Resilience Top on the Agenda

As a follow-up to my previous post, the pandemic has put #resilience top on the agenda not only for us as individuals but also for organizations. I remember when we used to put together #contingencyplans in organizations that I worked for, in case a disaster struck. We always heard about bomb scares or natural disasters that would render our workplaces inaccessible and we would plan for alternate office space where employees would work from when our current space was no longer safe due to disaster-related reasons. We planned for skeleton staff by each department and determined which employees would be required to work from home and which employees would be required to report to the office. In all those planning sessions, we never imagined anything close to the pandemic.

Today we find ourselves still trying to wipe the dust off our eyes, adapting, and facing head-on this new world of work, where working from home has become the norm. It seems like overnight some of us had to get over the concept of clocking in and clocking out to prove that we have been working, replacing it with clicking on a link to join our colleagues and clicking to leave them. This period has taught us many lessons both personally and professionally, including strengthening many of our skills along the way. One of these skills is … yes, resilience. As survivors both as individuals and as businesses, we have all mastered this one skill. Businesses have had to reorganize, adapt and adjust their work environments and operations to accommodate both employees and customers to comply with the new norms. As individuals, we have had to do the same to our homes as they became an office and a school all rolled up into one. We did this without skipping a beat, albeit kicking and screaming in some cases. However, we did it, nonetheless.

Now that we are here, how do we build contingencies for the future? How do we ensure that should another wave of a pandemic come along we do not find ourselves caught off guard? How do we prepare our businesses, operations, and employees to weather the next pandemic or whatever crises that might come along? How do we prepare ourselves and our families not to be caught unaware the next time we experience something similar to the pandemic? We can no longer view our work and our home life as separate because as we have seen how quickly those lines get blurred when disaster strikes. Whatever solution that an organization develops to build shock absorbers for its operations and the resilience of its employees it cannot be done in isolation from the impact that it would have on the personal life of its employees.

Of all the lessons learned on how to survive the next disaster of #pandemic proportions, a key one for me was the importance of #digitaltransformation. During this unprecedented period, we were reminded that we are social beings and we need to connect. As such, to prepare us for the next time we cannot connect physically with each other we need to invest in technological resources and equipment that will enable us to stay connected, both as organizations and as individuals. We also learned about the value of great internet service with high-speed connectivity. This is no longer a luxury as some of us may have thought, but a necessity …