Continue doing what you are doing during pandemic: Covid19 diary

During this pandemic situation, we are getting a lot of information about the coronavirus. The picture painted by the media is horrible and scary. We have already crossed the numbers of corona patients more than 10.12 lacs. This number looks very scary, however if we believe the government data, the recovery is almost 6.5 lacs. It means our recovery rate is 65% which is quite good. Deaths are almost 26273 (2.5%). Looking towards statistics, India is doing good. Somebody may say that we are not doing enough tests and hence numbers reported are not right. Possibly few state governments are manipulating the data. Quarantine rules are changing, now patients with mild symptoms are asked to quarantine at their home. So, does it mean that corona has lost its importance as a dangerous & deadly virus? The debate of lock down itself is a different discussion.

What do you feel, when you think about Covid19?

People are also arguing that deaths due to other diseases and ailments are more than coronavirus. That is true but people forget that other diseases and illnesses are not spread like covid19. In fact, coronavirus itself is not deadly, the conditions caused by the virus are deadly. If you have pre-illness or ailment like diabetics, kidney failure, or any serious illness, chances of getting affected are more. If your body is immune & strong, you don’t need to worry, you may get infected and still you can survive with proper treatment. Proper treatment is the rider here. Just compare the situation when it started, if somebody was tested positive during March, it was a crisis to the family, society, colony and government authorities. But now in July, if somebody is tested positive, it is not that much of a crisis for others except family members. Government authorities diluted actions like sanitization of the building, declaring the containment zones etc. Now such decisions are more politically, or community driven instead of pandemic driven.

Does it mean that the government has put the onus of infection on people and getting away from their responsibilities? Does it mean that the virus itself lost its virus load which qualifies it as a deadly virus? Or has the corona pandemic induced the medical scandal? We keep getting such questions. Lot of experts and opinions are expressed. The World Health Organization also doesn’t have answers to such questions. It keeps changing their stand conveniently.    

          

However, did people learn something from this pandemic? After different phases during the lock down, a lot of people learnt new skills, life skills necessary at home; relationships went good or bad depending upon the mindset. Work from home and work for home became new normal. Digitalization journey is accelerated. This is all OK, however there are so many other things we realised during this pandemic.

Positive side of the pandemic

Important thing is personal hygiene. Indians are always criticized for their bad habits related to hygiene. Eating pan and tobacco and spitting is common. This pandemic has taught people a good lesson. But will it continue? It is said that it takes 21 days to create the habit. Hopefully people will follow all good habits and will continue to be responsible citizens. I don’t know to what extent it will happen, as still people are not that much aware about this. 

     

During the pandemic people were empathetic with each other. At least understanding each other and empathizing gives a morale booster. We became more human. Good Samaritans came forward supporting migrant workers, poor & needy people. Others were supporting each other. I hope that we all will continue this humanhood.

People also invested in formal & informal learning during this period. It is good to keep this learning attitude and going the extra mile. I hope that this spirit of learning also will continue, and people will not stop learning. Corona virus itself is a big teacher and we should not underestimate it.

Disruption in business also induced some creative thinking and innovations in business models. Few industries and sectors are affected heavily. Hope people will be creative to bring back the business resiliently.           

We already started living with it. We don’t know when it will go, but we also should learn to protect ourselves, our families and think about the future instead of just thinking only about the coronavirus and pandemic. 

People agenda and HR processes after coronavirus pandemic.

What will be your answer if I ask you the question, “Who drives the digitalization journey in the organization?”. Typical answers will be CEO or CTO or somebody responsible in the Management board. I think digitalization is driven by the coronavirus pandemic; yes Covid19. Covid19 situation forced us to change. One fine morning, everybody started working from home using digital platforms. This is the New Normal now. 

"With a changed scenario in workforce management, we also need to understand the implication of the coronavirus pandemic on human resource & work."

You are already reading news of companies planning to move employees, to work from home giving them more flexibility. This will also save the cost on infrastructure. The use of flexible and contractual workforce will be one of the elements of workforce strategies. But before that lets predict what employer and Human Resource will have to work for creating a better future.

