The future needs its roots
Now is a good time for ideas that drive real progress toward a new normal—not just lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis. The answers to the following questions provide us with important insights: Why have we been successful so far, and why will we remain indispensable in the future? Where do we focus our energy? How do we work together, and how do we want to be perceived? And finally: What elements from our past do we NO LONGER need in our future? What are we letting go of to make room for something new?
The answers take us further than a “new normal” that ultimately leaves much as it was—just with more digitalization and remote work, fewer business trips, and fewer resources. The new normal doesn’t mean taking a breather for now, slowing things down again. Continuing to use a few new things here and there, like online meetings. And that’s it? No! But what does the process look like for defining the new normal and taking the first steps?
Don’t waste a crisis
That’s the well-known saying. It means that once we’ve overcome the acute crisis, the real work on the new normal begins. Even if we’re exhausted and it’s harder to shape further changes right now. The new does not automatically emerge from the old—garnished with a few elements that proved their worth during the crisis or that we realized we don’t need.
A two-hour workshop with senior management or department heads does not resolve the issue. Gathering experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic—both positive and negative—also creates a foundation, but it does not yet guarantee a future. The key is to take a step back to gain new insights and perspectives.
Double Loop Learning addresses the question of meaning
The concept, known as “Double Loop Learning,” has proven highly effective in the context of the so-called “learning organization” and can now, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, be more useful than ever. Closing the second loop means asking not only whether goals are being pursued correctly. The crucial question is whether the right goals are being pursued. It is not just what we do that is up for debate, but rather what we are working toward and how we are doing it.
This question of purpose significantly broadens the perspectives on what the new normal might look like and what should change—beyond just more remote work and less travel. This can give rise to a normality that seems revolutionary from a pre-COVID perspective, extending even to changes in the business model and business strategy. Nothing is impossible; everything becomes feasible.
The first step is to create an environment throughout the entire organization where it is permissible to ask whether one’s own goals are the right ones—for the entire company down to the level of each team. Managers should demonstrate openness to the answers. In some cases, contradictions may even be highlighted regarding how the company or its divisions have been managed so far. This is not a bad thing; on the contrary, it is very useful. After all, contradictions do not disappear simply by remaining unspoken.
In the second step, an overall direction is formulated from the portfolio of goals. This can again be done in a very cooperative and collaborative manner, with employee participation on a voluntary basis. Ultimately, it will contain much that is familiar and perhaps little that is new. However, this subtle distinction can be decisive for the future. And without the “double loop,” these perspectives would not have emerged.
Finally, implementation follows, usually again in several steps. Ideally, the process begins with initial rapid measures that first make room for the new. Consciously letting go of the old is usually more difficult than starting something new. Therefore, this liberation from the burdens of the past should come first. Finally, get rid of it!
This is how the cycle closes. The future needs the past—to build on the familiar and to bid farewell to the outdated. The status determines the strategy in change management, shaping how the new normal can unfold.