Book Extract
Riding the Tiger: Leading through learning in turbulent times
Authors: Priscilla Nelson & Ed Cohen
Publisher: Cengage Learning
Pages: 200
ISBN: 9788131514337
Many organisations underestimate the value and necessity of learning during turbulent times. We learned the hard way that it is not to be forgotten in our experience with Satyam Computer Services. Preparing for a crisis goes far beyond a traditional risk management plan. We would like to say that we were in the minority, that we had proactively developed a learning strategy for leaders to lead through learning — except that we had no plan. Every time the topic had come up, learning was seen as secondary to everything else. Leaders had naïvely indicated that we should stop all training programmes until the company recovered. What all of us had failed to realise is that learning can be the very thing that helps stabilise and carry a company through troubled times.
During a corporate crisis, the situation at ground zero is chaotic and not conducive for business as usual. Employee morale is likely to be at an all-time low, the credibility of leadership suffers, employees don’t know whom to trust, and feelings of betrayal have left a sour aftertaste. Change happens at lightning speed, information flows in and out of the organisation, and the rumor mill cranks up. Learning is critical for stabilising the organisation, providing guidance to leaders, communicating with employees, and keeping the business open.
Immediately following the onset of a corporate crisis, the organisation’s entire learning group should be convened (virtually and physically).
Your goals are to
1. Identify what is known, providing up-to-the-minute details about what has happened, including its impact on the company and its environment, as well as the actions being taken to steady the company.
2. Demonstrate strength and solidarity for the company as you and the learning team build out a new strategy.
For our first meeting after Ramalinga Raju’s resignation from the chairmanship of Satyam, we brought together all the leads from the entire learning ecosystem. Because they were scattered throughout the world, the meeting was held virtually, using our webcasting capability. We discussed what was known at the time and began the arduous process of selecting essential services to continue, new services that were necessary, and services that needed to be curtailed. This was the birth of what we came to call our “Lights On” strategy. The situation was surreal. In an instant, the company had gone from hero to zero.…
The Lights On strategy… means deciding exactly what must be done to keep the business moving and doing only that which is critical to help the organisation to stabilise. Yes, employees need to be comforted, customers need to be retained, and revenues need to be earned. But right now, your priority is to do only what is necessary to keep the organisation afloat. Lights On is a process that ensures nothing is forgotten and monitors steps as they are completed efficiently. And with your Lights On template, created in advance, the distribution of the right tasks to the right people is enhanced. The Lights On plan, which is based on insights from all quarters, has two pillars — learning and communications. The learning pillar includes
# technology learning
# domain knowledge
# completion and closure of existing programmes
# prepaid vendor-supplied programmes
The communications pillar includes
# regular factual updates
# differentiating fact from fiction
# building the confidence of leaders by helping them to communicate and collaborate more effectively.
As a leader, how you react during turbulent times is vital. Your every move will be scrutinised and sooner or later reviewed. But if you follow these steps in developing and implementing the Lights On strategy, you can ensure that nothing is missed:
# Hold everything.
# Build a start-stop-continue worksheet.
# Deploy learning resources optimally.
# Start an information safari.
# Include critical communications and bring people together.
# Develop 30-, 60-, and 90-day scenario plans.
Let’s consider each step in detail.
Hold everything
When faced with turbulence, regardless of the magnitude, the first step is to put everything on hold. Even if only for a few hours, put everything on hold to determine a response. Most likely, the people in the rest of the organisation will be doing the same thing as they absorb what has happened.
This sounds counterintuitive, but a hasty reaction is not the right response….
Build a start-stop-continue worksheet
Typically, organisations have a risk plan, yet many do not have a plan beyond protection of stored intellectual capital. A start-stop-continue worksheet assists in approaching the crisis with an intentional map of decisions and options. It is iterative, so you will be revisiting it often, especially while you are on an “information safari,” which is covered later in this chapter. The best way to spur your thinking about what to include in this worksheet is to answer these three questions:
# What must we start doing?
# What must we stop doing?
# What must we continue doing?
Notice the use of the word “must.” Choosing the “must” tasks prevents people from investing in any superfluous, wasteful activities…. Once you’ve created a draft, the start-stop-continue worksheet must be reviewed and adjusted, at a minimum, every day….
