A significant part of an E&C professional’s job is to anticipate, understand, manage, and deliver change to an organization’s culture and operations, and this ability is more critical than ever in today’s hyper-transparent and hyper-connected world.
LRN has long understood organizations animated by purpose, guided by core values, and possess a strong ethical culture will thrive in the long run–and, by extension, be the most resilient.
LRN’s Jim Walton moderated a discussion at a recent Consero Knowledge Bridge forum, and started by acknowledging the E&C landscape is ever-evolving.
Walton explored the extent to which this hypothesis has stood the test of the multiple crises facing society, including COVID-19, the economic slowdown, and the fight for racial justice and equality.
Attendees shared how their organizations’ purpose pointed the way forward for the E&C program.
One company, a supplier of industrial supplies and safety products, realized its organization’s purpose is to “keep the world working” and quickly focused on how it could help customers and communities get the equipment and supplies they needed to support essential workers during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
A tech company with a stated purpose “to continuously satisfy the world’s ever-evolving demand for technology” found itself in the middle of helping thousands of companies move their employees to a virtual working environment.
Walton asked the group whether its existing corporate culture and values helped or hindered the organization in adjusting to its new realities.
One participant stated their company had already instilled in its employees a strong sense of trust and pride, and they were able to draw on these to meet the moment. Another offered their company has always had a strong commitment to safety, in the physical sense, and were able to extend that value to include psychological safety, which has become so important to many workers.
Others were pleasantly surprised at the strong empathy and compassion shown by their leadership in helping the organization navigate these crises.
Focusing on purpose, culture, values, and caring about people–employees, customers, suppliers, communities–will make the difference for which organizations will have resiliency to not only survive but thrive.
E&C teams, working in collaboration with leadership, the business, and other functions, are essential to making this happen.