Are we starting month 7 or month 70 post-pandemic outbreak? It feels like it was only yesterday and a lifetime ago that WFH became the new normal. And while there are a litany of problems facing us as individuals and as society, business problems are also core to the recovery. Without an economic recovery, there is no actual recovery. As such, it makes sense to take stock of where we find ourselves today — what business cycle are we entering? What should we as business leaders be concerning ourselves with, not only to survive today, but thrive into the future? The answer is that we’re moving into the ‘recover’ stage, but what does that mean for you and your business?

Respond → Recover → Thrive

When faced with an emergency or disaster, your first stage as a business is to respond. How do you react to the crisis and keep your collective heads above water?

In this particular case, most organization’s first priority has been crisis response, emphasizing health and safety, and virtualizing your work. Adaptability is the name of the game here, but adaptability in the service of continuity. Be flexible enough to meet the challenge while keeping your people and your clients humming along (as best as possible, anyway).

Once you’ve steadied the ship — which some businesses are finding themselves in that situation today — you have to focus on turning today into tomorrow in terms of your business, its people, its products and its clients.

Deloitte identifies five imperatives within the ‘recover’ phase to guide your business from responding to recovering:

1. Understand the required mindset shift
2. Identify and navigate the uncertainties and implications
3. Embed trust as the catalyst to recovery
4. Define the destination and launch the recovery playbook
5. Learn from other’s successes.

Recover considerations

The recovery — and your business’ recovery for that matter — won’t be static. It won’t happen on a specific day at an exact time. Even if a vaccine is proven safe and effective, it’ll take months if not years to distribute widely enough to achieve true herd immunity. As such, many organizations are planning for various scenarios and time horizons as they progress from crisis response to recovery. The wise firms are also taking into account the high likelihood for multiple waves of the pandemic. Because of that, the shift from response to recovery will be more of a gradual transition than a binary switch flip. As Deloitte cautions, “Organizations must prepare for different outcomes of the pandemic — mild, harsh, or severe — and recognize that the recovery should be adaptable to different situations within different countries and industries worldwide.”

As businesses chart their path for the short to mid-term future, given those myriad considerations just outlined, you should keep three considerations top of mind:

“The future of any organization’s DNA, and critical guideposts for workforce recovery, should include its direction on organizational:

Purpose: integrating the well-being and contributions of individuals in the organization’s mission and work

Potential: for what can be achieved by individuals and teams, and

Perspective: with a focus on moving boldly into the future.”

How you and your organization choose to navigate your recovery process will ultimately serve as a bridge between your response phase — how you dealt with the immediate challenges of the crisis — and what your future will look like — the ‘new normal.’

According to Deloitte, and we agree, the “biggest challenge organizations will likely face in recovery is the tension between preparing for a return to previous activities and routines — getting back to work— while also embracing a new reality — rethinking work.”

That’s where we come in. As virtualizing and connecting a now-remote workforce become hallmarks of the recover phase as we re-imagine work and prepare to thrive going forward, a managed IT partner can ensure you’re ready to meet the moment and surpass whatever challenges lay at your feet.

Drop us a line today, and see how we can help your business take the next step!