Emerging from the "crisis": an opportunity to re-energise your teams

Are we glimpsing the light at the end of the tunnel of this health crisis that has lasted more than two years?

Although it is difficult to give a definitive and clear-cut answer to this question, several positive signals show that a certain way out of this health crisis is currently taking shape.

Through the various assignments and training courses that Valeur Plus SA delivers, we have observed that many organisations and teams have been through turbulent periods: repeated absences and quarantines, disrupted schedules, staff shortages, exhausted employees, growing disengagement and widespread weariness. Many of the managers we have met recently tell us they were forced to deal with operational emergencies, sometimes at the expense of managerial tasks.

Of course, the current signals seem to point to a welcome improvement on the health front. While this is encouraging, this upturn also raises questions: now that the professional world has changed drastically over two years of pandemic, what can management do to support its teams during this "return to normal"?

Are we convinced that this is a return to normal, or rather the emergence of a "new normal"?

This question is worth asking. Indeed, the reference points have changed:

• Remote working has become widespread

• Hybrid working has taken hold

• Many employees have gained in autonomy

• New members have joined a team without ever having worked alongside it in person

• The paradigms of the team as an entity have evolved

On the basis of this premise, how can you manage the physical return of your teams, even if it is only part-time? How can you create a team dynamic within a new and evolving system?

First observation: the early stages following a major crisis, whatever it may be, must not be neglected.

To think that the team will, of its own accord, regain the same bearings and the same balance it had before the crisis is an illusion. However high-performing and mature it may have been, the team will inevitably go through a stage in which new rules will need to be set and new ways of working defined.

During this stage, known as the norming stage, the manager will play a key role:

• Proactively, they will set up a space in which to discuss this new framework with their team

• Collaboratively, they will energise their team and seek solutions together with it

• In certain situations, they will also act as a referee

​Like a sports coach at the start of a new championship, the manager will certainly need to express their expectations, share their way of communicating and their values, welcome new players and support them. In other words, they will create a new dynamic.

So, how can you create this new team dynamic ?

Organising "away days in the countryside" with your team is recommended. The chance to step out of your professional context and gain some distance offers the opportunity to disconnect from your operational routine and fosters creativity as well as cohesion. If these green-setting moments are a "luxury" that a team cannot afford, other alternatives to traditional meetings can be considered:

• Organising hackathons whose purpose is to harness the collective intelligence of your team, in a fast and dynamic format

• Creating and implementing charters and other codes of good practice

• Setting up team-cohesion sessions, during which each member expresses their communication needs and then collectively builds the concrete commitments that will enable the team to function and develop

Whether through advisory work, the implementation of coaching processes or the organisation of team-cohesion or team-dynamics days, Valeur Plus SA has the expertise to support you in these initiatives. Beyond this expertise gained with numerous organisations, the added value we offer is our agility in adapting to the specific reality of each of our clients and in proposing tailor-made solutions.

Whichever option you choose, your responsibility as a manager is not to underestimate this critical phase and to support your team. Even if, in the coming weeks, you are and will be faced with new emergencies to handle, do not keep your head down over the handlebars. Taking time and stepping back will bring a tangible benefit to your team in the medium and long term.

Written by Christophe Guy, trainer and coach