Three major imperatives will change the functioning of Human Resource function. HR professionals will have to change their mindset towards the workforce. Acceleration has already happened & it should continue. 

Imperatives in the new normal

Covid19 has given us enough space for learning and planning for the future. New normal will have the following three imperatives which will have implications on the future of work.

• Digital acceleration: Covid19 has proven the tough teacher. It has already accelerated digital journey in organizations. As per the assumption, most of the white-collar employees will start working from home. (Please read my article here Covid19 is a tough leader.). This will bring different challenges. Employers will have set up a proper system of engagement, collaboration. Besides they also need to track the progress of employees and ensure the effectiveness and efficiency. Employers will have to establish a protocol of generating the data and analyse the productivity of employees. 
• Aftershocks, Impact & consequences: We need different competencies in the new normal. Pandemic has consequences on the business. It has a big shock. Millions of people have lost their jobs and livelihood. Companies may not be fair during such periods. High performing organizations need to find innovative solutions to bounce back. Talent will be the key here. We need different skill sets. What we used to call critical & complex roles actually are not complex and critical. It will be crucial to manage the crisis. While working remotely, people may miss the human factor, while others may take extra efforts to keep engagement and keep that human factor in mind.
• Organizational Ecosystem: Pandemic has changed the organizational ecosystem. Organizations have to prioritise & plan for resilience & prepare themselves for the new normal. This will be volatile, uncertain, complex, ambitious but also having impact on the culture, value system & design of the organizations. With new ways of working complex structures may not work and organizations need to relook their current structures and ecosystem. HR’s role will be very crucial to facilitate the flexible but value-based ecosystem in the organization. However, we also need to understand that employees are afraid, they are worried about their & family health. They may not be sure how they are safe, how their jobs will be impacted. They may be worried about the future in the economic uncertainties. Employers will have to give the proper message with the right intentions." 

We also are aware now that this pandemic has accelerated all actions which organizations wanted to take. With this changed scenario, workplaces will be defined by personalised solutions, focus on wellbeing, culture, autonomy and inclusivity. Work is already being untied from space and time and, while this freedom is liberating and empowering, there are challenges ahead. 

In particular, how do organisations respond when walls have come tumbling down between physical and digital, the workforce is more disparate and demanding than ever and the new rule is to expect change and keep on learning. 

"The answer is to keep the core principle of purposeful leadership at the heart of everything. Future workplaces require visionary leaders, and they will be those people who want to be not only ‘best in the world’ but ‘best for the world’."

Leaders with the support of HR should come forward to create the right workplaces as per the following four aspects:

Psychological workplace: This is about considering the emotional aspect of the workplace. Creating the ecosystem for engagement, trust, inclusion and ensuring the wellbeing of employees will be vital.

Physical workplace: In view of physical workplaces moving at home, employers need to support having the right infrastructure, digital platform and proper connectivity. Employees who will attend offices and factories will need assurance of safe and healthy workplaces. HR will have to work regularly to assess the situation and take appropriate calls so that employees are productive and efficient.

Digital Workplace:  This is not only about digitalization and automation but also thinking about how technology will foster new business models, ways to work and employee experiences. Further it is also preparing, educating, developing employees to work in the virtual world. Roles will be changed. Few new roles will be created. Sales will not happen like we do it today. Speed and agility will be core of workgroups. HR needs to work speedily in creating new behaviours in the digital and virtual world. People will have to take extra efforts to be more empathic & persevering. Networking & collaboration will happen in the virtual world. Employees will have to continuously learn in the new digital world.   

Purposeful workplace: Employees are looking forward to work with those companies whose value systems are strong. They will be attracted towards the purposeful economy. With strong evolving ideas of leadership, organisational models, value(s) and employee engagement it is very important to embed the purpose in everything which you do. 

New competencies 

Leadership roles are demanding but it will be more demanding. They also need to develop strong pipelines in different functional areas. Talent management will be even more crucial. It should be a business process instead of just one of the HR processes. 

We will need Talent with different competencies. Employees also need to go the extra mile. Learning agility will be the core of talent management for identifying high potential and top potential employees.  (Learning Agility).

