Author: Brett Laschinger, COO, Corus Orthodontists
Anyone in a position of leadership through this shared crisis will emerge from the experience forever changed in how they perceive their professional role and the health of their organization. Undoubtably, this unprecedented pandemic will be studied by generations of future leaders in business and public policy around the world. At Corus we have learned many lessons through this challenging period– here is our list of our most important take-aways:
Extraordinary Situations Require Excellent Teams
In our experience navigating the closure and re-opening period it became clear effective cooperation and candid communication would support us through the most challenging times. From the first day of the closure we activated working teams with representation from our doctor partners, practice staff, and management to lead on clinical protocols, administrative operations, and communications. We quickly designed remote work guidelines and started planning how to re-open safely. Our key teams drew on talent and perspectives from across the organization and demonstrated agile problem-solving which translated into better solutions than we would have achieved through a centralized structure.
Cooperation is Key to Success During Crisis
Many organizations have struggled with physical isolation requirements, placing strain on the bonds and relationships between teammates. Our experience has been the opposite – events of the past two months have brought our teams significantly closer together. The crisis served to re-enforce our shared sense of commitment to cooperating with each other and creating innovative solutions for the many challenges we faced. That required innovative problem solving from all levels of the organizations and the end result has been enhanced team cohesion and performance across the organization.
Integrity and Transparency Translate into Opportunity
It is commonly understood within crisis there is opportunity, but what many often overlook is that during a crisis an organization’s value structure is laid bare and exposed to scrutiny like never before. Does the organization’s leadership provide candid communication? What principles guide the organizational response to the crisis? What trade-offs are made between financial and non-financial considerations? What does an organization prioritize when forced to make tough decisions? Our leadership and management are the first to admit our decision were not perfect, but we were greatly aided by aligning our actions to our core values with integrity and transparency.
We hope that this experience is not repeated in the near future, but our leadership team is ready for any challenge because of the lessons we have learned.