Deploy learning resources optimally
Armed with the results of your start-stop-continue worksheet exercise, the next step is to create a plan to optimally deploy people and learning resources. Using technology to reach out to people around the world is one efficient method for continuing learning.
# When optimising resources, consider:
# Who will develop the learning?
# What learning will be made available?
# When will the learning be deployed, and how often?
# Where will the learning take place — in the classroom, virtually, or by deploying resources to the field?
# Why is the learning relevant to the current circumstances (see previous start-stop-continue section)?
Start an information safari
Once you have your initial start-stop-continue worksheet and deployment of resources in place, it’s time to start your information safari. By collecting information from a multitude of sources, you will gain the depth of knowledge that will enable you to make decisions about direction, services, and actions to meet the changing needs across the organisation.
There is a tremendous amount of information available during an organisation’s period of turbulence —ranging from fact to fiction, including financial information, external perceptions, and the reactions of during a crisis all stakeholders. However, sometimes people get too rushed to take the time to gather information. Other times, people feel they are bothering their stakeholders by asking them for information. Going on an information safari to collect information from a multitude of resources allows for a real response to the corporate crisis. Information, collected on an ongoing basis, is paramount for a successful Lights On plan. During your information safari, you should gather information from learning consultants, points of contact, company leaders and employees, customers, the media, society, and leaders of other companies.
Include critical communications and bring people together
From the onset of the catastrophe, the learning group should be among the most visible across the organisation. The group’s members may not have all the answers. But they shouldn’t duck for cover. One simple and effective way is for the group to run a mailer campaign, sending a daily email that evokes hope, resilience, togetherness, and passion. It should provide guidance, use appropriate humour, and have the goal of motivating a distraught workforce and its equally shattered leadership. These messages are quite powerful. What’s important is consistency and immediacy; constant, real-time communication is invaluable.
Employees need to vent, speak without fear, and feel a part of the solution….
Leaders need to recognise that to lead they must be with their people and must be sensitive to the turmoil and confusion everyone is feeling. For this, at Satyam we launched another email campaign sensitising leaders and providing simple tools to enhance their listening skills as well as offering guidelines for communicatin (such as when to communicate a little, a lot, rather than a lot, a little).
Determining what information is released and to whom is generally determined by a crisis communications team or by the corporate communications department. Information must be communicated, and in some instances it must be protected. Leakage of information to the media in the wrong way can be quite dangerous, as we learned. However, the “orchestrated leakage” of information through the right channels can actually assist….
During the Satyam crisis, our learning response was a workshop focused on rebuilding the morale of teams. According to Sanjay Devudu, a senior leader with the School of Leadership, who led this morale workshop, “What worked was transparency. Of course, it’s never possible to allay everyone’s fears; however, being there for our people to provide that support helped. As leaders, we need to address the emotional aspects of people first and then with their help focus on the needs of the business....”
All learning professionals need to take on the additional role of brand ambassador. The internal and external brand will most likely be severely damaged. They need to understand how to interact with the media, how to respond to internal queries, and, most important of all, how to remain calm in the face of uncertainty....
Develop 30-, 60-, and 90-day scenario plans
You will recall that we said the Lights On plan is iterative and additive. Once the initial crisis has occurred, triaging, treating, and rebuilding require the addition of 30-, 60-, and 90-day plans. The process of building these plans should start with answering these questions:
# What is known?
# What is probable?
# What is unknown?
First, respond to each question from the perspective of the organisation.
Another information safari is called for here. Second, develop the learning and development 30-, 60-, and 90-day scenario plans. In developing these plans, first observe the immediate “shock wave,” and then create a scenario plan for all possible paths-such as
# The company might continue and rebuild on its own.
# The company might close.
# The company might be taken over by the government.
# The company might be sold.
Reprinted with permission