Following are few new competences:  

• Transdisciplinary: Expert in one functional area but having the basic knowledge of other areas also, 
• New Media Literacy: Knows how to communicate on different platforms, able to connect customers and articulates proper communication. Knows how to design the communication. Practice storytelling techniques. 
• Sense Making: Ability to determine deeper meaning or core what is said or expressed, 
• Novel thinking: Clarity of thought & coming with innovative solution to complex problems, 
• Data thinking: Ability to translate the data into abstract concept and understanding logics, 
• Design Mindset: Ability to represent & develop jobs/tasks & processes for desired results.      

What will be the implications on HR? 

"For HR, it is not the business as usual. There are no boundaries now. Comfort zone has already vanished. It is the time to drive the change and support & coach business leaders." 

HR processes and actions need to accommodate those changes as per the situation. Policies will have to review regularly & there is no timeline. Policy documents will be dynamic. Systems have to be established. Platforms have to be created. Along with this, HR will have to align following actions:

Accelerating the Talent Management process: Getting this done, we need the right talent in the right role who will create the value for the organization. Talent should be a part of business strategy. More you discuss the talent in leadership meetings and different platforms, the more you know about the potential of the talent. Companies that underestimate the potential of talent will always miss the upside potential of what their colleagues might have been capable of. They will fail to capitalise on the opportunities that inevitably arise from this or any other economic shock.

Capabilities: Identify new skills & competencies that enable effective remote work, including greater digital skill. Assessment and development plans have to be implemented quickly.  

Employee Experience: With changed aspects and imperatives, employee experience journey maps will be different. We need to think about what those look like.

HR & Talent Analytics: How are you going to manage the data of employees working in different workplaces, home and office? You will have to track continuous sentiment to monitor culture/ engagement across an increasingly dispersed workforce. You also have to come up with the clear policy on what is ethical and what is not. Government regulations & privacy policies will have to be framed keeping practical aspects of life. 

Health & Wellness: It is not just fun activities some professionals are expert into. It is also not about having experts’ sessions for employees. Companies also have to come up with solutions for employees. Few things like more Medical Cover with corporate buffer for self, family, Life Cover in case of unfortunate death of employee, regular consultation by doctors on psychological health, Tracking the overall stress and happiness level will help employees to be productive. Along with this, you will have to create a support eco-system for employees.   

Total Reward: Organizations will have different sets of employees, like permanent, contractual, consultants and most importantly gig workforce. Their compensation & benefits will be different. HR will have to come up with innovative total reward policies for them. It is not only the compensation & benefits but also how they are treated, how they are engaged. It is also about culture, workplaces & employee experience for them. Gig economy will also bring some other challenges for the government on their health & social securities. It will be interesting to know how companies mange those different set of people with equal opportunities. 

"George Orwell, in his political satire writes, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” This is the common reality in the corporate world, society and political world. However, the question is how you deal with such realities and frame fair policies."             

Workforce planning & Gig economy: Cost optimization always is crucial. But it will be more. CEOs will exercise caution where fixed liabilities have a major portion of the costs. You have to come with a variable workforce planning model based on the business. Gig economy in white collar will emerge, however ethical and legal complexities will have to be handled.   

Choice between Human in technology or technology for human: While going for total digitization and automation, it will be the choice with companies how to manage the human depending upon the business. Some companies will go touchless, dehumanising the processes. One of the arguments will be quality and precision of the product. Companies need to embed de-humanizing models in the business model sensibly. This is a paradox, but organizations will have that choice in managing their human resources accordingly.          

Organization design: It will start with designing the organization for resilience along with efficiency & effectiveness. There is a need to design roles, structures and processes around results instead of tasks to increase responsiveness and flexibility. You also may have to shift to agile operating models and flexibly deploy your assets to solve problems. It also includes identifying nonvalue added roles and processes in the organization and eliminating those.

With these all accelerated actions we also need to investigate the roles of HR professionals. Typical in most of the organizations we have:

• HR generalist, who is handling every aspect of people, but more transactional HR activities, 
• HRBP, HR generalist but mainly strategic HR business partner, consultant, coach to managers and plays active role in the business,
• COE, expertise and programme design of human resource areas in Talent Management, People Development, Analytics, C&B, talent Acquisition etc etc.
• And finally, the HR Service team handles all transactional HR activities and support to HRBPs.   

