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Leadership
Leadership Resilience and Business Continuity through a Global Pandemic BY: RRE ELIJAH LITHEKO
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he global economy has been disrupted severely by the outbreak of the coronavirus, also referred to as Covid-19. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the virus originated in the city of Wuhan in the province of Hubei, in China around December 2019. The virus has since spread across the globe causing panic in its wake because of its contagious nature, with fatal consequences. On the 11th March 2020 the World Health Organisation declared the coronavirus a global pandemic and raised a concern in relation to its spread and severity. It pointed out that lack of action from governments in response to this pandemic will pose a health risk to people globally. Its Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, however, indicated that “all countries still can change the course of the pandemic” if they could put systems and processes in place to detect, test, treat, isolate, trace and mobilise their people in response. Details, updates and advice on the coronavirus are accessible on: www. gov.za; www.who.int; www.unfoundation.org; www.sacoronavirus.co.za Indications are that the South African government heard and understood the call to action from the World Health Organisation loud and clear, as evidenced by the following actions: • On Monday 21 March 2020 President Ramaphosa announced to the nation that with effect from midnight on Thursday 26 March 2020, the country will be on a 21-days lockdown until midnight on 16 April 2020 as provided for in the Disaster Management Act • Government interaction with social partners, including civil society and faith based organisations • Deployment of the police and army to monitor general compliance of the lockdown • Setting up of the Solidarity Fund • Testing and isolation of affected people • Putting health facilities and health-workers under alert and other related measures • On Thursday 9 April 2020, President Ramaphosa in a public address to the nation extended the lockdown period by a further two weeks to 30 April 2020 and gave a detailed motivation for such a course of action
On 1 April 2020, the Director-General of the Health World Organisation reported as follows: “Over the past five weeks, we have witnessed a near exponential growth in the number of new cases, reaching almost every country, territory and area.” This is a clear indication that this pandemic knows no boundaries nor is it concerned about social status. It impacts people at all levels – employees, managers, business executives, public servants, professionals across all sectors of the economy – hence the government’s timely response. People across the world are hoping that a sustainable cure to this virus will be found, thereby curbing its spread and destabilising effect. Commendable initiatives and interventions that demonstrate high levels of empathy, compassion, generosity and caring attitude are beginning to emerge all over the world in a spirit of solidarity. This spirit of solidarity PEOPLE DYNAMICS | March - April 2020
might be ushering a new world culture of collaboration and sharing where everybody knows that he/she is a welcome member of the society with a role to play. With this context in mind let us now consider the impact of the pandemic and the lockout on business operations. It is clear that since the proclamation of the lockdown, economic activity in South Africa and across the world has been severely affected – all business transactions except for essential services and retail outlets selling groceries and medicine have all come to a halt with some conducted remotely. Very few business leaders were prepared for this dramatic change to the way they have been running their businesses. The type of change facing them now is different from any that they have managed in the past as due to the increased level of uncertainty that this pandemic has caused. I have been researching these developments and have come across the ideas below which I believe could assist business leaders in redirecting their organisations during these uncertain times: Firstly, it is important to acknowledge that to thrive during periods of uncertainty ‘one does not have all the answers and control, and therefore should have a willingness to trust, build together and be flexible’, as Organisational Behaviour researcher, Margaret Wheatley advises. The greatest thing an organisation can do during periods of uncertainty, she says, ‘is to lead toward a greater capacity to handle unpredictability, and with that, a greater capacity to love and care about other people’. Expanding further on this another researcher, Nathan Furr, writing in the Harvard Business Review had this to say: “For the last few years, I have been studying how to develop the capacity to deal with uncertainty – to find the possibilities and opportunities within the unknown, rather than to panic and retreat from risk.”. What these two researchers in human and organisational behavior are confirming is the following: • That there is no need for leaders of organisations to panic when faced with uncertainty but to remain calm • That with uncertainty comes opportunities, possibilities and lessons that need to be explored further and leveraged. • That abnormal levels of uncertainty require a different strategic response from business leaders to ensure the continuity of their organisations. Below, I would like to share two possible approaches that could assist business leaders in navigating uncertain environments to ensure the continued existence of their organisations. The first will focus on repositioning the organisation: 1. Ensure that all executives and key stakeholder have a full grasp of the realistic view of the organisation’s current state. This will require the development of a clear baseline of the company’s current position which should be shared with key stakeholders. 2. Develop scenarios for multiple versions of the organisation’s future. These scenarios are based on the assumptions made by the Executive
