The Importance of Adapting Flexibly to Crisis Situations

Meredith Wilson Parfet leads the Ravenyard Group in Boulder as CEO and provides innovative crisis management solutions that combine technical skills with empathy and compassion. In numerous articles in Fast Company and talks through Lawline, Meredith Parfet explores the way in which company culture must pivot during times of crisis to reflect new on-the-ground realities.

When the status quo becomes untenable, the key is to adapt, flexibly taking into consideration new patterns and finding new ways of optimizing resources so as to meet sudden challenges. One example since early 2020 has been the pandemic, with infrastructure enabling remote work and providing flexible companies with an opportunity to pivot. The success of these by-necessity arrangements have been considerable for companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Zillow. Indeed, they provide employees the chance to work from home even after social distancing mandates ease.

This flexibility has not been felt in all corporate arenas however. One health care software firm notified employees in mid-2020 that it planned to require in-office work by September. The reason given was a quality drop-off in remote employee performance.

Unfortunately, this tone-deaf move turned out to be a major public relations disaster, with the company affecting employee morale and losing positive sentiment, even as it opened the doors to potential infection risks. The bottom line is that the company could have invested in ways of creatively making remote work more productive and engaging, rather than returning to a pre-pandemic reality before that was a sensible option.