It was Romania, and four feet of snow had fallen the night before.  Nearly all functions base-wide had been shut down for two days, but my Detachment still had a mission to do.  With limited support, to include an impassable three-mile stretch to our office, my Detachment Sergeant and I were literally frozen in time.  As we walked through a dug out tunnel of snow to our dining facility, we war-gamed what was important, what could wait, and what just didn’t matter anymore.  We knew that we had to decide how and when to put our soldiers in harm’s way to complete the essential aspects of our mission. Even considering the Army’s prescribed Mission Essential Tasks (METs), our definition of essential had changed.  

Whether it is a pandemic, a slash to our budget, personnel cuts, or even a snowstorm, military leaders have been here before—face to face with an environment challenging us to do business differently…to do it better.  Dave Hollis, a world-renowned career coach, recently said, “In the rush to return to normal, use this time to consider which parts of normal are worth rushing back to.”  Military leaders are taught to always move forward. In that spirit, we must embrace that there is no going back to the ‘normal’ that we knew. The current COVID-19 pandemic has created a rare opportunity for leaders at the middle and senior level to redefine “essential processes” by removing old distractions while simultaneously valuing and protecting their most essential resource, their people. These new definitions will undoubtedly shape the new ‘normal’ for the better.    

 There is some historical precedent for these challenging times, amidst an economic hardship grimmer than that of COVID 19, where leaders took the initiative to work together and create a new ‘normal.’ After decimating Japan’s infrastructure in World War II, Americans worked with the Japanese to rebuild and improve.  The two countries’ leaders formulated a continuous improvement process known as the Kaizen method, which essentially catapulted Japan’s economy (Wilding, 2020).  The Kaizen method later became what most businessmen and women know today as Six Sigma Manufacturing.  In one fell swoop, those leaders and managers capitalized on a stand-still environment and devised a way to create a new ‘normal’.   Similarly, we need to realize that there is virtually no risk in looking at how to improve, reduce and remove and reshape some processes and procedures during a time of pause.  

Leaders tend to use business processes, whether it be checks and balances or step-by-step, so that we can shape our own risk tolerance. It is important to ask this question: “Is this an organization mandated check/balance/step or is this a something I put in place or even left in place from my predecessor?”  That will at least tell you what you can change versus what the organization can change.  I personally am guilty of complaining about bureaucratic red tape; however, leaders and managers need to use environmental shifts, like COVID 19, to remove that very bureaucracy instead of adding to it.  Do we need every signature up and through the chain of command to approve a document? Do we need to have someone digitally sign and wet sign the same document?  We need to find ways to empower subordinates by minimizing hurdles, which indirectly brings efficiency to our organizations.  

People are the heartbeat of our organizations and leaders need to place a higher value on them, to include their time.  There can be newfound efficiencies that do this while still improving the organization. Through teleworking, I hope that you have self-actualized (had that ‘a-ha!’ moment) how you can give back time to people.  To get those brain juices flowing through, I will use meetings as an example.  If meetings can be productive without physical interaction, maybe we don’t need everyone at the work building on those days.  Also, just because a meeting is blocked off for an hour, doesn’t mean that we need to take the whole hour.  I still remember how I felt during that snowstorm and how I wanted to get information out quickly and succinctly so that my people had time to process and react.  I was quickly reminded of my military training that stressed giving maximum time to your subordinates.    

The snowstorm taught me that minimal changes in progress meant that meetings were too frequent and probably taking time away from progress. Reducing meetings gave my subordinates time to work and provide me with value-added information and results.  As time went on, decisions became more about people and less about how others viewed my organization.    

We need to acknowledge that people’s outlook on life has probably changed.  Therefore we, as leaders, must get back to valuing home life.    At a minimum, we should ease back into the physical work-life with deliberate actions. Leaders, middle and senior level, need to see the value in intermittent telework, as well as some positions, being complete telework.  This doesn’t mean you pay anyone less; it just means that you give employees more flexibility in home life. We should also consider that someone might have had this sickness, had a family member experience job loss, had a family member die, or possibly thought of another way to make our organizations better.  If we turn a blind eye, we will be surpassed by a better organization or even country in this world that will do it.  We need to truly care about our people. 

Leadership can strengthen business through improving and caring for its people.  As has occurred before, we now have another opportunity to innovate our business processes to maximize efficiency as well as reinvigorate our core values to show that we really care.  Days are ticking away; it is up to you and me to do it before we are thrust back into life on the never-ending treadmill. 

Landon H.J. “Tiny” Ewers is an Active Duty Captain in U.S. Air Force Acquisitions, assigned to the United States Space Force and former U.S. Army Company Commander with multiple international deployments spanning the Middle East, Eastern Asia, and Eastern Europe. 

Sources 

Gurchiek, K. (2020, March 18). Coronavirus and Teleworking: Tips for Preparing Your Workforce. Retrieved May 1, 2020, from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-news/pages/coronavirus-and-teleworking-tips-for-preparing-your-workforce.aspx 

Shrm. (2018, April 10). Workplace Flexibility: Telework and Telecommuting. Retrieved May 1, 2020, from https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/benefits/Pages/WL-Telework.aspx 

SHRM Certification: Military Eligibility . (2020). Retrieved May 1, 2020, from https://www.shrm.org/certification/apply/eligibility-criteria/Pages/Military-Eligibility.aspx 

SHRM Certification: Prepare My Team. (2020). Retrieved May 1, 2020, from https://www.shrm.org/certification/prepare/Pages/Prepare-My-Team.aspx 

Wilding, M. (2020, March 9). The Japanese philosophy of Kaizen can reinvent your daily routine. Retrieved May 1, 2020, from https://qz.com/work/1183536/the-japanese-philosophy-of-kaizen-can-reinvent-your-daily-routine/