05/28/2020

Transformation in the Time of COVID

by Lowell Aplebaum, FASAE, CAE, CPF

Over the past two months, we have wandered together through a trough that has left even the most accomplished and seasoned leaders stunned, worn out and shaken. Yet, through this unexpected breach of COVID-19 into this year’s aspirational strategies, we are witnessing the Power of Associations and watching new models and understandings being birthed moment by moment. This moment is shattering the most calcified of ‘we’ve always done it that way’ practices, finding leaders that are saying, “yes,” to operating in ways that only moments ago were anathema to tightly held beliefs about the speed with which new approaches can be implemented. As relevance, need, community, connection and value are being redefined, the capacity and tolerance for organizational experimentation has become the new pathway to meaning and impact.

The experience has had a rhythm to it. Weeks one and two were shock, adrenaline, reactive and chilling. Weeks three and four were bold, hard, gut-wrenching choices about major events, informational floods, and long, long hours. With weeks five and six came the realization that this isn’t just going away, and, with it, exhaustion, hitting the wall and Zoom fatigue. In weeks seven and eight, organizations stare into the realities of reduced budgets, staff, salaries and cash flow projection concerns. Before us is a mix of starting to get a sense of new stability, while pressing forward with figuring out what to expect, believe and how to build the muscle around integrated short and long-term scenario planning.

Through voluminous numbers of conversations, we are seeing patterns. Denial, skepticism and disbelief have yielded to initial understandings about a new reality that is a marathon not a sprint. These circumstances are unveiling compelling opportunities. Former methodologies, ones employed for years if not decades, are rapidly being discarded in favor of the deployment of choices that were not on the radar eight weeks ago. Tone deaf is today’s version of what Mom taught us about having 10 seconds to make a first impression – it’s hard to recover from now if it’s not authentic and caring at its core. There is a vast difference between the leader speaking from their voice, perspective and heart with relevant information and reading a pre-vetted and canned speech to the membership. 

Please select this link to read the complete post from Lowell Aplebaum on LinkedIn.