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COVID-19 Black Swan

By Madison Hanscom, Ph.D.It is an understatement to say things are uncertain right now, and stressors are emerging from multiple directions. Stressors related to the virus itself (Will my loved ones be ok? Will vulnerable populations be ok? Will I be ok?), changes associated with the virus (How will I balance working from home with my children? How will I handle the loss of my job? When can I go back to work? How will I pay my rent this month?). Unemployment is at an all-time high. In the United States alone, 20.5 million jobs were lost in April. This

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By Eric Johnson What happens once a crisis is over?  Do you go back to normal?  What are the expectations of management?  Employees? Customers?  Harvard Business School magazine penned a crisis management article years ago that outlined a process for crisis managers in organizations to best deal with issues that affect the organization holistically and that are a part of the public domain.  It was an operating plan that discussed scenario planning, triggering events, actions and responses, and a number of other elements specific to dealing with the issue at hand.  Additionally, it established a control and command component to centralize decision-making and messaging with a defined org. structure

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By Eric Johnson As sustainability takes the place of panic within the current pandemic, many organizations we have engaged with have asked what will things look like over the next year and beyond. As the pandemic curves flatten out and organizations get back to business, a new normal is settling in that will change the way business will be conducted across every industry. From shifting consumer demand to erosion of business due to customer lost income, the landscape for developing a new normal means developing a system for meeting presumed expectations consistently. Conduct a thorough evaluation of your products and production, with a focus on

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By Josh Williams, Ph.D.Previous blogs have detailed company leaders who’ve effectively led their organizations during COVID-19. This includes numerous, bold steps to protect employees’ safety and promote emotional well-being. Unfortunately, some leaders haven’t gotten the memo. Cargill is both the largest and wealthiest privately held corporation in America. They make more than $100 billion annually in revenue and meat processing is a large part of their operations. As most are aware, meat packing plants have had surprisingly high rates of COVID over the last few months. Part of the challenge with this industry is that people work in close quarters, especially in

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By Josh Williams, Ph.D.Organizational leaders are facing extreme challenges in navigating COVID-19. This is especially true with high profile organizations that are under intense scrutiny. Unfortunately, we’ve seen some missteps along the way. Although Amazon recently pledged all of its $4B second quarter profits to coronavirus relief efforts, they also received negative press for perceptions of how they initially handled employees’ safety in some of their warehouses. This included how they responded with people who spoke up about it (1). Perceptions of mishandling employee safety are bad for business, especially right now. Other organizational leaders have bolstered their company brands by handling

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By Brie DeLisi Many of us are in the process of shifting back into office environments or considering the appropriate next steps for a safe return to the office. Fortunately, there are a number of steps that can be taken for the physical work environment to ensure employees are kept as safe and healthy as possible. The purpose of these physical work environment adjustments is to ensure employees can be properly distanced to avoid COVID exposures in the air and that shared resources limit surface exposures. Considerations should include employee distancing, space resourcefulness, adding structures, air ventilation, shared resources and sanitation. Safe

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