Have a plan, know it will change.

May 22, 2020

There may be a long road ahead. This is all new and we are all finding our way forward together. There will be as many feelings and opinions about working during a pandemic as there are people. It is going to take time and probably some false starts to get things up and running. Reality has a way of exposing the flaws in plans that sounded good on paper. With that in mind, make your best plan, but be prepared to course correct.

Listen and discuss options to improve your plan. Listening to your people empowers them by giving them a say in their fate. It can also yield some great ideas you may not have considered. Knowing from the outset that you will have to make revisions to your plan to move forward will keep you more flexible and less surprised or frustrated by obstacles when they arise. Assume you don’t know all the answers. That way your eyes will be open to notice good ideas which will come from all kinds of unexpected places.

While we’re on the subject of communicating with employees, there is a wrong way to do it. If you act like it’s just back to business as usual and dismiss concerns people have, that sends a strong message that you care more about the welfare of your business than your people. This does not engender trust and can exacerbate fears, which can create a very unhealthy and unproductive workplace. You want people to be at their best, focusing on work, not on how they feel shut down or unappreciated.