I don’t normally publish the contents of my Newsletters as a blog article. But COVID-19 is an extraordinary situation in my lifetime.
We are keeping this article updated, so here is a summary of the recent updates…
Latest Update: 11 September
Are you Ready to Emerge from Lockdown?
Check out our new article:
‘Emerging from Lockdown: Project Management in the Post-COVID World‘
We’re keeping the list of resources at the end of this article updated regularly. Now there are fewer appearing, I’ll update them fortnightly. Click these links to find links to resources on:
Now, we are marking articles that are new this week with the symbol: 🆕.
Last week’s new articles will be marked 🆕ish. Then the new tag will drop off.
If you are planning to sit the PMI’s PMP exam, check-out our update here.
There’s One Thing that Dominates World News
The spread of the Coronavirus infection COVID-19 is now global. It is starting to look like many countries could see massive disruption.
Video version…
I recently made a video version of the main section of the article below. But do also take a look at the resources at the bottom of this article.
Project Managers are Familiar with Dealing with Risk
But this one is outside the experience of many of us. Societally, economically, and in human terms, the impact is likely to be huge. The likelihood of some significant disruption is now approaching certainty. And the proximity is on the scale of weeks.
As Project Managers, we Need to be Planning for this on our Projects
And as members of our communities, we should also be prepared to offer what help we can.
I have been Considering COVID-19 Response Carefully
As an educator, and with a community of Project Managers who come to me for answers, I feel a need to respond. So, here is an outline COVID-19 plan for you. Its purpose is to remind you of seven priorities, and to act as a starter in forming your own plan.
1. Protect your people
Your team, stakeholders, community. Number 2 on this list may be the first thing to do, but this is your first priority. Reduce the need for travel. Encourage more home working. Put people’s health ahead of project deadlines.
2. Put it on your risk register
Convene a project Working Group and discuss a series of scenarios. Then use each of those to identify risks and work on mitigations. Look for base case common features across scenarios and build infrastructure to handle it.
3. Consider if your project should be halted or delayed
Open a conversation with your project sponsor, board, client… You need to be the one that goes to them, rather than them coming to you – that shows you as Leading the situation, rather than just managing outcomes. You’ll need their sign-off on some decisions.
4. Key into organizational responses
Your wider organization will be responding too. Your skills are valuable, so offer your help in formulating it. Bring organization-tier thinking into your project. And also link into responses among your wider business and social communities.
5. Consider procurement commitments
This one cuts both ways. You may need to delay deliveries of materials or bringing in contracted staff, if your project will slow down. Liaise with your suppliers. But, equally, if you plan to continue work, you may choose to advance purchase decisions and delivery dates to de-risk availability of materials.
If you need to renegotiate contracts, here is some guidance from my favorite source of negotiation advice, the Black Swan Group:
6. Keep talking
In times of uncertainty, fear, and possible panic, make communication a top priority. Even if you don’t know anything new, communicate that fact. Be open and candid with your team, stakeholders, and your client/boss/sponsor. Communicate your scenarios and plans, and then update with how events are affecting your project and changes to those plans.
7. Regular review cycle to reconsider plans and responses
Set up a regular review process, to keep yourself and key people up-to-date on external facts, and allow time to consider responses. The situation may change fast. Establishing a process to evaluate changes will give you the infrastructure to adapt quickly.
And finally…
Now is the time to think about alternates. Who will step into your role, if you are taken ill? What about work-stream leaders and other key people on your project?
Convene your top team and sketch out alternates for everyone – and alternates for those, if your project is big enough. But, by the time you get to that tier, they may need to be managing an orderly temporary shut down of your project.
I am Hopeful that it Won’t Come to the Worst
But hope is not a strategy. If you have a responsibility for people and a project, you need a plan. And the time to start work – if you haven’t already – is now.
What are Your Thoughts…
about preparing your project for the risks associated with COVID-19? Please let us know below, and I’ll respond to every comment.
