Architect Your Company for Agility and Recovery

What does the corporate world look like, during the pandemic, and beyond? Well, you are in it now.

As international management consultants, this is what we see now, and predict later: better-managed desk space, right-sizing, restructured workweeks; and a talent age gap as many seasoned executives, and the career devoted, decide to retire.

Does remote work get the job done? A question, faced by the world in which global business sustains. The right formula for pandemic recovery is a sweet spot that keeps people engaged but allows some freedom as they work from remote locations.

At first, organizations barely survived; and then, with remote settings, people emerged vibrant and vocal, stepping up to the challenge.

Now, agility is one of the most important pillars of business success to move an organization toward complete, pandemic recovery.

A corporate structure reflects an internal resource that is used to integrate knowledge, creating a competitive advantage. Leaders led the way while followers felt as if they gained wings, learned to fly, and became much more gregarious during meetings. A new definition of decentralized structures adorned the pandemic like a hawk eying its next prey. Agile organizations found ways to facilitate the exchange of ideas and implement more innovative solutions based on decentralized decision-making.

Leaders inspired and transformed aggregate human capital into social capital so to implement the required changes in order to create better solutions to solve the plethora of problems that the pandemic brought about.

At first, organizations barely survived; and then, with remote settings, people emerged vibrant and vocal, stepping up to the challenge. The highly formalized structures that remained more bureaucratic, and, in fact, were noted by executives themselves as being somewhat negative, limited the contribution of effectiveness of leadership in our changing environment. Thus, the decentralized structures throughout the pandemic improved interactions, and created more knowledge in organizations based on agility.

Delegation became a concern, since the executives had the same space as other workers in the meeting frames. Respect for authority figures held the barriers in place while communication had a level playing field. Leaders, knowing that delegation of decision-making power could create a climate that in turn develops inter-departmental communication within organizations, empowered people to rise to the occasion through giving them a voice in meetings.

Executives turned over responsibility by delegating more to their subordinates and watched them not only survive but also thrive. Thus, decentralization encourages organizational communications and develops a climate of openness for employees to exchange new ideas.

Agile organizations found ways to facilitate the exchange of ideas and implement more innovative solutions based on decentralized decision-making.

In the remote setting, this has been done via email communication, instant messenger, and text. Pre-meeting and post-meeting communication has been enhanced with technology. As information and clarification are disseminated, employees can implement ideas through delegated authority of decision-making at the department level and to the lowest organizational level possible, while keeping the execution viable and timely. The agile organizations that survive, are ones that see executives push decision-making down the organizational chart, resulting in a pandemic recovery.

Mostafa Sayyadi works with senior business leaders to effectively develop innovation in companies, and helps companies—from start-ups to the Fortune 100—succeed by improving the effectiveness of their leaders. He is a business book author and a long-time contributor to business publications and his work has been featured in top-flight business publications.

Michael J. Provitera is an associate professor, and an author of the book titled “Mastering Self-Motivation” published by Business Expert Press. He is quoted frequently in the national media.