Reorganize Your Workforce For 2021: Three Positive Takeaways From The Pandemic

[Reprinted from Forbes Coaches Council article by Mark Batson Baril, January 25, 2021]

The business response to the crises brought about by the pandemic has created deep changes and unexpected ripple effects throughout the world of teams. In my work as a conflict advisor, I’m seeing many companies struggle with the unintended consequences of shifting roles, relationships and expectations in their workforce.

The traveling sales team came back to the “office” and assignments got shuffled around. Employees working from home had to find new ways of communicating to get things done. Marketing and distribution pivots affected company teamwork on almost every level. Layoffs, furloughs, firings and staffing reassignments caused an undercurrent of uncertainty that hasn’t gone away and has raised questions: Who’s leaving? Who’s staying? How will positions shift? What’s my role now? Will we all still get along?

Success indicators in the new year will be found in the dynamics beyond the numbers in the organizational culture. Culture is the glue that keeps a company viable, vibrant and profitable. The health of your workforce could take a big hit post-pandemic — or it could result in a work environment that’s better than ever.

The new year offers the opportunity to look critically, and compassionately, at how your workforce is doing with the “new” work environment that is taking hold globally. Here are three lessons from the last year that could help your people adapt and make your work environment better than ever.

1. Take stock of the health of your teams.

A common theme I’m hearing from organizations is that their team dynamics aren’t what they used to be. That's understandable, of course, and something for leadership to note and evaluate in order to keep the team engaged, productive and feeling secure. Here are some common warning signals of relationship disruptions that should not be passed off as “it’s just the pandemic.”

• Meetings are disrupted or veer off-agenda. Is the team complaining or brainstorming? Are the same few people taking over the conversation? Are some staying conspicuously silent? (This silence, cordiality or compliance sometimes signals avoidance of issues rumbling under the surface.)

• Work slows down. Are you seeing a decline in productivity beyond what you’d expect in the current environment? Can you sense unhappiness or disengagement in any team member (the root cause of less focus on their work)?

• Cliques or “camps” begin to form. Are people beginning to talk in territorial terms of “your” employees and “my” employees instead of “our” employees? Does a small group come into a meeting like a united front against the rest? Do you notice obvious silence or eye-rolling in the (virtual) room when certain team members speak?

• There are angry outbursts or rude or inappropriate communications. Are either of these behaviors a one-shot event or are they consistent, even chronic? Regardless of the situation, consistent bursts of anger or rude conduct are not acceptable and need to be addressed immediately with the individual (privately) to get to the bottom of the issue.

These are all issues that need to be addressed early before the dynamics turn into major blow-ups that could stunt the successes and growth your company is achieving.

2. Reset your leadership structure and teams.

As difficult as challenging times can be, I am seeing how they can, in fact, accelerate good decisions that should have been made long ago. Whether a business has struggled or thrived this year, a positive takeaway from the pandemic is to assess how well your leadership and team structures are working amid the heightened tensions and shifts.  

In one case, a rapid-growth startup found that three people were continuing to cause conflict and distraction in their teams that could threaten to bring the company down. Leadership pinpointed the problems and made the necessary changes. Looking forward, they are now working on how they can make better hiring decisions so they don’t end up with the same issues.

Here are three resets that leverage lessons learned in 2020:

• Formalize organizational culture and team agreements so everyone is on the same page in terms of acceptable conduct, expectations and accountabilities.

• Train management in conflict competency so they are able to build constructive conduct that encourages engagement and innovation while heading off potentially negative conflict.

• Have a plan in place to address employee concerns about repeated abrasive behaviors with their peers or with management, so they can nip potentially poisonous issues in the bud.

 3. Spark innovation and engagement with fresh eyes.

A common experience, especially for young businesses, is this: People come into the organization with different skill sets, angles and experiences. Over the years, they fall into the routines and informal roles that built the business and have been “working just fine,” which commonly translates into an “innovation dead end.” Enter the upheaval in 2020 and you have status quo disrupted, boundaries made fuzzy, feathers ruffled, newfound friction all around. This can be a good thing — it’s called creative tension!

Properly managed, creative tension stirs the creative pot, brings out new energy and ideas to be tossed around and pushes people to rethink how to do things more effectively. An organization I’m working with is embracing their newfound friction and creating the space for their teams to reassess their roles, responsibilities and accountabilities. We are looking with fresh eyes at what their people are bringing to the table and how leadership can use those talents, skills and creative thinking to their advantage. We start by leading open discussions with the team, paying close attention to what they are saying and how they are feeling. For example, you can ask, "What are one or two things your teammates can do for you so you can really be yourself at work?" or "When you are included in big conversations on this team, what does that do for you on a personal level?"

Reorganizing your team is a challenge, make no mistake — it is like taking your train off one set of tracks and putting it on another without a clear destination. However, I believe it’s safe to say that there’s no going back to pre-2020, and we have everything to gain by moving forward with fresh eyes and an innovative perspective.