If we want to be more effective, the following four roles should be embedded in the HR operating model.

Integrated Talent Development Leaders:  Integrated talent development leaders are an evolved form of the senior level HRBP or talent management manager who tackle the most pressing talent opportunities and challenges throughout the organization. They navigate across the organization and find out the right talent in collaboration with HRBP, talent acquisition team & people development function. They are the custodian & gatekeeper of the talent management process in the organization. This role requires strong networking & influencing skill, business acumen and courage to challenge biases of the senior leaders in the organization. They educate managers on talent management philosophy. Encourage employees to have their individual development plans and ensure that development programmes are delivered based on 70:20:10 learning philosophy.

Project Experts in HR: HR needs to establish the HR programme management team which should have an HR team trained in Project Management process & design thinking mindset. If you want effective HR processes, you need to constantly work on different projects in HR & this team will work on such projects. This team defines people issues, hypothesizes, tests and builds solutions. This team works agilely on more temporary project assignments and can be redeployed based on need. Create this dynamic team and this is the great opportunity to develop your HR team & their employability also.

Talent Health Process Experts: Process experts are HR professionals who are expert in transactional HR areas. Currently you will find experts in payroll, analytics, technical integrators working on HR software etc. These roles need to be strengthened. However, you also need an expert in Health & wellness who may be an expert in understanding human behaviour & human psychology and design the programme around this. They will monitor & track the overall Talent health of the organization. 

People Relations: We already have roles like Employer Relations or Industrial Relations Managers in most of the industries. Typically, HRBP plays this role from time to time. This is not a different role than this, but such roles need to be strengthened. Strong oral & written communication is important in this role. People relations roles need to be more strategic than typical IR/ER Managers. (DO you have the right capabilities?) They need to be proactive with strong human relations skills.      

Per say, these roles mean not necessarily full time but depending upon the organizational set up, these roles can be combined with some other roles.  

Few CXOs & CHROs are already taking few actions during the normal situation, however the journey is still far away. Earlier it was just the board room talks and very little action on the ground. Now it is the time for executing those actions. Of course, sometimes we need to stay in the course & sometimes we need to change the directions. During this pandemic situation, you have to do both.

(Opinions are purely personal & does not represent my organization)

Please read the print replica of my latest book written for leaders on amazon kindle; Vitality in Human Resource

How should your new normal be? Covid19 diary

Government declared unlock 1.0 after the lockdown 4.0. People are calling this lockdown 5.0 but actually it is not the lockdown. This is the phase wise unlocking the restrictions. There will be lockdown in containment zones and may be at buffer zones as local administration deems fit. It is almost 2 months; we all are locked inside our homes. We need to understand that we can’t live like this locking inside because of the fear of Covid19 infection. The government also can’t restrict people to stay inside for a long time. Central government has taken decisive action to lock down the country 2 months back and efforts are paid off. 

"Considering the population, India is able to control the infection. Otherwise it would have been a disaster. However, let’s understand that the infection is at level 3 at community infection level. We need to learn to live with the covid19. That’s the new normal."

How should your new normal be?

Personal hygiene: Following personal hygiene is crucial to protect self. In normal courses, people were not that much aware about simple etiquettes like washing hands, not touching surfaces and taking care while sneezing, coughing etc. We were too careless in the past. Now everybody should be careful about their own health. Considering the pathetic health systems, it is better to prevent the infection than admitting for the cure. 

"Follow strict habits like using Sanitizer, Masks and following Social Distancing (SMS)." 

Improve the immunity: Follow good health habits like eating healthy food and drinking healthy drinks. Exercise regularly; Sleep well.  

Be positive: No no, don’t be corona positive, but keep yourselves positive. Find the silver lining from the situation. If you find out positives from the corona pandemic, you will have a lot many. Just make a list. We wanted to work from home for a long time, but it was not possible in the past, but now you work almost daily from home and stay with the family. Mothers were missing their kids, now they can see their kids daily. You can kiss and hug their loved ones. See the creativity shown by the people during the period. The humour, memes and different challenges made our life easy. Few people learn new skills. And the digitalization journey is accelerated.

