From Now to Next How to find and create opportunities in the new economy Posted by: Team Tony
This article was contributed by entrepreneur and Future of Work expert Elatia Abate – see full bio below.
There are more opportunities and unknowns for entrepreneurs and business leaders as we move from the acute economic crisis of the pandemic’s lockdown into ‘The Interim’ time, where municipalities, states and countries relax restrictions and we begin to dance with what unfolds.
Rather than hang our companies’ futures on the accordion-like movement of re-openings, re-closings, and possible new lockdown measures, we can take proactive steps to help ourselves, businesses and teams thrive as we transition from Now to Next.
With the idea of supporting fellow entrepreneurs, small business owners, and leaders successfully through this transition, I hosted a second series of ‘Thriving in Uncertainty’ conversations that explored what we will need to succeed in this in between time. We welcomed attendees from more than 25 countries, and talked innovation, adaptation, the future of work and education.
Here are five of the most inspiring and useful ideas from the day.
- We are being presented with an opportunity to reshape the world.
The sudden and massive disruption to our economy and society has accelerated a series of shifts that were already underway and is shining a bright light on what wasn’t working.
Nancy Giordano, futurist and founder of Play Big, Inc., shared four big shifts that provide a frame for the design of the new economy, and that can help each of us explore the opportunities available. They include the digital future and the impact of technology on our lives; the economic and social inequities that exist; our impact on the environment; and the strength and design of our support structures.
We could focus on what is “wrong” about what wasn’t working, or get into action and create a better, more inclusive, more collaborative world. The opportunities are found in the creating. 2. Work on engaging your talent, not your employees.
The trend toward freelance, independent, and contract work before the pandemic was accelerating. In the United States, it is estimated that somewhere between 35 and 40% of the workforce was independent. With the millions of lay-offs that have occurred, bringing unemployment to levels not seen since the Great Depression, it is possible that 50% of the working population, or more, may never return to traditional jobs. What does this mean for our businesses?
Carl Camden, former CEO of Kelly Services and Founder & President of iPSE-U.S. says that the old models of employee engagement are defunct. “Almost every aspect of what we teach in management science, business planning, [and] product development, is all based on an employment model that’s now in the process of being shattered.”
In a world where your best “employees” no longer work exclusively for you, there are opportunities to rethink and accelerate team building, rapid adaptation to new company cultures and what it means to recruit and retain iconic talent. 3. Get curious about what is happening and what it can mean for your business.
The uncertainty of the next 12-18 months, exacerbated by the inability to precisely predict if everything will continue to slowly reopen or if we will reopen and then lockdown again, means we will be dealing with a heightened degree of uncertainty.
Rather than getting frustrated about what we can’t control, or wishing that things would just go back to normal, it can be much more productive to get curious about what is happening and what it means for your business. How might the uncertainty give me the chance to pilot agile team design? Was what we were doing really well in the first place? What if the success we had before doesn’t even come close to what we could be achieving if we shift our assumptions? 4. Focus on what you can control.
Tony often talks about acknowledging exactly where you are and seeing a given situation precisely as it is in order to create better future outcomes. This is the basic premise of the “Yes, and…” “Yes, and…” concept from the world of improvisational comedy.
When comedians are improvising and creating new scenes, the good ones happen when actors accept what others offer (hence, the ‘yes’) and then build on it (‘ergo, the and…’). Bob Kulhan, the CEO and Founder of Business Improv has been teaching organizations how to apply the techniques of improvisational comedy to business success for more than two decades.
He offers that when companies are faced with the unpredictable, “Yes, and…” can help you quickly move focus away from current feelings of helplessness and onto what you can do. ‘Yes’ doesn’t mean you like what’s happening. It means you acknowledge what is. ‘And’ moves you into a more compelling future. 5. Everyone is a leader.
Leadership will no longer be delegated to those with big titles and years of seniority in the books. Every single person is being called to step into a protagonist’s role, no matter how inexperienced. This means that to truly access the opportunities that this moment is providing, we need to teach or train everyone to develop the mental flexibility and agility, creativity, and critical thinking that we used to outsource to management.
To download your free Recession Resilience Guide, go here: www.elatiaabate.com. ABOUT ELATIA ABATE
Elatia Abate is an entrepreneur, educator, and future-forward strategist. She partners with organizations that range in size from Fortune 500 to early stage start-ups to help leaders make sense of the ever-growing disruption in our world and channel that disruption into tangible results. Her client roster includes the likes of PricewaterhouseCoopers, UniGroup, Verizon, University of Arizona, and University of Cincinnati. She is a sought after speaker and facilitator who has led from the front of the room at Deloitte, VRBO, SHRM, Stanford, and The University of Chicago, among other places. In a former life she served as Global Director, Talent Acquisition with Anheuser-Busch InBev and Vice President of Human Resources at Dow Jones & Company. She has been featured in work with Tony Robbins and Trevor Noah, as well as in publications like Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and Forbes.
How businesses are pivoting now 5 ways that entrepreneurs can get ahead of a potential recession Posted by: Team Tony
Tony Robbins with a beard and headphones pointing his finger This article was contributed by entrepreneur and human capital expert Elatia Abate – see full bio below.