Learn More
Here is a selected reading list:
In ‘Charting the path to the next normal’, McKinsey offers you A daily chart that helps explain a changing world—during the pandemic and beyond.
In fact, McKinsey has consistently led all other consultancies in publishing thoughtful analysis and ideas relating to the pandemic. Now, they are launching McKinsey Live – webinars on navigating beyond the crisis and shaping the next normal that lies ahead.
Business Implications
From McKinsey & Company
- 🆕 COVID-19: Implications for business. This is the best business briefing I have found and it is being continually updated. Latest Update: 10 September.
- If you are working at the top of your organization, you may want to read: Demonstrating corporate purpose in the time of coronavirus.
- And McKinsey is already looking ahead: Beyond coronavirus: The path to the next normal, and
- The future is not what it used to be: Thoughts on the shape of the next normal
- Also looking ahead: Reimagining the post-pandemic organization.
- Less directly relevant to PMs, but an interesting read: Saving our livelihoods from COVID-19: Toward an economic recovery
- What will things look like post-Covid? From surviving to thriving: Reimagining the post-COVID-19 return
- Charting the path to the next normal
- Crushing coronavirus uncertainty: The big ‘unlock’ for our economies
- McKinsey offers us an interesting take on What real wars do (and don’t) teach us about the economic impact of the pandemic.
- The coronavirus effect on global economic sentiment.
- Don’t let what you’re learning go to waste — capture it for post-crisis strategy and growth. What COVID-19 is revealing about your customers and employees.
- Economic Conditions Snapshot, June 2020: McKinsey Global Survey results
- 🆕ish… The COVID-19 crisis has intensified existing trends, widening the gap between those at the top and bottom of the power curve of economic profit. Will your strategy keep you ahead of the accelerated pace of change?
- 🆕ish… What is good for gender equality is good for the economy and society as well. The COVID-19 pandemic puts that truth into stark relief and raises critically important choices.
- 🆕 Reimagining the postpandemic economic future. As the COVID-19 crisis continues to devastate US lives and livelihoods, policy makers are challenged to emerge from it in a way that lays a foundation for a strong, healthy economy in the long run.
From the Harvard Business Review
From PwC and their Journal, Strategy+Business
- PwC is running a biweekly survey: ‘What CFOs think about the economic impact of COVID-19‘.
- Here’s a classic article that s+b has highlighted, which is very relevant today: The Fear of Disruption Can Be More Damaging than Actual Disruption.
- As COVID-19 plunges the world into recession, consumers will be more sensitive to price. Companies will have to get creative to advance sustainability amid crisis.
- 🆕 Media and telecommunications companies must reinvent customer experience in response to COVID-19. Companies that prioritize innovation and care in redesigning customer experiences will be best positioned to stay ahead of shifting consumer preferences.
From BCG (Boston Consulting Group)
- COVID-19 – BCG Perspectives
- This article gives a great lesson in the use of scenario planning. You should be able to apply some ot these ideas to larger projects: COVID-19: Win the Fight, Win the Future
- How can you create opportunities to win in the long-term? Advantage Beyond the Crisis
- The world has changed and now you need to rebuild trust: The Role of Trust in the COVID-19 Economic Recovery: Lessons from Asia
Business Response
From McKinsey & Company
- https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk/our-insights/return-a-new-muscle-not-just-a-plan COVID-19: Implications for business… also belongs in this section! Latest Update: 13 April.
- Responding to coronavirus: The minimum viable nerve center
- Applying past leadership lessons to the coronavirus pandemic
- This one’s new and I particularly like it: To weather a crisis, build a network of teams
- Think of yourself as the CEO of your project, and this article may give you some ideas when you plan to restart it: The Restart – Eight actions CEOs can take to ensure a safe and successful relaunch of economic activity.
- Inspiration drawn from crisis-management professionals can help decision-makers in the COVID-19 pandemic. Lessons from the generals: Decisive action amid the chaos of crisis.
