RESILIENCE: DEVELOPING A WINNING
CULTURE THIS PANDEMIC

ORGANIZATION DESIGN

As work resumed late May of this year, all things seemed new and these are some of the things I observed-the almost empty streets, less traffic, the facemask and face shield worn plus the alcoholic or sanitizer as a new companion ready to give a helping hand. Is this for real? What could be it for organizations? And here we are, the emergence of Org structure streamlining and working through technology. Technology by the way does not only speak of automation, gadgets, or anything tangible or programs that had to be purchased and used up.

Technology can be a simple system that can be employed to help accomplish something bigger than its purpose, like for instance, the basic REDUCE, RE-USE and RECYCLE is technology, it doesn’t need electricity or soldered components or programs. Companies had allowed (which they won’t prior) work from home set up, provided support (computer sets, internet gadgets, allowance and even office furniture and seating) and more on the shift to paperless transactions. For some offices, office layouts are changed to avoid crowding, schedules are set on shifting plus the reduction of office face to face transactions by way of using skeletal workforce.

Also, minimizing travel time will be converted into productive hours and the measure of performance will be based on result. This will be proven as challenge on some industries that are classified under the non-essential services, however, there will always be ways on how this can be overcome, provided again that the company must be able to check its resources, after all, strategies have its own cost and benefit analysis assessment prior to implementation

LEAN ON FACTS

What proved companies to be great can be attributed to some factors like having the right person, employing the appropriate technology, establishing the right process and having the right course or direction. Records play an important role in finding those “rights” and in decision making. Looking for tomorrow today is vital for organizations, just remember to look inside first. Look at the reports, documents relevant summaries of reports generated by every department. This will be vital sources of decision making in the organization and make departments accountable for it.

Examples are:

CULTURE CULTURE CHANGE

Enactus Philippines enumerated ways on how to shift into leadership type of culture inside the organization.

• 1. Know yourself
• 2. Have a vision and be able to articulate it
• 3. Develop your team and help them grow
• 4. Listen carefully
• 5. Implement new ideas
• 6. Take good care of yourself and stay curious

Putting things in proper perspective, those attributes start from the management and value trust and independence amongst individuals leading the departments. Everything starts by having the right person based on qualification, experience and proven track record on how he/she managed to contribute for the welfare of their organization. Everything runs internally and all “best” practices must be documented and studied for future reference. Items numbers 1 to 6 are quite challenging since the organization must also move forward, the direction must be clear and properly cascaded to all members and must be concurred with the managers. Let us be realistic about it, business owners think differently compared to their employees, therefore, items no. 4-6 comes into play. Most organizations are driven by the passion of the owners or the management, still, the question remains, “Are we on the same boat and rowing in the same direction?”

COPING MECHANISM

Home working is now the norm! As the new work landscape of work is being shoved and continuously reshaped by external factors, companies are adjusting and finding ways on how to go for productivity while at home. Compact office furnitures will be emerging as the new trend once offices become functional again, even commercial office furnitures will segmentize their approaches in design to accommodate the flexibility of work on site, work on office and work from home (virtual reality type).

The change in the perspective is becoming limitless, and working against the pandemic odds shows the cultural adjustments of organizations that go beyond the relationship of men and machine, but also the character, the human factor and its elements. Cost factors might be higher on the intangible side like investing more on trust, respect and strong belief that the people are attuned and aligned to what is happening and the direction, rather than survival.