If you’re a small business owner right now, the last thing you need is a pep talk. Instead, let’s focus on tactical, how-to guidance that you need now to defy the odds, continue to grow your business, and ultimately emerge from this crisis with certainty and strength.
One of the definitions of crisis is “a stage in a sequence of events at which the trend of all future events, especially for better or for worse, is determined; turning point.” In a crisis every action and decision we take and make shapes our future. As leaders, business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals, this means that what we do now in the midst of the two crises we are currently facing (COVID-19 and its subsequent economic impact) will determine our fate.
The first decision that all of us have to make is whether we are determined to come out the other side better than we were before, or if we are simply going to hide under the couch and wait for things to blow over. This is a choice, a commitment, to challenge assumptions we had about how we thought the world worked, a willingness to move beyond the thinking and strategy we had pre-pandemic, and, as Tony says, free ourselves from the tyranny of ‘how.’
With an idea to help those who have made the decision to come out the other side of this moment better than before, I hosted the first in a series of conversations called “Thriving in Uncertainty.” We talked about innovation, marketing, economics, the future of work, and collaboration. Here are the five most important take-aways from that day.
- We all have a choice.
Whether we will be captives of our circumstances asking, “Why is this happening to me?” or captains of our destinies, asking “Given that we are here, what do I want to create?” is a choice that each and every one of us has at every turn of the pass during this crisis. This choice doesn’t make the crisis itself disappear or ignore the tragedy of so many around the world dying or instantaneously make jobs appear for the tens of millions who are now unemployed.
What it does do is move us out of the position of victim and into the role of protagonist. Tony always says, “Where focus goes, energy flows.” We are limited if we focus on what we can’t control, and empowered when we focus on what we want to create given a certain set of circumstances.
- Challenge assumptions.
All bets are off. Meaning, everything we thought we knew about how our strategies were going to work, who our competition was, what our revenue streams were, what unmet needs are, what our specific roles are, has changed. Since all bets are off, a powerful question to drive action and strategy is, “Where can we add value, in what ways, that our customers, clients, employees really need, right now?”
This likely means you need to pivot your business partially or entirely. It also means that you’ll want to get into conversation with your clients, not in your head with your postulations, about what they need.
- You are the north for your business, your organization, your team.
This moment is inviting each of us to renewed and empowered leadership. There is no cavalry coming to save us. We are the cavalry. So, take a moment, listen, and ask yourself who you need to be to ensure you and your organization come out better on the other side. One strategy suggested by Hollie Heikkinen, CEO and Founder of iWorker Innovations is to form a “think tank” around yourself to seek counsel and new ideas, balancing that input with the understanding that you know what is best.
- Those who design and deliver best practices for “the interim” will have a distinct competitive advantage.
The crises we are facing will go through three distinct moments that provide the context and container for deciding and developing strategy. The first is “lock-down.” This is the moment most of the world is currently in, where movement, activity, business, social interactions are restricted to essential activities. The second is “the interim.” This will be the period of 6 – 18 months where businesses will begin to reopen, but operating models will need to be different because we are still attempting to slow the spread of the virus. For example, how do you redesign the lay-out of a gym when you have to keep a minimum of six feet between each piece of equipment, and can only allow X number of people inside the facility at a time? The third moment in time will be the new world that we will create during the first two periods.
According to Ted Snyder, Professor of Economics and Management at the Yale School of Management, and former Dean of both Yale SOM and Chicago Booth School of Business, companies and individuals who can develop and create best practices during “the interim,” and disseminate those best practices will be market leaders and will have ample opportunities to create value.
- Collaboration is key.
The challenges we are all facing now are embedded with great and heightened degrees of complexity. Like a strike from a lightning bolt, the spread of one disease has sparked almost instantaneous, massive change in everything from small business operations to global supply chain management to access to education to how we define work and working.
No one individual, organization, or industry has a silver bullet for solving for what is happening, and more importantly, ensuring we take what’s occurring to create something better, more inclusive, and more valuable once this moment has passed.
Reaching out to others and being a connector or bridge builder with resources, ideas, and opportunities from where we are to where we are all going will help us get through this easier and faster.
To download your free Recession Resilience Guide, go here: www.elatiaabate.com. ABOUT ELATIA ABATE
Elatia Abate is an entrepreneur, educator, and future-forward strategist. She partners with organizations that range in size from Fortune 500 to early stage start-ups to help leaders make sense of the ever-growing disruption in our world and channel that disruption into tangible results. Her client roster includes the likes of PricewaterhouseCoopers, UniGroup, Verizon, University of Arizona, and University of Cincinnati. She is a sought after speaker and facilitator who has led from the front of the room at Deloitte, VRBO, SHRM, Stanford, and The University of Chicago, among other places. In a former life she served as Global Director, Talent Acquisition with Anheuser-Busch InBev and Vice President of Human Resources at Dow Jones & Company. She has been featured in work with Tony Robbins and Trevor Noah, as well as in publications like Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and Forbes.