- Amid crisis disruption or when preparing for the next normal, quickly delivering practical, flexible learning can help shape a business’s recovery profile. Here’s how. Scaling rapid workforce conversion during COVID-19.
- Return is not a phase; it’s a way of operating. A nerve center can help build the capabilities that businesses need in the ‘next normal’. This is a big opportunity for PMs. Return: A new muscle, not just a plan.
- The COVID-19 recovery will be digital: A plan for the first 90 days
- What will the office need to be like when you return to work? Reimagining the office and work life after COVID-19
- Prioritizing innovation today is the key to unlocking postcrisis growth. Innovation in a crisis: Why it is more critical than ever
- The COVID-19 crisis has brought quantitative models to the forefront. Here are some ways that modeling helps us—as long as we avoid its pitfalls. Demystifying modeling: How quantitative models can—and can’t—explain the world.
- Ready, set, go: Reinventing the organization for speed in the post-COVID-19 era.
- Reimagining the postpandemic workforce
- Ready, set, go: Reinventing the organization for speed in the post-COVID-19 era
- 🆕 What now? Decisive actions to emerge stronger in the next normal. Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, it is time for companies to act, not react.
- 🆕 The need for speed in the post-COVID-19 era—and how to achieve it. Survey findings confirm that organizational speed is an essential ingredient for outperformance in times of unprecedented change, and point to three ways companies can gain speed for the longer term.
If you are a technical project manager, interested in cyber-security or the role of the CIO, McKinsey has two interesting articles:
- Cybersecurity’s dual mission during the coronavirus crisis
- The CIO’s moment: Leadership through the first wave of the coronavirus crisis
- And this article may give you a heads-up on the kind of projects your organization might want to kick-off: Digital strategy in a time of crisis.
- McKinsey is a powerhouse of useful articles at the moment. This one looks forward: Getting ahead of the next stage of the coronavirus crisis.
- McKinsey is thinking about the need to find a balance between what worked before and what needs to happen to succeed in the next normal: From thinking about the next normal to making it work: What to stop, start, and accelerate.
From BCG (Boston Consulting Group)
- Leadership, Resilience, and the COVID-19 Outbreak
- BCG has also created a downloadable PDF Rapid Crisis Response Checklist – and our regular readers know how much we do love a good checklist!
- Here’s another useful article from BCG: COVID-19 Response: Big Decisions for CEOs Right Now—and Urgent Questions About the Time After.
- Like McKinsey, BCG are also looking ahead with two aricles: Sensing and Shaping the Post-COVID Era, and
- Another article from BCG on scenario planning (our step 2): How Scenarios Can Help Companies Win the COVID-19 Battle
- Business leaders are focused on keeping their people safe. They also need to help them feel supported, stay connected, and discover new ways to work productively together. BCG offers us How to Protect Your Workforce During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
- Restarting Work Safely and Under Control.
- Safety first, when you return: Restarting Work Safely and Under Control
- …and it’s also about people: People Priorities in the Ramp-Up and Return to Work
- 🆕ish… Agility at scale can move the needle on cost, speed, and resilience simultaneously. When the Ground Shifts, It Pays to Be Agile.
- 🆕ish… As companies face increased uncertainty and market volatility, the ability to respond effectively to ambiguity and unpredictability will be a critical advantage. The Digital Path to Business Resilience.
From PwC and their Journal, Strategy+Business
- PwC has developed a digital assessment tool, the COVID-19 Navigator, to help leaders understand the potential impact of the novel coronavirus on their business.
- Seven key actions business can take to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 This is the latest – and matches well what I’ve suggested above. (6 March).
- This has some good tips we can apply, as Project Managers: How to respond when a crisis becomes the new normal
- Here’s an article that is from the archives. Arguably a little late to this party, but one to read ‘for next time’. I presented it to the Board of an organization I was sitting on, with a set of recommendations. It’s excellent, and from PwC’s Strategy and Business magazine: Planning for the Unexpected.
