Is your organisation experiencing financial challenges? Not unusual in this day and age as financial pressures have affected us all in one way or another. Metaphors can really help you to prioritise your activities and outcomes and how to communicate to your employees. It may help you to think about a ship at risk of sinking. What is the first thing you do?
There are three behavioural options: 'denial', 'panic' or 'analyse, plan, act and review'.
Denial will only mean that those in positions of power and others who depend on them will be caught out. Denial stops communication about what is likely to happen, stops the seeking of highly-needed support and the resulting non-action is most likely to mean the ship will sink with many ill-prepared casualties.
Panic causes more panic. It is infectious and soon ends in chaos. Panic can translate in not knowing where to start, lead to knee jerk and therefore ill-informed decision-making. Reactivity has a negative effect on those who rely on the direction of those in positions of power. The likely result - a sinking ship and ill-prepared casualties (unless you are lucky to be surrounded by others who are more resilient).
The only winning formula is to 'analyse, plan, act and review' in other words, take a step back, get 'all hands on deck' to analyse the damage and trust everyone's commitment to do everything in their power to prevent the worst case scenario. Asking everyone to support the outcomes will also mean they will be more resilient and ready for any further changes (even if it means that the sinking of the ship could not be prevented).
If you find that your workforce are not acting in the way you would expect in an organisation dealing with uncertainty, it is likely that clear, honest and transparent communication is needed or that the communication is not being cascaded by those who lack the resilience needed to cope and lead others in these ever-changing times.