Practice Mindfulness: During this period, be in the present. Don’t think about the past & future. Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we're sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future. 

"Keep the inventory of what you have to do daily including personal care, hygiene etc. Take time out for yourself."     

It is personal distancing and not an emotional distancing: We need to understand that social distancing does not mean that you should distance people emotionally. Your friends are still your friends, your loved ones still love you. By distancing socially, you are taking care of themselves. 

"You have to find ways to be emotionally connected on video calls, phone and supporting them. Always, be connected with your friends, & family members."

Personal social responsibility: We also need to understand that there are a lot of people who lost their jobs because of Covid19. There are poor who don’t have anything to survive. Because of lock down, maids, drivers, vendors lost their income. Government can’t do everything. Whenever you see such people, please support them. If somebody needs a job, connect them to the right people. If somebody needs help, just do that. Believe on the law of attraction. 

"If you do good deeds, you will get something positive. Enjoy the joy of giving." 

Acceptance of the situation: You can be happy only when you accept the situation. There are few people who are asymptomatic, but fit and fine; however, when they are tested, they are positive. You don’t know perhaps somebody in your contact may be corona positive and perhaps you also may be asymptomatic. You can’t change the situation, but you can accept and finally deal with the same. Mere having corona positive doesn’t mean that there is an end. Recovery rate is very high and if you are strong, you will be fit & fine. Learn to deal with the situation instead of getting scared. If you found somebody positive, support them. 

"It is the time to get rid of social stigma associated with the corona virus infection."       

This whole situation taught us to follow new habits and behaviours. It is upto us how serious we are. Finally, we also need to understand that it is not the government or authorities that will protect you. They can only guide and instruct you what should not be done. You yourselves have to protect you & your family. Change habits & be safe.

(Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my organization.)

Please read the print replica of my latest book written for leaders on amazon kindle; Vitality in Human Resource

Covid19 is a tough teacher: Covid19 Diary

Covid19 situation has taught us how to survive in critical situations. Initially everybody was panic with a lot of questions in mind. We were forced to act differently. We were not prepared. We were downplaying the situation till March 2020. Business was as usual but all of sudden within a week everything changed. The Honourable Prime Minister declared the national lockdown. People started getting worried about the future. They started rushing outside to buy groceries and essential things. Organizations were not clear how to manage the situation. All employees started working from. Human resources function got busy to support the business. There was confusion and only confusion. Slowly, people started getting used to the situation. Memes and humours took over fear, insecurities and confusion and people started enjoying the situation. Women started enjoying more with challenging friends and putting the status on WhatsApp. Everybody geared up to work in a new way and that’s the agility. Initially for a few days people struggled to adjust the new normal. Covid19 forced use of digital platforms. Companies were not willing to allow work from home just a few months back but now everybody is comfortable to work from home. People started to learn new life skills in their homes.

Digitalization is not new and organizations have the agenda of digitalization in their strategy presentations. We always used to talk about all this stuff like digitalization, artificial intelligence, Virtual reality and so on. However digital journey is always resisted. Sometimes management is not that much serious about the same and most of the time senior members of the organization don’t see the value. In fact, CEOs should be happy that the digitalization agenda is accelerated because of Covid19. Organizations and people are forced to use the digital platforms.

Few technology companies declared their intention increasing the percentage of employees who will work from home going forward. We don’t know what will happen. It is a good cost optimization tool. But how many companies ask their employees what they feel. There are benefits for both. Less travel time, not driving stress, no pollution and better work life balance. But what is the fact? People tend to work more while working from home. There is another group whose productivity may go down. There are social & relationship issues and organizations also need to think about the same. Further, it looks cool but not possible for all roles. Possibly employees will prefer to go to offices, interact with teams, have team meetings and work a few days in a week in the office. That may work perfectly fine as a win-win situation.

