Introduction :
Focusing on your purpose, values, and organizational culture will help you make the right decisions during this crisis.
Corona virus has revealed the truth for every company. Leaders ask themselves: Do our choices and actions now reflect the culture, purpose, and values that define us?
For many managers, the answer is yes. The Best Western Hotel located in England is an exemplary example. When the hotel chain experienced high bookings in early March due to the coronavirus, management initially considered turning empty hotels into temporary hospitals. After starting local hotels to provide assistance to nearby hospitals, the manager of this hotel chain realized that the greatest need was to accommodate medical personnel, low-risk patients, and people at risk. Within a week, the first converted hotel was opened in London, and with the initiative and quick decision-making, it has now made 15,000 rooms available to at-risk groups and medical staff. While the rest of the departments have been closed – it has been used. Overall, Best Western is guided by two core cultural values: 1. Service excellence 2. Being a good member of society
The culture of the organization is evaluated by its behaviors on the scale of what it says and does. An organization’s culture is driven by its purpose and values (see Figure 1). And just as it is currently grappling with Covid-19, it is also being tested by the same crisis. Our research shows that among the values presented by powerful cultures, collaboration, agility, honesty, people-centeredness, innovation, accountability and ambition are the most valuable. We found that companies that have a winning culture have a strong internal compass, or in other words, inspire their employees.
Culture is your organization’s internal compass and informs you of the actions necessary to make the right decisions in times of crisis.
So, as leaders take appropriate steps to weather this storm financially and operationally, they ask themselves how they can perform in a way that is consistent with their organization’s culture. This question helps to perform three special steps.
Three special stages according to organizational culture
1. Reflect on your goals and values.
The first step is to take a moment to reflect on your company’s purpose and values and find appropriate answers to these statements:
1. The reason for the existence of your business
2. Your opinions on how to do things.
A crisis can bring these things into sharp focus and be a touchstone for your choices. What would you do (or could you do) to align with your purpose and values? Do you think the actions you took were inconsistent with your goals? For example, holiday resorts have been hit hard by Covid-19. Of course, the executives of such businesses are concerned about business continuity and may face questions such as repaying deposits or keeping them. What they decide will have important long-term consequences, and focusing on their purpose and values is one of the most important factors they can consider when deciding on the best response.
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Talk about your purpose and values.
If business continuity management is all you can do right now, make sure you communicate your actions in a way that aligns with your values. Hawksmoor, a restaurant chain in England, like many of its peers, has decided to temporarily close its restaurants. His communication with customers was a serious expression of its integrated, employee-centric culture, and he explained that employee safety was their priority, while expressing his deepest sympathies for their beloved employees (who are now suspended) and for all other restaurants and their employees who were They are the same situation today, he also wished for health. Communicating clearly and showing empathy will help customers understand your decision.
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Bring the culture of your organization into the lives of customers, colleagues and society.
The actions you take to ease the pain of your customers during this time of crisis will always be remembered. From video streaming companies that quickly produce crisis-related content, to online education providers that offer free access to classes, and from breweries that have switched to making disinfectants, to many From other companies taking steps to deal with the crisis, it brings them closer to the customer and showcases the surprising values of the organization.
Your colleagues and employees should also see the expressed culture in a meaningful way in the organization. This can happen through communication from top to bottom and leaders who are role models of these values by encouraging people at the middle or operational levels of the organization to make these values flow in the organization. Some retailers in America only have closed stores, but for example, they continue to compensate employees. Other companies are trying to give suspended and unemployed employees temporary employment in service centers and grocery stores, which now need more help.
Getting your culture right can also mean taking action to support your community, as Best Western did.
Reconnecting actions to your purpose and values will allow you to look back with pride on how your company responded to this crisis once this crisis has passed. Culture always matters, but now more than ever
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