Minimising exposure talks to financial, operational and people risk.
Take a moment to consider your teams’ responses as the COVID-19 crisis emerged. It’s human nature to default to what we know. If you are risk adverse and financially led you probably gravitated straight to cut costs.
It’s worth checking in to see if there is sufficient diversity of thinking in solving the problem. There are always different levers to pull to achieve the same outcome.
Developing these different options at pace across multiple scenarios is most likely not a business as usual practice. Consider setting up teams to look at different approaches, build the teams with the strengths and balance required to get viable outcomes.
How to get started.
The art of leadership is to provide a clear brief of a desired outcome, the constraints and guardrails that will ensure the output is relevant. Create a problem statement for the brief; the situation we find ourselves in…how might we (insert approach: i.e. create new revenue opportunity), so we can…
Let the teams run independently with the same brief and then bring them together to look at the options, consider blended solutions and self-identify weaknesses and strengths in different scenarios.
This approach will achieve a balanced range of solutions, enable divergent thinking and importantly let your team add value. It models the significance of divergent thinking and a vulnerability in solving a complex problem. You will need buy in and ownership of the narrative from your team to generate positive intent to achieve impact.
Consider all the different levers to achieve the same outcome
Questions for your team
- Are we looking to minimise exposure within the old operating model? What adjustments do we need to make?
- What is our north star? Do these measures align, or is a second cut required?
- Do we have the enough diversity of thinkers working across these options?
- Are we being reactive, what are the time imperatives? Align initiatives accordingly
- Within the changing environment is our risk profile and appetite still relevant in this climate?