Navigating times of crisis: the ten principles of a healthy organisation

True moments of crisis: here are the main challenges organisations face

In times of profound and unexpected crisis—such as the pandemic we have been navigating—organisations and people struggle to achieve the same results simply by maintaining the same behaviours.

Faced with these moments of crisis, organisations often experience one or more of these key challenges:

1. A DROP IN DEMAND, meaning A REDUCTION IN REVENUES (orders, sales).
2. A DROP IN PRODUCTION, meaning an inability to produce the goods/services to sell, or an INCREASE IN COSTS (operational, purchasing, inefficiencies, etc.).
3. A DROP IN PRODUCTIVITY, meaning the efficiency of processes and people declines, leading to REDUCED MARGINS.

It is worth noting that every organisation experiences these 3 challenges differently. Consequently, each perceives its priorities for action in its own way; this is why organisations must first be listened to, and then guided to act according to their specific priorities.

Furthermore, in these situations, a reactive state typically emerges, characterised by 3 crucial elements:

1. A state of CONFUSION, caused by the absence of a clear, objective view of the context, the future, and the appropriate behaviours to adopt.
2. A generalised SENSE OF URGENCY that fuels anxiety. People feel there is no time to think and properly evaluate “all the moving parts”.
3. A perceived need for immediate SOLUTIONS, often with rapid progress. Doing something quickly feels vital… but what?

Reactions to times of crisis

In this context, leaders do not know what or whom to trust. They tend to oscillate, with varying degrees of intensity, between 2 opposing behaviours:

• Remaining FROZEN, doing nothing or mechanically repeating what worked in the previous context.
• Falling into AIMLESS HYPERACTIVITY, meaning doing anything and everything without any real awareness of a new cause-and-effect relationship between actions and results. In practice, this squanders valuable energy and creates further confusion.

In both cases, disorientation leads to a preference for TANGIBLE SOLUTIONS, under the illusion that tangibility equals effectiveness.

The needs organisations seek to address

In short, organisations and their leaders have core needs they seek to satisfy, primarily:

1. A simple, shareable REFERENCE MODEL.
2. A “TRUSTED” GUIDE they can rely on, who will not make them feel “incompetent” or like “followers” when they need to step up as leaders.
3. Developing SCENARIO-BASED thinking, because in an uncertain world, procedural thinking ceases to work.
4. CONCRETE actions, to feel active and make tangible progress, even if only a small step forward.
5. EASY actions*, because during emergencies, people lack the energy required for complex learning curves.
6. RAPID and VISIBLE results, to confirm that what is being done genuinely delivers an impact.
7. Solutions ALIGNED with the client’s cultural model—meaning ADJACENT solutions. In emergencies, the weight of uncertainty leaves little bandwidth to experiment with entirely new mindsets.

* Easy means “what you already know how to do reasonably well”; Difficult means “what you do not yet know how to do”.

A review model that meets short-term needs

Every organisation, team, or individual delivers results through the interaction of 3 foundational PILLARS:

1. “Organisational” MODELS, namely the way the organisation, team, or individual structures ideas and activities.
2. The TECHNOLOGIES or TECHNIQUES used to operate.
3. The PEOPLE who use these models and technologies.

In stable conditions, the MIX of these 3 components is typically well-defined, tested, effective, and efficient. But in an environment of sudden disruption, that established MIX proves entirely ineffective and inadequate.

It therefore becomes essential to initiate a LEAN, RAPID, and above all COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW PROCESS across these 3 key pillars, focusing on what can be done differently to regain effectiveness. We start by analysing pre-crisis practices, then envision what we can do and how it can be done, swiftly defining concrete actions to implement and test in order to reorient effectively.