How can we create useful change conversations during the Coronavirus (COVID-19)?

The World Health Organisation had declared a global emergency due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. This has caused several organisations to pull back from their normal activities and hold off on some of their plans as they “wait and see” how this development is going to pan out.

Needless to say, this has a huge effect on leadership speakers like me. Some of my clients’ contingency plan is to cancel and limit events that would require a gathering of crowds. 

Times have changed in the blink of an eye.

Should we be scared?

How do we steer our teams toward useful conversations in this time of crisis as leaders?

Challenge to creating useful conversation:  To shift our mindsets from being scared, paranoid and negative to being motivated, positive and solution-focused?

If you do this now, you will be able to pick up faster than other organisations when the situation gets better.

Solution: Discuss with your team how to co-create useful change for your organisation during difficult times (e.g. COVID-19).

We use these questions to talk about hope, coping mechanisms and what we want during difficult times. Allow your team members to give vivid responses to what’s different and better:

• How can we show our clients that we care during times like this?
• What gives us hope that we will be able to navigate through these moments well together?
• What platforms can we utilise to collaborate better?
• How can we maximize technology to effectively deliver services to our clients with less face-to-face meetings?
• What other sorts of services can we provide to our clients and the community that they can benefit from?
• How can we simplify our processes so that it engages our clients?
• How do we keep our spirits up? What has worked before in similar times that we need to follow?
• What is something that you want to acknowledge your colleagues for?

We can uncover a lot of useful ideas on how to move forward if we deliberately shift the focus of our conversations to what is our preferred future during times like this.