Re-generating (notice not recovery) – here there will be a natural desire that things return to normal, yet there will still be much uncertainty and if this is embraced, rather than seen as a threat, we can create our new future from our purpose and values. This creation process, as opposed to merely predicting the future and responding to it, is the single most important factor in determining which organisations will thrive as a result of this crisis, rather than just survive or worse.

Creating your future from a stand for something bigger than merely what it is you do, is in itself an act of leadership – the organisations that have a stand (your higher purpose and values), engage their people powerfully and mobilise their efforts at the early stages of responding to a crisis. The leaders that take this stand recognise that this calls for leading when you don’t know the answer – Adaptive Leadership¹, is the skill to do this. Those leaders that engage and lead in this way during a crisis will build the most trust with their people and have the opportunity to start the process of regeneration through the crisis. They recognise and embrace the seemingly intractable challenges rather than try to over prescribe and protect; they see the possibility for a new culture and new way of working to form through the crisis; they are clear that sourced from their purpose and their values, not from the old ways of how they do things, new opportunities will emerge, for themselves, their people and the business. The organisations that best prepare for this opportunity at this time, are the ones who will best succeed and will contribute most to society’s needs.