Six Golden Rules of Resilience – Beginning the Recovery from COVID -19

As more states prepare to reopen and resume business, our focus must shift to how we will recover and remain resilient during the uncertain times ahead.

Virtual Learning Series presenter Martha Clarke gives her Six Golden Rules of Resilience and how we can begin to recover from COVID-19.

We’ve touched on resilience a few times, so now we are going to take a look at how best to start recovering and rebuilding. Below are big picture themes to keep in mind as we get ready to start back up.

• Stay customer focused, as it is the very reason we are in business. Remember to keep your eye on the prize and let your decisions be guided by what is best for the customer.
  
  
• Create shorter decision loops to make decisions more quickly. Best practices are moving the decisions to where the people have authority and an understanding of the situation. It might be helpful to start looking at decision levels so business leaders aren’t burned out by the basics of running the business; their talent is needed to navigate the tumultuous seas at the present.
  
  
• Bottoms up design – This somewhat mirrors shorter decision-making loops in so much as ensuring that all appropriate personnel are engaged in the process; failure to do so can inadvertently create more uncertainly, doubt and anxiety. When these bad vibes are present, actions and implementations will be slowed down.  In layman’s terms, it is good if  ‘everyone is singing from the same sheet of music’ – this saves time, money and energy.
  
  
• Create / foster a culture of innovation and creativity. The old adage, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” may or may not have a place in the recovery planning. This is an opportunity to make changes that need to be made to have a more robust business.
  
  
• Stay focused on what really matters – keeping people safe and business results. The metrics or scorecard used before COVID-19 may or may not make sense in the recovery process.  What gets measured gets improved…look at what really matters and prioritize to get your desired results.
  
  
• This one is a mouthful, but hang with me for a minute….effective organization and process convergence. Yep, it’s a mouthful. What this means is that all those people singing from the same sheet of music, well, now we’re going to put them pointing in the same direction and group them by their ability to sing and which section of the choir they are in. Point those noses in the same direction, all actions are to move forward, not to have any unnecessary movement or actions that will slow down the work. If the music analogy doesn’t work for you, try “all hands on deck” or “failure is not an option.”

Keeping these concepts near you when you are planning your return to work strategies will pay off and you will find your efforts streamlined. Sure, things might go sideways, Mr. Murphy is ever present; but if you even share this list with your team, they can roll up their sleeves and they will gladly help you make it happen with you and be on the watch out for Murphy!

“Forget mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you are going to do right now and do it. Today is your lucky day.” - Will Durant

Thank you, chin up, be safe, be kind and behave. Let us all follow those ever-changing guidelines to keep everyone safe and healthy and get us back to work.

Register here for "emotional + Social intelligence" presented by martha clarke - may 20

ABOUT MARTHA CLARKE

Martha specializes in manufacturing performance optimization, leveraging her 30 plus years of global manufacturing experience to help create sustainable improvements that deliver bottom-line results. She is dedicated to helping manufacturing leadership develop the skills necessary to position themselves and their organizations for long-term success.

Having a career that spanned from working the floor to multi-plant leadership, Martha is keenly aware of the challenges that manufacturers face at every level of the organization. She has extensive experience in creating the organizational bridges necessary to implement holistic step change initiatives that address the most pressing operational challenges in today's rapid-pace, complex and volatile environment. Her approach combines the advantages of executive leadership development with operational improvements to support consistent, sustainable and world-class performance outcomes. Read More