Spring Cleaning Priorities in ‘21
Organize (and perhaps re-order) your capability map
It probably goes without saying that the need to advance digital skills, at all levels, accelerated at warp speed in 2020. But without a truly adaptive workforce, how far will you really get? Health and wellness rightly took a front-row seat in 2020 as firms focused on pandemic-related stressors and new work-from-home challenges. Yet as it happens, Deloitte research indicates that key inputs in ensuring a more adaptable workforce are well-being, belonging, and ethics. Not only are the DEI implications very clear (a sense of belonging is an invaluable outcome of a diverse, inclusive culture), so are the business ones: situational adaptability is one of the scarcest capabilities to find at any level of seniority, so it will be critical that firms remain focused on these factors in order to continue a successful, rapid digital transformation.
Sweep away dated attitudes about virtual learning
If there were any lingering doubts whether virtual learning was more than a passing fad, 2020 certainly laid those to rest. Coursera went public, having added 30.6 million new users in 2020 (up from 9.2 million in 2019), and edX’s new registered users grew 161% year-over-year in the same period. Institutional partnerships with LinkedIn Learning are also growing significantly. To think one could maintain complete control over employees’ learning and development choices is simply not possible, nor is it even helpful to those who clearly plan to forge ahead. Maintaining a learning culture post-pandemic not only means keeping virtual learning meaningfully embedded in existing, structured programs but also allowing employees and teams to set aside time to chart their own learning paths. They’re more likely now to do so anyway; why not encourage and support them?
Shore up to prevent network erosion
The evidence is strong that maintaining a strong, vibrant, and diverse social network has tremendous benefits in expanding our own (and our organizations’) capabilities for creativity and innovation. The importance of meaningful, human connection was made acutely clear in 2020, when it became exceedingly difficult to maintain our social networks as we normally would. As a result, our networks actually shrank by 18% in 2020 (the lion’s share of this drop is among men, as well as on our networks’ “outer ring,” often the very place where more innovative ideas and perspectives originate). It may require more work in a virtual or hybrid environment, but for the benefit of innovation and well-being, organizations should create opportunities and encourage individuals to rebuild and strengthen some of those important ties that weakened this past year.
Throw out the notion of hanging “inspirational wall quotes” to demonstrate values
Employees overall have given high marks to their organizations for effectively and compassionately communicating pandemic-related protocols on safety, flexibility and the like; but is that enough to actually keep them? In Harris Poll findings from February 12, 18% of surveyed employees (US-based) have already moved to another organization or industry while another 30% are actively planning to do so. As mentioned earlier, a focus on the values of well-being, belonging, and ethics can help foster a more adaptive workforce. But there are also turnover risks when leaders choose to ignore the importance of demonstrating and living a shared sense of values. In fact, the link between demonstrated personal values and employee satisfaction is so significant, research at Columbia Business School even puts a price on it.
The brief list above is certainly not exhaustive; spring of 2021 presents the talent executive with a seemingly endless array of opportunities to embrace and challenges to confront. But don't be overwhelmed. It may help to take heed from Adam Grant: to avoid getting caught like the proverbial frog in boiling water, turn renewal and rethinking into disciplines that are practiced with regularity, and spring cleaning may seem less daunting next time.