Maintain Collaboration in an Economic Downturn

Recessions are inevitable, and some economists believe we may face another one fairly soon. Oddly, the very behavior that could help an organization maintain stability, and quite possibly thrive during an economic downturn, is the one that is often the first to be abandoned when times get tough — collaboration. A study, highlighted in The Harvard Business Review (HBR), revealed interesting but unsurprising results that in poor economic times, employees will collaborate less. It may just be the old lizard brain and self-preservation kicking in — a case of Fight and Flight where one, fearing job loss, will fight to look important and therefore flee from more collaborative activities that dilute their personal influence or improve another’s. It makes evolutionary sense but not good business sense.

The recommendation by the author is that managers, following cues of economic downturns, “should actively manage the psychology and behavior of their workforce to avoid an erosion of cohesion and productive work behaviors in the organization,” is in my opinion a typical, reactive, and doomed approach, one where leadership turns on initiatives only when it serves them best and then it’s back to status quo. This manager approach is symptomatic of a larger disease best described by author and business guru Henry Mintzberg in “Rebuilding Companies as Communities” (2009). 

“Decades of short-term management, in the United States especially, have inflated the importance of CEOs and reduced others in the corporation to fungible commodities — human resources to be ‘downsized’ at the drop of a share price.”

Efforts to improve employee engagement today typically fall way short not only because they are seen as superficial, but also because the issue of engagement is beyond just the organization or industry they are in; trust is damaged at a macro level today. Workers now carry this baggage from job to job. Many are either jaded through past experiences or if younger, have learned not to trust through friends and family member professional experiences. 

A sea change is needed if companies are going to weather future economic storms and maintain high levels of cooperation and collaboration. Organizations must start today to create a different and more permanent mindset that prevails in good times and bad. As Mintzberg says: “ ... The organization has to shed much of its individualist behavior and many of its short-term measures in favor of practices that promote trust, engagement, and spontaneous collaboration aimed at sustainability.”

So how is this done? 

For starters, a new collective history needs to develop, one where in times of recession, layoffs are avoided at the cost of short-term gains and where executives forego exuberant salary increases. A reputation of all for one takes time and likely more than one dip in the business cycle to develop. Next, and most importantly, the role of middle management needs to be reframed. Those in middle management are the cornerstone for community building as they are often the only real leadership touchpoint for workers. It’s here too that Mintzberg says the remnants of community often still exist. This level of leadership typically rose through the ranks and has plenty of connection to the past and passion for the business. They are also not so close to the work that they miss the big picture and not so far away that they can’t see how work gets done. Middle managers are a key artery in reviving community in organizations, but not in a reactionary way as noted in the HBR article, but more continually as an ongoing steady drip into the culture vein. 

It’s at this level, the middle, where leadership must put the most focus in order to form new partnerships in the company if a better organization is to emerge; one that recognizes the importance of community over individuality to weather the change that inevitably comes to all companies.    

Mark Britz is a workforce-performance strategist who has launched ThruWork (ThruWork.com), a talent-development consultancy for small to mid-sized businesses. The company specializes in solving organizational performance problems and focuses on non-training approaches to scale employee performance. Contact Britz at (315) 552-0538 or email: mark@thruwork.com