Column by Peter de Bruin

Coronability

In his columns on Strategy Execution, Peter de Bruin has previously argued that the ability to adapt to change is the best strategy. The coronavirus pandemic shows us that our environment has a greater influence on our behavior than we as humans think we can control. By extension, the same applies to change management. People don’t want to be changed. However, you can change their context, and then they will adapt to the changing environment. From now on, we’ll call that “Coronability”!

"Coronability"

A year ago, would you have invited the RIVM, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS), the Municipal Health Service (GGD), and the local healthcare sector to manage a national crisis? Probably not. To manage a crisis, you’d be more likely to contact, for example, the Ministry of Defense. Or organizations where market forces, customer demands, competition, or technological renewal force them to adapt sooner—or even on an ongoing basis. Working responsively, as is done in parts of the private sector, for example. COVID-19 is forcing organizations to respond even more closely to needs and demands—adapting quickly to changing circumstances.

Appearances can be deceiving

Projects that hit a snag, on the other hand, tend to falter more abruptly and severely. The problem is, we don’t see that happening. In digital collaboration, you can’t sense when things are starting to go wrong. The “traffic lights” in the boardroom are green, but appearances can be deceiving. Normally, as a leader, you’d already sense that extra attention or guidance is needed. But in digital meetings, anything that doesn’t feel right is effectively masked by the participants.

The consequences will be felt in the (too) long term. I predict many more debacles—such as the youth care crisis, the benefits scandal, the CBR fiasco, healthcare waiting lists, and so on—that could have been prevented with better cooperation and earlier detection. Of course, the excuse has long since been invented: “And then there was COVID-19.” No matter what results we achieve this year, non-performers will get away with it thanks to the COVID-19 excuse.

The Great Reset

After the pandemic, there won’t suddenly be a “better normal”; there’s no such thing as a “great reset.” Yet the pandemic marks a clear dividing line between the old and the better. To those who understand, the pandemic starkly reveals that things don’t happen the way we, as humans, want them to, but that we de facto operate within the limits set by our environment. We cannot impose our will without limits.

Unexpected developments

Organizations often thought their strategy was the determining factor—that we could choose what kind of organization we wanted to be. But even before the ink was dry, the world turned out to look different from what our own mental images had promised. Unexpected “black swan” events, such as the coronavirus, greatly amplify that misconception. Still, it’s important to think more from the outside in rather than from the inside out.

Listen, Respond, Connect

Young companies understand this much better than older ones. While older organizations base their value on size and knowledge (all forms of position), the value of today’s organizations is more strongly determined by listening, responding, and connecting within the network (forms of capability). If market capitalization represents potential profits, it should come as no surprise that companies like Tesla and Google dominate the charts. The ability to change, then. Even on a small scale. The pandemic is also implicitly teaching us to change the way we change. After all, as mentioned earlier, how often have we tried to change people? That doesn’t work. People want to change, but they don’t want to be changed. Change works more easily the other way around; a different context changes a person. Moving to a new place, for example, immediately leads to adjustments. Change is increasingly becoming a process of development—adapting to a changing environment. Strategy Execution is less about what we conceive and decide (the strategy) and more about how we adapt to our environment—specifically, the ability we demonstrate to capitalize on opportunities and developments. “How drives what.” Our ability to cope with changing circumstances is the key competitive factor of the^21st century. The way we change determines what we achieve. How we work, communicate, and make decisions says something about our future performance—about whom we engage and inspire, for example. The ability to change. In English, “ability.” Ability takes us from the old to the better. COVID-19 is a welcome wake-up call: “Coronability”! Not just for the institutions that are helping us through the crisis right now.