Leadership between uncertainty and opportunities
The world that we knew has changed. Governments around the world are telling us that the best way to protect ourselves and others is to stay at home. In the blink of an eye, our homes have become the centre of our world and a boundary to our social and professional lives. Yet, we remain connected across these boundaries. Information and communication technologies have allowed users to transcend the constraints of physical separation leading to what has been defined as the death of distance.
So if we are still able to be continuously connected, and for many of us to work remotely, what is really happening in our working lives? Organisational studies have demonstrated that physical distance contributes in part to defining the feeling of being close to someone in the work environment. Therefore, the focus for leaders and tech solutions should be the different perceptions of distance amongst employees. Effective communication is pivotal to address organisational needs. Also, leaders should consider developing narratives and interactions that prioritise and acknowledge the complex experience of working from home in these uncertain and vulnerable times.
The remote experiment
The coronavirus outbreak has triggered a challenging trial run for remote working on a global scale. However, remote working is not a novelty. Based on a global survey conducted in 2018, 56% of companies use remote work in “hybrid solutions,” or are full-time. The year before, U.S data revealed that 85% of companies were hybrid - allowing or requiring remote work. Based on the same study, 16% of participants worked for companies that are fully remote. In North America just two years ago, 74% of workers said they would quit their jobs to work for a different organisation that allows them to work remotely more often, even if their salary stayed the same. These statistics underpin the findings of many other researchers, demonstrating an emerging field of analysis focused on the benefits of remote working.
From a psychological perspective, Cooper and Dartington highlighted that a typical aspect of the network, remote organisation, is the shift towards a culture of fluidity, flexibility and negotiated interdependencies in social life. These are aspects that can engender possibilities for new forms of depth engagement, as well as new forms of solidarity, creativity, purpose and growth. In recent weeks, social media has been populated with screenshots and videos of teams working and having fun moments using video platforms; these are examples of creative ways to create group identity remotely.
Based on the experience of these last few weeks, many are questioning whether after the crisis organisations will decide to keep their workforce at remote locations partially or full-time. This question is intriguing; in particular, because it will have an influence on multiple levels of society, products and markets.
Nonetheless, this massive organisational experiment is not just a typical shift to remote working. Adam Gorlick, director of communication at Stamford, in a recent article, pointed out that what’s happening today with the coronavirus crisis is completely different thanks to four factors: children, space, privacy and choice. These four elements emerged by comparing the current working situation to the results obtained in a study conducted in 2015 about a remote working transformation program of a travel agency in China.
A recent analysis of twitter posts between the 10th and 11th of March in Italy has confirmed and reinforced the difficulty of working from home while parenting and schooling children. In the same twitter analysis, we can also observe a lack of conversations concerning the uncertainty and precariousness of work.
It seems that organisations and employees are not yet ready to share stories and experiences about the damages, loss and vulnerability encountered in this unexpected change. Online, and in LinkedIn, we can see an enormous amount of guides and practical tips for efficient remote working. Although these types of suggestions and guidance can give employees some structure and sense of control, they risk creating a rigid culture. Denial and splitting between the good and the bad are common mechanisms which defend us from painful and uncontrollable outcomes. The risk of sojourning in this state of denial for too long is that of losing the full potential presented by this global workplace experience.
What is essential right now, is to focus on addressing what is happening in workers' homes, working with the interconnection of the family system and the broader system that we are shaping. This experiment is not just about remote working; it is about developing a new model of leadership, co-creating new forms of communication and deepening our understanding of the emotions in the organisation.
The leadership task
Leaders and HR professionals are at the centre of helping organisations respond to the coronavirus crisis, and are being challenged to find immediate and creative solutions to help their employees to adapt to change. Likewise - as noted above - they also have to manage their own changing circumstances, a sense of loss of control, and a sense of greater vulnerability that uncertainty brings. Some organisations may have to deal with restructuring and redistribution of their workforces; others are facing financial uncertainty and have to let employees and the entire department go. In some industries, the high demand for products and resources have destabilised well known practices and systems of work; we witness daily reports of the hurdles faced in healthcare and food distribution.
In any of those scenarios, leaders are tasked to make difficult decisions which are having a significant impact on efficiency, effectiveness of service and culture. From a psychosocial perspective, the leadership task is to offer containment while shifting to a more adequate model of leadership.
As human beings, we naturally look for what is familiar; we try to reproduce those settled but invisible rules of the game, that organise our relationships at work and attribute meanings to our experiences. However, it is when certainty becomes uncertain, and the invisible becomes visible that we can develop curiosity. The task is to treat what we are facing as an unknown friend - one that is friendly enough to be discovered. Leadership containment in this sense is the capacity to offer the level of nourishment and trust that facilitates self-reflection, curiosity and innovation. Claudia Nage, president of ISPSO (international society for the psychoanalytic study of organisations), in a letter to leaders dealing with the Coronavirus crisis, emphasises the importance of containment and social responsibility.
Simon Western, in his book Leadership: A Critical Text, proposes a practical and theoretically robust approach of leading in contemporary organisations. The author defines leadership as a psychosocial influencing dynamic, underlining the interactive and fluid character of leadership. Western combines this character with an examination of the emotional experience occurring in both leadership and followership - from the perspective of work, self, and the interaction between the two. Eco-leadership conceptualises organisations as ecosystems within ecosystems. The interdependency of different parts of the organisation's network does not allow leadership to be defined by control, and a rigid hierarchy. Distributed leadership enables the organisation to be adaptable, and responsive to immediate changes through an active feedback loop between the different organisation parts. The eco-leadership discourse focus on four cardinal points:
Connectivity and interdependence - recognise the open-systemic nature of the organisation
Systemic ethics - acknowledge the impact player in the social and natural ecosystem
Leadership spirit - value creativity, innovation, and deep learning
Organisation belonging - rethink organisational purpose and meaning
Leaders are today given an important role; to shape organisations that value developing awareness of the different systems of belonging, while providing a secure base for community development, and establishing a distributed leadership model capable of adapting to change.
Communication
The word communication finds its origin in the Latin language, and it refers to the capacity of sharing and participating. From this perspective communication in organisations is at the heart of a culture of belonging and participation. The social psychologist David Amstrong, points out the importance for leaders, during uncertainty in organisations, to be present through interaction with the entire organisation. Through effective and affective communication, leaders at all levels can provide an idea and feel of the enterprise and practice of the organisation which can ground and recover the exchange and enactment of thought.
Edelman Trust Barometer just last year revealed how employees look to organisations as a more trusted source of information than the media and government. This last point strengthens the importance of communication as a form of containment, as previously discussed, and points out that the need for communication answers to the broader systems in which the organisation operates. Transparent policies along with new and lost alliances should also be part of the wider company communication agenda. In times where we as a society have lost trust, it is fundamental to communicate with employees, stakeholders and clients like never before.
Edgard H. Shein, in his book Humble Inquiry- the gentle art of asking instead of telling- argues the importance of listening in leadership communications. Shein invites leaders and managers to become better at asking questions to which we don’t know the answer; the art of drawing someone out.
Finding new ways to communicate with employees and lead in time of uncertainty is even more important when it comes to remote organisations. Create new narratives and new meanings that help be in touch with the experience of working remotely is fundamental for surviving and developing in these extraordinary times.