- Here’s an article about fostering institutional pride from how you respond to the pandemic. But read into it how to engender Project Pride… Pride and the Pandemic
- Good Project Managers are always learning. And we are also helping our teams to learn. How to help employees learn new skills amid a crisis
- Strategy+Business looks at how to help your employees respond to COVID-19 and future crises by focusing on the established groups at the core of your business, in To build agility, engage your organization one team at a time.
- This is an article about the wider implications of business transformation: Adapting to a new world – Facing the challenges of the post-COVID-19 landscape.
- Redefining employee experience: How to create a “new normal”
- 🆕ish… As businesses cope with COVID-19 disruptions, they need to rethink and reconfigure their workforce and work spaces beyond redesigning physical spaces. Getting back to the future…of work.
From the Ivey Business Journal
Leadership at This Time
From Harvard Business Review
- Harvard Business Review has a more strategic view, with Lead Your Business Through the Coronavirus Crisis
From McKinsey and Company
- Here is an article from McKinsey. It’s thoughtful and well-worth reading. The ideas of ‘deliberate calm’ and ‘bounded optimism’ are spot on. If you’re in a senior leadership role – or aspire to think and act that way – this is a good read: ‘Leadership in a crisis: Responding to the coronavirus outbreak and future challenges’.
- Applying past leadership lessons to the coronavirus pandemic
- A leader’s guide: Communicating with teams, stakeholders, and communities during COVID-19
- Who doesn’t need some of this: How to demonstrate calm and optimism in a crisis
- This one’s a keeper: General James Mattis on leading in a crisis and thriving in the next normal
- And the third of three Leadership articles in one week: Tuning in, turning outward: Cultivating compassionate leadership in a crisis
- Here’s a classic article from 2009 that may have some useful insights for you: A CEO’s guide to reenergizing the senior team.
- Decision Making in Uncertain Times.
- To Weather a Crisis, Build a Network of Teams.
- The Toughest Leadership Test.
- COVID-19 and the employee experience: How leaders can seize the moment
- Communications get personal: How leaders can engage employees during a return to work
- From a room called fear to a room called hope: A leadership agenda for troubled times
- 🆕 Prioritize people in times of crisis: An interview with the CEO of BHP
From PwC and their Journal, Strategy+Business
- How leaders can bridge the empathy gap in a crisis.
- Leading through the duration of the COVID-19 emergency
- A test for leaders: Creating certainty amid uncertainty
- Self-sufficiency is a prized trait among executives, especially during times of crisis. But it has drawbacks, too. The downside of resilient leadership.
- Leaders are building new muscles to deal with the pandemic
- To lead in a changed world, make yourself essential
- The importance of peer feedback in the digital workplace
- 🆕 The urgent need for sophisticated leadership
- 🆕 Ambiguous times are no time for ambiguous leadership
From Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
- People Priorities in Response to COVID-19
- COVID-19 and the New Leadership Agenda
- Leading Out of Adversity
- The first of two new leadership articles from BCG: Leadership in the New Now
- And, from the day after: Communicating Leadership During COVID-19
- 🆕 CEOs Reflect on Leadership in Perilous Times
From the Ivey Business Journal
Remote Working
We’ve just given permission to one multinational to post our article on remote working onto their intranet. Please drop me a line if you’d like to do the same. Managing Remote Teams: How to Meet the Challenges
If you are into learning and aren’t familiar with CatCat, it’s time to change that. They have just published two excellent curated learning journeys:
If you want to work within an Agile framework, BDC has an article you will like: How to Remain Remotely Agile Through COVID-19.
Trello publishes a good Guide to Remote Working.
McKinsey & Company brings us a highly relevant article for Project Managers: Revisiting agile teams after an abrupt shift to remote
10 Quick Tips to Make Remote Meetings Work from author Steven Rogelberg – 4min video
Friend of OnlinePMCourses, Elizabeth Harrin has updated a couple of her articles on working virtually. Read 4 easy tips for better virtual meetings, and tips from Nancy Settle-Murphy’s book Leading Effective Virtual Teams.
