Flattening the Curve: What’s the impact on your team’s productivity?

‘Flatten the curve' was a popular hashtag in the early days of the Covid-19 crisis.  What is only becoming clear now is the extent to which the crisis has flattened another curve – that is the productivity curve within many organizations.

Now that remote – home working has become a new norm, attention is turning to lost productivity the same as it was on social isolation at the start of the crisis. Now that remote working has become an everyday reality, the question is:

Q: How would you rate the level of productivity within your team? 

Clearly, the impact of Covid-19 varies from country to country, sector to sector and organization to organization. For example, our colleagues in Scandinavia are walking about freely at the moment (although the majority are still working from home) and can go to a restaurant or even visit the dentist.  On the other hand, our colleagues in the British Isles are in lock-down.

For many organizations whose doors are closed and whose customers have adjusted spending, productivity is a secondary issue.  It is survival that tops the agenda. Thankfully, the majority of our clients, while they cannot be complacent about the long-term implications of a prolonged crisis, are not in survival, but rather revival mode.  That makes productivity a key agenda item.

When it comes to the drop in productivity, perhaps it is not the figure itself that is most interesting, but rather what are the factors involved.  Specifically, what are the strategies and tactics that are being employed by those who have managed to minimize performance losses.

Q: What strategies can you employ to restore the productivity curve closer to its pre-crisis levels?

In virtual topics the following are being discussed:

• Team Reflectivity – continuously reviewing what is and is not working

• Re-alignment of priorities and results

• ‘Intelligent adaption’ of plans – a new agility

• Covid shuffle – shifting roles and re-balancing work

• Re tooling for Remote Working

• Check-ins and huddles

• Preventing amber ratings turning to red, specifically with respect to:

• Performance Design

• Performance Dynamics

• Helping those who are struggling

We will explore these and other strategies in future posts.