Covid-19: Why Pistop with your team mid-crisis?

As leaders we cannot control the Covid-19 crisis. The best we can hope for is to control how we respond to it. In particular, taking ‘clear-headed’ decisions that can minimize the impact on our organizations, colleagues and families, as well as on ourselves. That is the measure of coping in a crisis.

So, how are people coping with Covid-19? Well, we have a passion for measuring such things and the score from a diverse array of people across our client base is 6.7 on a 10 point scale. The figure for how organizations and teams are coping is slightly higher at 7.0 and 7.1.

Are the figures for coping (as shown above) good or bad? Well, perhaps a better question is:

Q: Does the process of a team of leaders reflecting on how they are coping help?

 Our data shows that it does.  Specifically, such reflectivity is linked to better decisions as well as to improved agility, alignment and even cohesion. 

Standing back (as a team) to reflect on what is working and what is not, how we are coping and what needs to happen next is therapy for teams.  But it is also a key performance enhancement technique.

As one leader put it: ‘We have been spending a lot of time on conference calls and zoom meetings focused on tasks and problems, but by there nature, these calls leave little time for ‘taking in the bigger picture’ or ‘slowing down to see how we are really doing (individually and collectively)’.

During the crisis Pitstops have evolved into 60-90 minutes virtual pitstops, taking place every 2-3 weeks online.  They are providing an opportunity to step back from the crisis to reflect as a team on what is working and what is not, re-assess priorities and risks.  Also, to reflect on how managers and their teams are coping with the crisis, listening to and supporting each other with key data sets. 

When this is happening we can be pretty confident that, when people come together for the next virtual pitstop, the score for coping will be even higher.