But we should not misinterpret digitalization journey with only using zooms, Skype and Microsoft teams for meetings and video conferencing. We also should not overestimate the communication tools and interactions, webinars, seminars online. This is very simple. We need to take a holistic view of what it means. I see here the big opportunity to create value to the business and to the customer. People are trying to be innovative in view of social distancing and trying to design some product in alignment to that. But digitalization is not limited to touchless interaction. It is more than that. We also need to understand the social needs of the human being. You can’t replace everything with digital technology. Digitalization and technology are not the replacement of human interaction and relationship. You have to integrate this aspect while mapping your digital journey. Further we also need to understand those millions of entrepreneurs, small vendors, shopkeepers who are a more important part of the economy. It will be pertinent to note what digitalization means for them. During the crucial period those small vegetable vendors and shopkeepers were the effective supply chain for us to live. We should not forget them and decide what digitalization means for them. Can this technology make their life simple?

There is another group of citizens, migrant labour, poor and people whose livelihood is on their daily earnings. Their struggle is painful. Sad part is that their contractors and organizations who were taking their services never thought about those poor labours. They were worried about their cost and finding reasons of not paying their wages. We should not call ourselves modern and successful where millions of people are starving and dying. We can’t be successful when the society fails. What are we doing to make their life good? Digitalization could have been a great help to track them, to manage their passes of travel and so on.

Of course, there are Good Samaritans who are doing good deeds, feeding to those poor. We should also recognize great souls in police, doctors, nurses and citizens who are supporting them.

I think Covid19 has taught us some lessons. Lessons on humanity and inhumanity. Lessons on change management, lessons on how to be agile, fast and flexible. Lessons on how to be happy and not to react.

During this period Human Resources professionals have shown courage to take a lead. They went the extra mile supporting business continuity and also employee safety.

(Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my organization.)

Please read the print replica of my latest book written for leaders on amazon kindle; Vitality in Human Resource

You are “Framed”: Covid19 Diary

You are “Framed”:  Covid19 Diary

It is customary nowadays to speak about Covid19. If somebody calls, the discussion starts with the virus and consequences of the covid19. After the whole story which everybody knows, (thanks for the social media), then we come to the point. Few companies are trying to encash the situation to market their products. But sometimes it is too funny when a marketing guy tries to co-relate his/her product with a pandemic situation. Health & wellness is important but then there are memes and videos are shared where HR is doing this too much. Manipulation is at high level. 

Initially for a few days it was relevant. Slowly people started to cope up with the situation. They are trying to understand the threat; learnt how to deal with that. Normally in any situation, human beings perceive the threat. Threats can be physical, psychological or financial. Depending upon the perceptions, there will be reactions which can be positive or negative.

But do you know that every moment, every day you are “framed” by somebody? News on the mainstream media, forwards on social media or advertisements are generated and broadcasted to manipulate the people. Political leaders, some journalists, advertisement agencies are experts in “framing” common man. Nobody checks the authenticity of the source. Common tendency is to believe on that news without applying common sense. Common sense is uncommon now a days. So-called Intellectuals are pioneered in framing techniques. This is a special technique called as Farming technique.  

The theory was first put forth by Goffman, under the title of Frame Analysis.

Framing technique works as under:

Narrative is generated based on the agenda. Stories are cooked and created putting some element of benefits, happiness, sadness, fear, and some fake narration based on the agenda of the person. 

Information is created & presented based on the narrative to influence the people. Mainly such information is not full information but part of the information. (Political leaders, so called intellectuals & mainstream media are expert in this techniques)

Framing takes this a step further in the way in which the news or information is presented creates a frame for that information. This is usually a conscious choice by journalists, leaders who are communicating – in this case a frame refers to the way the media as gatekeepers organize and present the ideas, events, and topics they cover.

Such narration then influences the choices people. People decide how to process that information. Frames are abstractions that work to organize or structure message meaning.

All over the world such framing is happening. We are framed & manipulated by everybody. As far as the intention & purpose is right, then framing techniques have the positive outcome. But most of the time, it has a negative impact on society if used keeping the selfish motive behind. Today we are insecure, fragmented because of such manipulation and framing.

People are stressful, people are perceiving the threat, this is because of different and scary news broadcasted by the mainstream media and circulated by social media.

