Understanding Human Dynamics During A Crisis Can Shed Light On How To Foster A Culture of Collaboration
- Functional silos, created in the industrial age to maximize productivity and efficiency, are now barriers to the necessary agility of working in complex, fast-changing environments. Over the past several decades, organizations have attempted to break down these barriers and increase collaboration. However, organization politics, resistance to change, and power dynamics continue to challenge attempts to introduce more collaboration.
- But during a crisis, employees naturally come together to solve the most acute problems and deliver mission-critical outcomes. Everyone pitches in, regardless of title or position. An "everybody on deck" mindset takes over, and that attitude drives new behaviors - openness, transparency, diversity of thought, shared focus on results. These new behaviors collectively foster more collaboration.
- After the dust settles, organizations often go back to the status quo, even as they speak nostalgically about how they all came together in new and positive ways. Understanding the human dynamics of a crisis can help organizations foster long-term cultures of collaboration.
- Focus on just a few critical goals. A single shared focus often emerges during a crisis. Employees find ways that they can come together and contribute to that one mission-critical outcome. Foster A Collaborative Culture: Strategy is about making choices - what the organization will do and, more importantly, what the organization will no longer do. Get clear about what is really important for the organization to achieve. Clarify how employees contribute to those priorities. Sunset initiatives that do not significantly contribute to these few critical goals.
- Nurture forums that connect people across the organization. During a crisis, people rely on their networks to share information quickly and collaborate around their common goal. Foster A Collaborative Culture: Nurture existing personal networks, and empower employees to create additional cross-organization forums as employees see fit. De-emphasize the formal organization structures that typically become barriers to open communications. Shift from top-down tactical directives to bottom-up collaboration to achieve strategic priorities.
- Be transparent. In a crisis, leaders know they must communicate incomplete information as situations rapidly change, as well as communicate frequently to provide updates and keep up morale. Foster A Collaborative Culture: It's never a good idea for leaders to withhold information until they know everything about a situation. This is true in any organizational change initiative. Leaders must be honest, open, and transparent. Communicate what you do know as well as what you don't yet know. Let employees know how leaders will make upcoming decisions, how employees can provide input to those decisions, and how decisions will be communicated.
We live in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world. Change is constant, so we need to infuse more agility and collaboration into our organizations' DNA. Understanding the human dynamics of crisis situations can serve as an opportunity to learn how to build strong, long-term collaborative cultures. Marisa Sanchez
What is the meaning of Organization Development (OD)? Why do it? Who does it benefit and how?Organization development is a broad field that draws from a number of disciplines and can be applied to any organized (or disorganized!) group of people. Based in human behavior theories and values, the goal is to build and sustain effective organizations by leveraging the knowledge and experience within the organization. This newsletter serves as a vehicle to inspire you to use organizationdevelopment in your own work.