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Big changes are afoot in the economy as well as within companies that are aiming for resilience in the face of so much uncertainty.
One example is Citi, which in September announced big operational changes, “to fully align its management structure with its business strategy and simplify the bank.” The new structure is designed to be less hierarchical, eliminating management layers to accelerate decision-making, increase accountability and improve service for clients.
The transformation is meant to make the bank nimbler while furthering progress on its strategy, a process that Dr. Kisha Lashley, associate professor of commerce at University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce, said represents Citi’s “core.”
Other companies that want to increase resilience in the face of change are considering their options too.
“How do you know when you should invest resources or take changes seriously? Oftentimes, that will go back to the core of the organization,” Lashley said. “Organizations may be engaged in other activities that are tangentially related to the core or just exploring with the hope that something will pan out. But if they're very clear about what that core is, that provides a guiding light.”
Organizational leader’s responsibility is in part to revisit and discuss their vision for the company and whether their operational model is fulfilling that vision — particularly with such a high level of disruption and turbulence around.
“It's OK for goals to change over time, but being clear about those changes will help,” she said.
Here are a number of other approaches that can help increase organizational resilience.
Consider Strategy and Changes to Workflows
Operational structure should support strategy, so get clear on strategic goals before making any structural changes.
“Strategy is always first,” said Maureen Cahill, a senior managing partner at McLean & Company with three decades of HR experience. “So, when your strategy shifts materially, you do have to say, ‘What are the implications of that for our structure?’ And sometimes it’s tweaks, sometimes it's ‘This is so big, we have to completely rethink how we’ve organized the business to get work done.’”
The process may involve reimagining how work flows through the organization and how various parts of the company relate.
“One of the biggest gaps in major restructures is not so much who’s in the boxes as what are the connection points throughout the organization and how does work flow?” said Cahill. “That is often overlooked, and then you find out those issues the hard way.”
Get Employee Input
While leadership is responsible for strategy and operational structure, employees can provide important insight into how external shifts are affecting business.
“It is critical when you are thinking about organizational changes to talk to the front line,” said Cahill.
An increase in remote work means that leaders must think about how to formally facilitate this kind of communication. Focus groups can be a good method, and they come with the added benefit of giving workers some ownership of the change process.
Related Article: How Leaders Can Build Stronger Teams Through Better Conversations
Empower Your Managers
It’s essential to involve managers in any process of organizational change, as they can help leadership understand how shifts will affect teams. They also facilitate communication with employees.
A managerial culture that incorporates regular two-way communication between managers and staff is one that can better and more quickly adapt to change. “Culture has a huge impact on building resilience,” said Cahill.
As part of that responsive culture, leadership should put mechanisms in place for managers to report their perspectives upwards.
“Managers oftentimes are best positioned to see how their job is changing and how their employees are changing,” said Lashley. “A difficult thing is figuring out how to get that intelligence from them and then bring it up to the level of the C-suite.”
Handle Layoffs Carefully
Layoffs may be necessary during restructuring, as is the case with Citi. This process is likely to be stressful on employees, particularly if it is handled with insufficient transparency, planning or speed.
Think through who should deliver the message and how it should occur. Examples of CEOs laying off hundreds of people at once over Zoom have made headlines due to the outrage and trauma they engender. By contrast, a highly empathetic and tightly choreographed approach provides more support for employees who are directly or indirectly affected.
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“There is a cascading effect of making sure people who are being affected know at the right time,” said Cahill. “I've been through some of these where our communication plan gets down to the minute.”
A good layoff strategy should also involve robust post-layoff supports like severance pay and help finding a new position. Leaders should think through every component that can make this difficult moment easier for those affected.
Related Article: Why We Need to Foster Trust During Layoffs
Act as Quickly as Possible
While structural transformation by nature takes time, leaders should make it a priority to act quickly. This is particularly true once they’ve already notified staff that changes are afoot.
“One of the things that really hurts organizations is when decisions are long and drawn out,” said Lashley. “That's the period during which people, especially employees, start getting frustrated, getting stressed as they worry about what their futures could look like.”
These frustrations are compounded by poor transparency around what’s coming. Employees at Citi have noted the stress arising from the opaque way that CEO Jane Fraser is communicating.
“It’s kind of consuming everyone internally; everyone’s wondering how it affects their business,” a Citi banker told Financial Times. “She’s got a plan. She’s just not going to let everyone else see it for a while.”
See the Opportunity in the Moment
Change is often anxiety-provoking, but it’s good to remember that times of change present opportunities to approach one’s work in fresh and innovative ways.
“Turbulence is scary, it’s challenging — it’s all of those things — but it also creates opportunities,” said Lashley.
“Embrace it; see it as a moment to do something new and to come out on the other side bigger and better and more resilient.”
