Remaining Nimble In Times Of Upheaval

Forbes

31-05-2025

The ground keeps shifting beneath our feet. In the span of 48 hours last week, I had a government contract for a program on crisis communications cancelled, reinstated, and cancelled again. I don't dare remove the program from my calendar in case it gets reinstated again. Fortunately, government contracts make up a small fraction of my work, so this isn't a crisis for me. But for all of us, the uncertainty in the business world can suck up precious time and mental energy, as well as cause us to hold off making decisions. Here are some suggestions for helping you steady the ship and move forward as you're buffeted by shifting headwinds and powerful waves of change.
Reinforce for yourself and your team your core identity. We can't pivot if we don't have a starting point. A basketball player pivots effectively because she keeps one foot planted. She knows her starting point. If your team or your entire organization is threatened with external, arbitrary change, in your next meeting, remind everyone what you all stand for. Publicly articulating both your values and your mission will help you remember the underlying principles that will guide your decisions as you're caught up in the maelstrom.
When Covenant House, a non-profit organization that houses young people experiencing homelessness, was instructed by various government agencies to limit the number of youth in its shelters during the Covid epidemic, the senior leadership could have frozen or panicked. Instead, they reminded themselves of the organization's mission to never turn away a kid in need. Knowing that remaining open is essential to their identity gave them the starting point for their decision-making. Since denying shelter to someone was not an option, the alternative was to turn offices, conference rooms, and other spaces into sleeping quarters. Knowing their mission also helped spur the creativity they needed when addressing how to feed, educate, and address medical needs of their residents.
Remind yourself of the limits within which your organization operates. Although some groups are good at ignoring the rules of the game, most of us don't have that luxury, or that chutzpah. We're not only a nation of laws, but a business community bound by certain rules and regulations. Sometimes, those rules feel like restrictions. But sometimes, legal limits on our behavior make our decisions easier by taking certain actions off the table. When asked to take certain actions, being able to respond with, 'We're simply not allowed to do that,' can shift the conversation.
When the pandemic struck, shuttering restaurants and cafeterias across the country, Dot Foods, Inc., the nation's largest food redistributor, found itself with massive amounts of food stuck in a supply chain that had ground to a halt. Some of their inventory is perishable and can't be sold beyond a particular date. Part of their corporate ethos is to minimize waste and support the communities in which they operate. The combination of knowing their limits and knowing themselves allowed them to pivot quickly and increase their donations to food pantries across the country.
Gather ideas from outside the normal team. Your organization has a lot of talent. How well are you tapping into it? The demands some are faced with these days are not only novel, but they are also shockingly contrarian to the way we have always operated. Your immediate team is practiced at thinking and communicating a certain way. In times of upheaval, we need not only new ideas, but new ways of thinking. You may be well served by bringing different voices into the conversation. That doesn't mean opening up your Executive Committee to the entire firm. It means asking each person on your leadership team to reach out to people they may not normally interact with to understand the perspectives of those on the ground. If your leadership team communicates directly with voices and perspectives from which they are normally insulated, your team's ability to brainstorm new approaches expands dramatically.
Many public-private partnerships exemplify the increased ability to tackle problems better by leveraging a variety of perspectives in the conversation. The Emerging Leaders Program – Bronx – is the classic example of this type of success. ELP-Bx works with six high schools in the South Bronx to expose young scholars to leadership skills and careers and help them see new paths for success in life. The organization is thriving because of the significant involvement of senior leaders in state and local government as well as at firms like JPM Asset Management and Brookfield Properties, among others. John Garibaldi, ELP Bx founder, says, 'Obviously, financial support from corporate sponsors and individual donors is essential to our success. But equally important are the ideas and perspectives that our partners in education, government, and business share in our consultation discussions. We couldn't accomplish all we have if we limited our conversations to people from one discipline, regardless of how smart they are. The plurality of perspectives is essential.'
Stay humble. Learning requires humility. Changing course requires acknowledging mistakes. That's not failure; that's bravery.
Ask yourself two questions:
On a scale of 0-10, how much of a perfectionist am I?
On a scale of 0-10, how hard am I on myself when I make a mistake?
In business decisions, accept that there is no perfect answer. There are a dozen great answers, any one if which will present its own set of challenges but will still work.
As a leader, accept that you will make mistakes. The American writer and philosopher George Saunders once paraphrased Descartes by saying, 'I think, therefore I am wrong.' Accepting that we won't always get it right allows us to remain creative and open to new ideas.
Summary
In short, as we continue to need to adapt in an ever-changing business landscape, we'll be more successful if we remind ourselves of our mission, see our limits as guideposts rather than hurdles, gain insight from a variety of perspectives, and acknowledge that we won't get everything right the first time.