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Lesson
20

Operational level manager and corona crisis elimination

by Rudolf Christopher Takac

Success Problem

We are currently fully facing the COVID-19 pandemic and trying to overcome the obstacles that this time brings to our companies and organizations. What could this situation tell us? Could we have been better prepared as managers on operational level?

Impact

The impact of the pandemic is evident at all managerial levels. Each level of management can learn lessons from the present, which can help after the crisis. As a manager on operational level we should have asked following questions. Find out whether you have done enough to eliminate the impact of the COVID - 19 crisis on your business.

Recommendation

Does our managerial approach at the operational level motivate independent thinking, openness and creativity? How many business ideas (new services, modified services, market expansion, another customer group, ...) generated our team in the previous 6 months, in the last year? Do we communicate the assigned tasks clearly together with the expected quality requests? Do we know and motivate key experts in our team? Do we have secure and usable technical online tools and do we used them on daily basis? Do we have enough key experts on our team? Are we ready to effectively communicate in the event of a crisis without creating pressure on employees?

Category

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2 Comments

  1. A good mindset for the strategic reflexion is to consider the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity. An opportunity to reinvent oneself, to reinvent the business development approach, to prove our flexibility, to concentrate on real value making activities, to learn how to solve our problems efficiently (as there is no choice to survive).
    Reply Upvote post

  2. There are a lot of questions in your posts. Let me just answer "Could we have been better prepared?" not as an operational manager, but as a project manager. Covid-19 is the proverbial meteorite striking the building where all project workers sit in. In terms of risk management and mitigation, I would not spend time on this now or in the near future. A meteor can strike any time - with very high impact - but the chance is so low that you probably have bigger fish to fry, at least in any "regular" project. Exception might be a project where failure may lead to a massive loss of life. So in terms of preparation: no, I don't think we could or even should have done too much up front. However, as early as mid-January of this year, the chance of covid-19 impacting your project could have appeared on your risk monitor list. I know it was on mine, before my environment took it serious.
    Reply Upvote post

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