But then I realised we have already started to live with the situation. The newness of work from home now is not there and people want to go to offices desperately. There are few people who are still worried. However good organizations are gearing for the new normal & giving them confidence. 

As a common citizen, we need to keep our ears and eyes open and apply the logic. Understand the facts and figures, ask yourself questions, so that you are not “framed” and manipulated.

Can we use this technique positively? Yes. If you have the story which is based on the facts and inspires others. In such circumstances, leaders need to understand this and design the communication and frame the message so that people perceive the situation positively. Here literally corporate leaders can use the “framing techniques” in a positive way.

They can do it by understanding the issues, concern areas and setting an agenda. Once the agenda is set, they can create stories which are inspirational. Create an ethical frame where the message is clear, and people will not perceive differently. It is very difficult to manage such message. It is observed that ethical aspect is always ignored over benefits of power and money while framing. Simple example of this ignorance of ethical aspect is employees reporting late on duty. Most of the manufacturing companies in India had the policy of deduction of leave in case of employee reports late 3 or more times in a month. The reason behind this was that employees would come on time because of fear of losing leave. But in such cases, the situation hardly improved and employees continued to report late. Ethical aspect (being punctual) was replaced with right (after leave deduction). While framing this ethical aspect always should be considered and messages should be enforced accordingly.  

Person can view the situation as per his perceptions, but framing should give him realty of the ground and hopes that he can survive from the situation. During such pandemic, our Prime Minister and even Chief Minister are giving hopes, but unfortunately, few people are trying to manipulate us by just creating a narrative which has their own agenda and selfish motive.

Let’s take an example of Covid19.

With a lot of information about infections and death, everybody is scared. The mental frame is strong with the assumption that if we go out, we will die.

The frame is created as under:

Pandemic situation is because of a deadly virus, people are dying globally, there is no medicine and vaccine. If I get infected, society will view me differently, I will suffer, and my family will suffer. We will have a social stigma. I will also die, and I don’t know what will happen to my family.

This can be framed positively as under:

Pandemic situation is because of a deadly virus but people don’t die because of the virus. It is because of respiratory failure and if the infection is reported early, take a treatment, life can be saved very easily. People are infecting and dying but survival rate more than death and death cases are because of late reporting or people having some type of illness. However, I need to take care of me and my family and follow social distancing, wear a mask, keep personal hygiene and if I have symptoms, I should go immediately to the doctor. There are a lot of people who are fully cured and discharged.

You can also use facts & data while using the framing technique to make it more authentic.    

As a common man, we just can do one thing and that is use our brain. While watching any news, reading any social media post, use the lens of common sense. Best way is to ignore all news channel and social media post.      

(Ref: Frame analysis by Goffman, Framing techniques per Fairhurst and Sarr)

(Opinions are purely personal & does not represent my organization)

Please read the print replica of my latest book written for leaders on amazon kindle; Vitality in Human Resource

Covid19 and new normal

Few years back when the central government amended the company law for CSR spend, there were a lot of NGOs started mushrooming to support corporate & help them to manage the CSR fund. Everybody wanted to support organizations without much having any competencies to manage projects under CSR. Few of the NGOs even didn’t have any knowledge about the spend. On the other side, few suppliers and consultants were trying to relate everything with CSR and approaching companies. I remember when one of the English language training institutes approached me about English speaking courses for villagers and people in rural areas. In another case, Children story book publisher approached me about selling books for kids in the school. These people were not aware about priorities of the societies and companies. There is another set of NGOs who are managed by designer social workers. Unfortunately, this is a social engineering business model. Somebody’s donation is somebody’s business. During the Covid19 situation, today those people on the ground supporting the poor are small foundations or social workers in a true sense. I have not seen any designer NGO working at ground level.

I remember this because of Covid19 situation. The Covid19 situation is the same, where everybody is trying to relate their actions with Covid19 situations. I have seen some products which are proposed to en-cash the moment. I get marketing mails where they are trying to relate everything to Covid19 situation. They are assuming that everything is because of Covid19, from payroll to training and health & wellness. Very few are adding value to our business and knowledge. 

