Beyond COVID-19:

Navigating Your Business Through the New Normal

By Gisele M. Michel

We are in the middle of an unprecedented global pandemic caused by COVID-19. Staying in isolation has taken its toll, both psychologically and economically. Recently, the conversations have shifted from border shutdowns and sheltering in place to rebuilding the economy.

As the world reopens, business leaders and decision-makers must now pivot from crisis mode to planning mode in a world where NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci says "the virus determines the timing.” Until there is a vaccine, we will continue to live and work in a volatile environment.

Charting a course on a sea of uncertainty

As Harvard Business Professor Dutch Leonard says, “you are being called to innovate under stress” in the middle of a natural disaster that is dredging up problems the likes of which the world has rarely encountered.

Even the experts don’t know yet what to do, and the rules keep changing. Therefore, a strategy or process that works today may not work tomorrow. Now, more than ever, you must become creative and agile, responsive to turbulence and instability.

Now’s the time to bring in people from all levels of your organization and collaborate to create the best plan possible, putting the best people in the best positions. For now, you must learn to accept not having all the answers and work with ambiguity. And then be willing and able to reposition quickly based on changes in the environment.

Adopting this new mindset requires a significant culture change. In the past, the first one out of the gate has determined the pace, and leaders could make decisions quickly based on assumptions and knowledge from the past.

But now, we can’t rely so much on history to guide us. Navigating and creating our “new normal” will require us to think more broadly, consider other perspectives, and try things that we haven’t tried before. Looking internally and externally for inspiration and guidance can deliver great results in this new paradigm.

How you move forward is as important as that you move forward

As a leader or decision-maker, you may be asking yourself the following questions:

• How do we manage this uneasy middle period of COVID-19 where we are no longer at the beginning, and we don’t know when it will end?
• How do we get to a “new normal,” and what does that even look like?
• How do we know the risks we’ll face after we reopen?
• How do we ensure the longevity of our organization after this pandemic?
• How do we support and communicate better with a staff that now works virtually, and how will we plan for their reintegration?
• How can we manage fissures that are forming in the teams or the overall business because of our people’s fears?
• How do we begin to plan for the inevitable next crisis?

Bringing in outside help is a short-term investment that can bring long-term benefits.

Since 2007, Icatalyst Consulting has helped leaders and decision-makers in government, nonprofits and businesses navigate internal and external threats to create environments that facilitate strategic problem solving.

With a focus on people, we offer fresh perspectives to facilitate decision-making processes, help clients create diverse teams, and encourage innovation.

If you'd like to discuss your challenges and tap into our strategic thinking, contact us today.