Creativity in times of crisis

"What will the world post-corona look like soon? How can organisations adjust without a view of tomorrow?"

Different scenarios are conceivable. Each organisation has its own story.

Since we help organisations become sustainable and innovative, we became curious about these stories. We spoke to several organisations in our client base, from energy supplier to government agency, to best understand the impact corona has on business operations and, specifically, on strategy formation and execution. 

The stories show that most of the organisations are in an 'action-reaction mode' and only take up ad hoc work. In particular, they are setting up offices according to the rules of the 1.5m society. While they are less concerned with long-term issues such as strategy and innovation, at the same time the crisis is making organisations creative. The challenge now is to convert that creative energy into sustainable strategy and organisational management.

The corona crisis characterises the importance of a clear strategy.

First, we heard several times that the high impact of the pandemic reinforces the importance of scenario thinking. Think about including different (emergency) scenarios in your strategy and how to respond to them as an organisation. We noticed that this mainly sticks to financial calculations of emergencies (and the consequence on turnover) and less on the qualitative positioning you want to take as an organisation within those scenarios.

As yet, we have not spoken to any organisations that need or want to completely change their strategy. The dot on the horizon remains the same, the interpretation changes. The scenario thinking mentioned above is a form in this: if the intelligent lockdown is relaxed, what does that mean for our operations?

The challenges of remote working

With remote working being the new normal and likely to remain so in 2020, it is imperative that employees can collaborate and communicate via digital media. This is accelerating digitisation processes (which were often already in development but are only now becoming a real priority).

Organisations working with sensitive information such as government agencies see a challenge in ensuring privacy and security. One client said it is important to behave "professionally" and to some extent "formally" in her role. "But how do you do this when your baby is screaming through a conversation in the background?" We face the challenge of balancing their professional and personal identities.

Organisations also run into challenges such as maintaining organisational culture while employees work remotely. In particular, organisations struggle with questions such as: "How do I maintain a sense of team bonding?" "How can I ignite enthusiasm without addressing a group directly?" Employees develop various creative initiatives to maintain a sense of belonging such as an online free mibo with pub quiz or a day start to still start the day together.

Another challenge facing organisations is managing on the basis of letting go rather than control. Remote working makes it more complex for managers to have insight into employees' work attitude. There is now a need to let go and rely on the commitment and dedication of their employees. As one of our customers put it, "How can we ensure a productive workforce without being too controlling?" Managers will have to go beyond micromanagement and find creative ways to guide employees and create sufficient output.

The space for innovation and putting sustainability on the agenda

It is clear that organisations are particularly concerned with the 'now'. Long-term plans are pushed forward. For most organisations, keeping the core business going and guaranteeing employees work is enough of a challenge. 

Yet this is unfortunate, our customers think. As one client within the leisure sector agrees: "It's a great time for experimentation," said one of our clients. "Especially now, old initiatives are being taken out of the drawer because there is time for them".

Themes such as 'sustainability' and 'circular economy' are very important right now. To some extent, the crisis offers an opportunity to reflect on the organisation's social role and to what extent the organisation operates sustainably. "The corona crisis can offer us a clean slate," he says.

So isn't now precisely the time to also think about your long-term strategy? As many pictures on social media say, "We should not want to go back to the old world, which was the problem". How can we work together to ensure that we, as a society, emerge better from the crisis?

Crisis makes creative 

While innovation and creativity are paused for the long term, we see organisations being creative in other areas. Organisations are learning to deal with ambiguity through the crisis. To see opportunities instead of sinking into chaos. An ultimate test to keep positive thinking instead of sitting by. To practise rapid testing, falling and getting back up again. At the same time, we see innovation projects being shelved and creatives being put on support tasks. Aren't these precisely the employees who can help innovate your organisation?

Imagine the creativity it takes to continuously balance professional and personal identity in an online work environment; to maintain an organisational culture in times of distance; to ensure productivity while letting employees go.

The real challenge now facing organisations goes beyond practical adaptations to the 1.5m society, namely; We therefore like to call on you to use all the creativity already in house to future-proof your organisation by designing a sustainable, innovative strategy! And can't do it alone? Then we are here to help.

Wondering how we can help you? Get in touch with us