Take an example of digitalization. We have been speaking about the digitilization & the new ways of working for the last few year. We already knew that automation, digitalization, artificial intelligence is part of life. Covid19 has given us the opportunity to test where we stand and how much we are prepared for this. There are companies which have already been working from home for the last few years. Surprisingly, companies which call themselves modern companies (IT) don’t have enough IT hardware to manage this situation. There are a lot of companies where employees are working from home either with their personal desktop or laptops are shared among them. But there are organizations who have all infrastructure ready & they were forced, they started to work from home with few hiccups and now it is well settled. 

But does it mean that in future everybody would like to work from home? Perhaps yes, perhaps no. totally depend upon the personal choice and organizational needs. Human beings are social animals; they have their psychological needs. Employees and organizations need to find ways to keep them engaged. Working from home for a few days is ok but working from home permanently has its own consequences. It is very fancy to say about it, but organizations need to devise futuristic policy how they will ensure engagement, productivity and also have right controls.

There is another fad nowadays and it is about expert comments on the consequences of Covid19. Do we really need to tell us that Covid19 will have a bad impact on the economy? It is common sense. Few years back, when MS office was launched, people were fascinated by making fancy presentations. There is one presentation on the SlideShare which speaks about “Death by PowerPoints''. It was too much. Slowly people got it habituated and matured enough to make sensible presentations for the audiences and they realized that presentations are just to compliment the speaker while presenting something to the audience. In extreme conditions if you face technical issues and your ppt doesn’t work, you should be able to speak without that. Today, it is the similar fad of using apps like Zoom for webinar. I will say that people will die because of webinars. There should be some sensible topics. I fully understand that such webinars are good to keep engaging people. It is also assumed that people don’t have anything to do hence it is a good opportunity to connect. But the problem is relating everybody as a consequence of Covid19. Few topics and of course I am also the culprit of speaking on one or two forums. Initially for a few days, it was OK to have some sessions, but I have seen few people speaking and giving their opinion which is not an expert opinion and doesn’t make any sense. They are not giving any new knowledge about the “how” part.  Covid19 will have a new normal which will be different from normal. That’s it. 

One thing which I like about this situation is that organizations are challenged and without much discussion everybody accepted the change of working from home & new way of working. In a normal situation, there would have been a lot of excuses for not doing it. Another change is mindset change. In a normal situation, it would have been the change management project with a big team and perhaps 1-2 years project. In this situation, it is just fast. What I feel is that this situation is extraordinary, a once in a decade event. We should enjoy this and find out some positives from this but don’t be carried away with what it means. Is it perfect? No. Still employees have a lot of challenges & organizations have to work on this. 

My take about this situation is as under:

Create an urgency & Just do it: During normal situations, we tend to discuss a lot and delay a lot of projects, ideas & decisions just because we are not sure about the same. Most of the time, it is just courage and confidence which lacks. Ideas are discussed, but not implemented because management doesn’t create the sense of urgency. During Covid19, this urgency is created by the situation and of course by the government.      

Digitalization is not because of Covid19. Covid19 just forced you to use this. Organizations can spend more on the infrastructure now.

Work from home is again not because of Covid19, most of the companies have their work from home policy. Companies like yahoo withdrew work from home policy in 2003. However, Covid19 just forced it and challenged organizations. It is a high time to invest into infrastructure to make it effective.

Work from home does not mean work life balance. Few employees tend to work more, and supervisors may take you for granted. Your availability is always expected.  In fact, work from home needs more professionalism and discipline. Organizations need to work on how to manage this.

Work from home is not always productive. Manufacturing companies can’t work from home and neither do their supervisors & managers. Lot of things happen on the shop floor.

Till we get the vaccine to fight the Covid19, we need to work on developing our immune system. We also need to change our habits and need to be more hygienic. Social distancing will be the new norm and naturally this will have the impact on few businesses. Possibly this will also increase the consumption of foods & consumables at home. People may use their own vehicles and it may help the economy to grow in 2021.

(Opinions are purely personal & does not represent my organization)

Please read the print replica of my latest book written for leaders on amazon kindle; Vitality in Human Resource