Has Your Company Been Anchored To The Wrong Information?

Have you seen people that stubbornly adhered to their first impressions regarding the pandemic and its business impact?

The truth is that lots of people refuse to adapt their position on the virus, not believing that we should adhere to updated guidelines, regardless of evidence that doing so will certainly protect us from COVID-19.

Anchoring in Fintech: A Case Study

Having assisted many businesses fight against cognitive biases particular to this pandemic since March, I can particularly recall one case as a result of just how negative the circumstance got.

When Lauren, the Chief Executive Officer of a 130-people fintech startup based in Texas, first discovered COVID-19, she wasn’t worried. The whole management team saw it as just a passing thing.

The exec team didn't bother to plan for a work disruption of more than 2 weeks, deciding to comply with early standards from the CDC to prepare for just a short disturbance due to a short-term infection break out.

Due to this lack of preparation, the leadership group advised all its staff members to return to the workplace as states reopened, rejecting reports of a worrying rise in cases in Texas. Due to the elderly executives' unconcerned perspective towards the virus, neither they nor the staff members complied with social distancing standards or used masks when they returned to the office.

Unsurprisingly, this caused trouble, starting with an outbreak of COVID-19 in the workplace which originated from a company-wide meeting. Numerous workers, including the COO, were hospitalized. Two older workers died. The resulting shock and outrage within the firm resulted in a large decrease in efficiency as well as morale.

Lauren recognized she would not be able to handle the disorder alone and that she required assistance. She decided to call me after viewing my webinar on how companies can handle obstacles as well as spot possibilities throughout this pandemic.

Adapting to the New Uncommon

The very first item of guidance I provided to Lauren, as well as the firm's COO and HR VP when we had our very first Zoom call was that rejecting the turmoil brought about by COVID-19 will only lead to further disaster. Stubbornly refusing to leave the course they were on may effectively result in the closure of their organization.

Rather, companies should prevent counting on simple emergency situation measures to deal with the two years of the pandemic. Leadership teams need to craft lasting, positive measures if they intend to thrive.

Moving On From Anchoring

After our coaching sessions, Lauren and her exec team decided to do the following:

1. The leadership team without delay held a company-wide virtual town hall to revise the wrong details on COVID-19 on which a lot of the staff members had actually been anchored.
2. Just a couple of days later on, a thorough work from home program was rolled out. The executive team made sure every person that required to function from another location was supplied with tech as well as funding help.
3. The advertising and marketing group swiftly overhauled its external and also internal outreach to include fresh info on the business's COVID-19 efforts.
4. To round out the business's pivot, the COO and HR VP launched a retention program to head off any additional attrition.

When Lauren as well as I last spoke a couple of months ago, she informed me that the efforts they turned out led to great outcomes. It finally set the business back onto a productive course.

Lauren mentioned that the business was able to reduce the threat of COVID-19 infections as a result of their strict policies when working onsite. This led to a lowered risk of accountability in case of an episode in their office. It was definitely an alleviation of anxiety to the whole executive group and also helped them enhance both morale and retention.

Lauren stated she was relieved they took the required activity once the COVID-19 situations began to increase in Texas, which led to a pause of the reopening process, as part of the cycle of reopenings and shutdowns.