and through different channels, did we address all needs for all stakeholders, or did we leave some needs unmet?
- Practice groups – how did each practice area fare being more isolated from the wider firm, did they change or improve workflows and processes, did they connect with clients in meaningful ways and strengthen key relationships, did they drive more collaboration with other teams, or did collaboration suffer, were resources able to be moved around quickly to support busier groups or were some teams left under-utilised ?
- People – how would we evaluate our success or otherwise when considering the issues of engagement, on-going learning and development, health and well-being, did we make gains or do we need to shore up certain aspects?
- Digital infrastructure – how did the firm’s network and technology systems hold-up when under pressure, how did the IT team perform and were gaps in resources or skills revealed that should now be bolstered, especially as WFH will be with us for the foreseeable future?
This is an abbreviated list of areas and questions to consider but identifying emerging behaviours, habits and ways of operating will be key to harnessing new-found knowledge to drive future change.
Embedding new ways then becomes the next challenge for leaders, as it may trigger a strategic re-think, and will certainly involve multiple interventions across all levels.
Leaders wishing to use the pandemic as an opportunity to transform their firm and embed real change will likely require a new vision and purpose, combined with a mindset of and commitment to innovating and doing things differently, and a preparedness, in abundance, to role-model, reinforce (both formally and informally), and re-skilling to support new, desired behaviours.
Post Authors
Jennifer Milford
