Well, that’s BoJo’s normal-for-now.
I have no idea what the new normal may mean to you. I expect it’ll still involve some sort of hybrid working?
The pandemic is not over, but it is. Covid is endemic, but it isn’t.
We’ve had nearly two years of working entirely differently.
Decision making has been democratised, people have listened to each other and apart from the personal devastation that Covid has wreaked, there have been some useful changes and a sense of no going back…
… but, going back we are.
Do we just pick up where we left off? Maybe there are some questions we need to ask, first?
- How are people feeling?
- Do they feel safe?
- Do people have someone they can ask for help?
- Have things happened during lock-down that have festered and should be dealt with?
- How will we know?
- Have people had a degree of autonomy that will be reeled-in, or not?
- How to deal with the likely resentment or envy?
Maybe some people have discovered skills they never knew they had and will want to develop them.
Two years is a long time and people, their attitudes and ambitions may well have changed.
Companies have changed. Organisations have moved on and certainly, the NHS is in a different place.
Netflix has decided no meeting shall last longer than 30 minutes. As a result, been able to reduce the number of meetings by 60%.
Microsoft, in Japan, is working a four day week.
Shopify has No-Meetings-Wednesdays…
… all changes a product of working through Covid.
The big step change was the ability to meet via Zoom, Teams and all the rest. Really convenient use of reliable technology that we’ve all, now, got the hang of.
Who will forget the most defining words of lockdown; ‘Yer-on-mute!’
Did remote working mean you used the convenience of the screen to meet more, used the phone less? More importantly, what will you do now?
There are some tricky decisions coming up.
Aside from the imminent arrival of ICPs, the recovery programme could be very disruptive for normal working.
Complex decisions with uncertain outcomes, cutting across the routine, to make way for enhanced performance, political scrutiny and public interest.
Questions about retaining innovations that have emerged through Covid. What to keep doing and what not to keep doing?
Sharing the best-practice that will emerge from the concentration on waiting-list-reduction.
There’ll be some make or break, mission-critical decisions.
Are you responsible for decisions? Accountable for the outcomes?
Have you thought about how consultation with colleagues and partners may have changed?
It’s the old story; voice, vote and veto… who has what and where does the buck stop.
A lot of that will have changed through covid. Decision making had shorter lead times and permission wasn’t granted, it was taken for granted.
In many cases, a whole layer of management was sidelined.
Before Covid when tough decisions needed to be made, consensus and buy-in were the first steps. Covid pushed us in another direction; make the best decision you can, when you can and be prepared to carry the can.
Empowerment was redefined. Speed limits were ignored but leaders still had to find a way to be sure people had their seatbelts on.
Will the ‘newfound normal’ mean abandoning the newfound agility?
Covid has had two effects.
It has enabled some organisations, or parts of organisations, to suck decision making back to the centre.
We saw that with the conflict created by an immature and badly handled communications strategy. Sucking power to the centre leaving local comm’s teams stranded. Bullied for trying to deal with local and regional press, with one hand tied.
The other effect; letting-go of decision making. Matthew Gould, head of NHSX, his very mature memo enabling data sharing, with the only caveat to be sensible… and everyone was.
Staff welfare and conditions came under the spotlight. People responded by working together. Out of nowhere, wobble-rooms emerged.
The campaign to provide 24/7 hot food for staff, is leveraged off a Covid realisation; look after the people and the people they are looking after… will be better looked after.
In the long run it will be better for us all to step into a new-normal but best we take a moment to first, define what it is we want, better.
News and Comment from Roy Lilley
Contact Roy – please use this e-address roy.lilley@nhsmanagers.net
Reproduced at thetrainingnet.com by kind permission of Roy Lilley.
