We hope that you’re all keeping safe and well. We always strive in our updates to provide learning that is supportive and relevant. We will continue to do this during these difficult and uncertain times.
How can we be effective leaders during a pandemic? London Business School is making a series of webinars. These are excellent. Three short snippets follow. These will provide some quick insights in case one or more of these webinars might be useful to you. You can watch by clicking here. Caplor Horizons are also running more 'Community Webinars'. Our next one will be on Tuesday 21st April at 12pm UK time. It will focus on 'Managing Change'. More details will follow. If you are interested to attend please fill in this form.
How can we improve virtual working? This has become a new reality for many people across the world. One of the webinars, led by Professor Lynda Gratton, tackles this. Based on her research, she believes that the big changes due to the Coronavirus emergency will lead to considerable differences in the way everyone works "pre-pandemic and post-pandemic". This includes potent major environmental benefits as people will travel less and use virtual working more. She recommends six actions for "getting virtual working right" such as "making it human" by using various means, especially video whenever possible so that people can see one another.
How can we make better judgements? In another webinar, Professor Andrew Likierman, provides insights about making judgements in the face of so much uncertainty. For instance, at one point he summarises that: (1) "being aware of our biases, and trying to keep an open mind when we are listening and reading about the pandemic and the implications", is helpful; (2) as is "finding ways to develop trust" in others; (3) plus "re-assessing our assumptions" as we keep learning how best to respond.
What qualities are particularly important? One last example, this time from Professor Kathleen O’Connor. She shares the view that in a crisis leaders – and we believe that we’re all leaders – need to be as "compassionate, stable, hopeful and trustworthy" in the eyes of others as possible. She considers that in these acutely difficult circumstances people can have a greater sense of well-being if fundamental psychological needs are addressed such as striving for whatever (1) autonomy, (2) sense of belonging and (3) opportunity for developing ourselves (e.g. learning new skills) that we can.
Our work continues, changing in response to the changing times. For instance, this week Will (Odling) and Dan (Bishop) are facilitating a virtual session on organisational culture with team members from All We Can as part of a strategy development process. For insights about organisational culture, click here to read one of our papers. You can also access our questionnaire here which you can use with your team to find out more about your organisational culture.
Just Ideas – a partner of Caplor Horizons – is researching the challenges and opportunities faced by people working in local government around the world in responding to the environmental crisis. If you work for local government, or are an elected representative for an area, please take a short survey that Just Ideas has created, regardless of your particular role. Just Ideas will share results with anyone interested. Many thanks for considering this.
Good courage and warmest wishes to you all
Rosie, Lorna and Ian