Learning about Project Management while you are at home…
With over 100 PM videos and two new ones every week, our YouTube Channel is a fabulous resource. Some are core knowledge while others offer tips, insights, or thought-provoking ideas. Check it out.
The Association for Project management (APM) has a journalistic article: ‘Covid-19 and Managing the Transition to Virtual Working’. It’s light on solid advice, but the first real contribution I’ve seen from either of the big two PM organizations (sadly).
About COVID-19
I don’t want to post too much here – there is plenty of coverage in all local news media. But here is a highly curated selection from sources I trust.
And let’s start with a professionally curated resource, from Pocket: Coronavirus: Essential Reads
Top scientists respond to the situation via the Science Media Centre
A McKinsey Analysis with compelling graphics: The prevalence of COVID-19 across the United States
Risk Analysis from De-RISK
OnlinePMCourses friend, Keith Baxter, has written an excellent and thought-provoking article about the risk of pandemics, the way COVID-19 arose, and the UK Government’s response. For anyone who has a professional interest in Project Risk Management, Keith’s article is a must-read: The Ultimate Risk: Pandemics
TED
Week commencing 23 March, TED is starting up a series of daily talks under the title TED Connects: Community and Hope. The program will feature experts whose ideas can help you reflect and work through this time with a sense of responsibility, compassion, and wisdom:
- Susan David, Psychologist studying emotional agility
How to be your best self in a time of crisis - Bill Gates, Business leader and philanthropist
The healthcare systems we must urgently fix - Gary Liu, CEO of the South China Morning Post
What we can learn from China’s response to the coronavirus - Seth Berkley, Epidemiologist and head of GAVI, the vaccine alliance
The quest for the coronavirus vaccine - Priya Parker, Author, The Art of Gathering
How to create meaningful connections while apart
As the threat of COVID-19 continues, infectious disease expert Adam Kucharski answers five key questions about the novel coronavirus on TED: ‘How can we Control the Coronavirus Pandemic?’ And, if you want the full conversation with founder of TED Chris Anderson, you can listen to the full 70-minute interview.
How can we return to work without spurring a second surge of coronavirus infection? Biologist Uri Alon shares a thought-provoking strategy. ‘A COVID-19 “exit” strategy to end lockdown and reopen the economy’
What we do (and don’t) know about the coronavirus . TED Talk by David Heymann, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He led the World Health Organization’s global response to the SARS epidemic in 2003.
From GatesNotes (Bill Gates’ blog): What you need to know about the COVID-19 vaccine
From Scientific American: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Could End
From McKinsey:
- 🆕 COVID-19: Saving thousands of lives and trillions in livelihoods. Ending lockdowns alone won’t restore confidence or growth. Only when the novel coronavirus is under control will economic growth resume.
And finally, if you have a literary frame of mind, take a look at this, from Strategy+Business: Business lessons from Albert Camus.
…and if you are wondering how this situation is changing people’s lives day-to-day, here is a very topical guide to shopping locally – something I have always tried to do. It’s written from a US perspective, but I think the ideas apply well in many places. As we become a more global community (and I hope we will again), I think we also need to be more and more concerned with our environment and proud of our immediate communities.
Wow. Due to the COVID-19 I am consuming lots of content to gain knowledge these days, believe me there is so much to learn from your response plan I must say.
Especially I loved that part where you talked about “Consider procurement commitments” .
Now in order to manage and collaborate with our remote team we are using:
– Zoom for virtual meetings,
– Indydesk for Project Management tool,
– Teramind to monitor productivity,
– Slack for communication.
Thank you and I am looking forward to learn more from you.
Adam, it’s great to hear that you have found a set of tools that are working for you. I know and use two of them, but Teramind and Indydesk are new to me, so thank to for sharing your stack.
I am glad you found the article helpful and I wish you, your friends and family, and your colleagues all the best.
Mike