The importance of positive organisational development after this pandemic.
By Declan Noone
‘Traumatic’, that is probably the best descriptor of the last 5 months. Let’s not hide from the very real impact that Covid-19 has had on the majority of us.
Individual Dimension
On a personal level there have been dramatic and traumatic changes to our lives. Unfortunately, some have experienced it to a far greater extent than others. Many of our everyday routines, behaviours and daily practices that once went unnoticed are now monitored, modified or even eliminated.
Despite the slow lifting of restrictions across Europe, a significant percentage of the workforce still remains working from home for an indefinite period of time. Each of us have a story to tell of our trials, tribulations and fun memories during lockdown. We still however remain anxious and braced for the next big event to hit, whether that will be what has been labelled the inevitable second wave or something else. Whatever the reason we remain in ‘crisis mode’ because we have been traumatised by our experience of the last few months.
Through encouraging acts of kindness and compassion we have sought to highlight the wonderful strengths of humanity but after such an extended period it would be fair to say that we are all, to a greater or lesser extent, suffering from compassion fatigue.
Organisational Dimension
While the focus for positive leaders has been on caring for the health and wellbeing of their staff and navigating their organisations through the first shock of the crisis, we now need to start focusing our attention on organisational health and wellbeing and adapting it to the ‘new normal’. Just like humans our organisations can also experience and suffer from trauma. Organisational trauma “is an injury to the body of an organisation”[1], and this trauma can be as a result of a single event, or long-term toxicity problem, such as abusive leadership[2].
After all, an organisation is nothing more than an artificially constructed community of people designed to achieve a commercial outcome. It is made up of people and there is no way that the emotions experienced during this pandemic can be left in the zoom waiting room before you ‘turn up to work’. It is inevitable that this pain, the anxiety and trauma, will spill into the workplace. This external traumatic event that is Covid-19, wounds our workforce on a personal level, which in turn is carried into our organisations. Consider then the impact of poor leadership, decision-making processes, actions and behaviours on the body (. i.e. workforce) of the organisation wish is already wounded. This too could be as a result of a single source responsible for an internal wounding/event or an ongoing wounding from abusive or destructive management practices[3].
Why is organisational trauma important?
An organisation that has recently suffered a trauma or is traumatized is “vulnerable, temporarily helpless, and awash in emotions”[4]. Consequently, there is a “collective inability to think clearly, and usual structures collapse or function poorly”[5]. So, an organisations ability to respond to external and internal challenges is adversely affected. In this context, an organisation will end up in a downward spiral of dysfunction, undermining its structures, leadership, culture, sense of belonging and connection. Ultimately, productivity and performance are impacted, with a further likelihood of depleting retention rates.
Consider the reality of our world today: The traumatic events that have impacted each and every one of our workforces (external wounding) add to that the potential impact of management decisions relating to pay, workforce size, restructuring, etc and you have an internal wounding. Business leaders need to be consciously aware of the impact of this collective pain and potential confusion on business performance. For they can impact morale and job performance on the individual and collective levels. Business leaders need their organisations to be capable of responding to the very real and damaging external and internal challenges they now face. Poor leadership at this point in time impacts loyalty to the organisation, as well as a workforce that can be ‘distracted at work and which may become unresponsive and even uncooperative in dealing with colleagues and customer’[6].
What is required of positive leaders?
- The emotional intelligence and self-awareness to recognise a traumatic event and the effect it has in their organisation, acknowledging the pain that is felt.
- Avoid insular and a defensive mind-set taking hold within the senior leadership team and its contagion throughout the organisation
- Create an opportunity to heal and embed a compassionate institutional response across the whole organisation.
- Communicate open and honestly within the organisation and be willing to show their own vulnerability and pain.
- Reinforce organisational values and model behaviours you would like others to demonstrate.
- Empower others to take ownership at the lowest levels in dealing with challenges and supporting each other through acts of compassion.
- Assess with clarity what has happened and its impact and provide a clear mission and vision on what positive actions are required to move forward.
Deflection or avoidance of traumatic events by an organisations senior leaders only results in on going wounding which is a “collective emotional and psychological injury that builds over time and disables an organization with an accumulation of harm”[7]. It’s a failure of leadership and sets an organisation up for failure. What is needed today, perhaps more than ever in the last 2 decades, is a style of leadership that realistically assesses the current situation and with a human centred approach at its core takes the positive action required to move the organisation forward. In doing so you build resilient and agile organisations, with a workforce motivated and connected to a shared vision and mission, capable of adapting to the changing environment while strive to achieve exceptional performance.
[1] https://www.antioch.edu/gslc/2019/05/03/how-to-handle-trauma-in-your-organization/
[2] Ibid.
[3] https://www.workhuman.com/resources/globoforce-blog/protecting-employees-from-organizational-trauma#
[4] Pat Vivian, Kristin Cox, Shana Hormann, and Sarah Murphy-Kangas, ‘Healing Traumatized Organisations: Reflections from Practitioners’, www.organisationaltraumaandhealing.com
[5] [1] Ibid.
[6] https://hbr.org/2002/01/leading-in-times-of-trauma
[7] Pat Vivian, Kristin Cox, Shana Hormann, and Sarah Murphy-Kangas, ‘Healing Traumatized Organisations: Reflections from Practitioners’, www.organisationaltraumaandhealing.com
