Three levels at which management can help fight the coronavirus

The covid-19 pandemic is spreading, and we will increasingly need to stay calm, composed and united to face the rapid and profound changes we are all going through.

In this sense, all available knowledge is essential so that this crisis can be overcome as quickly as possible and its effects minimized. The decisive role played by applying the most advanced learning accumulated in the health sciences, for example, is clear in the news and in everyday conversations.

Management concepts, developed and applied daily in the most diverse organizations, have also played an important role in helping us face this crisis, even though they may not be so evident. Understanding and making explicit how these concepts apply at this moment can help us use them more extensively, maximizing their contribution.

I offer some examples of this at three levels: in health systems, in companies and in individuals.

The capacity of health systems to respond to the crisis is today the greatest concern in every country. It is clear to everyone that a collective effort to “flatten the curve” is essential, slowing the speed at which the disease spreads through measures restricting social contact and preventing the number of severe cases from rapidly exceeding the capacity of these systems, as has already happened in Italy.

There is the other side of this equation, which is increasing the capacity of the system. Important actions are being taken in this regard, such as adding beds and medical teams. But resources are limited, and here several management concepts apply, increasing process efficiency and enabling the allocated resources to serve more patients.

For example, several public and private hospitals in Brazil and around the world have been applying lean management methods in recent years. Concepts such as separating flows by different types of care, understanding the

waste involved in the sequence of processes, leveling resources, and daily management routines, among others, have produced countless results, such as shorter queues, greater care capacity, and improved safety and quality of care, among others.

Several applications carried out in emergency services, for example, have brought a significant reduction in waiting times and an increase in care capacity on the order of 30%. The rapid dissemination of concepts like these is essential, as an important ally in this struggle to match capacity and demand.

At the company level, the impacts have been enormous and very fast, creating the need for major adaptations. Restrictions on social contact have brought entire productive sectors almost to a halt, interrupted supply chains, required the use of home office on a never-before-seen scale, and so on.

No one can yet predict the extent and duration of these measures, nor gauge their impact on the economy, which will certainly be significant. Many management concepts will need to be applied more intensely, and more than ever capabilities such as flexibility, adaptability, rapid response, innovation, problem-solving capacity, and so many others will be decisive.

Entire teams are frightened, fearing not only for their health and that of their families and colleagues, but also for their jobs and income. Just as we cannot panic about the public and individual health aspects involved, it is up to leaders to drive fear out of their organizations. By being transparent and mobilizing their employees to use this moment to improve processes, adapt to new situations and prepare the company for a consistent recovery as soon as the crisis moves toward being overcome.

The third level at which management concepts can help us is the individual one. Let's take the example of behavior change. It is not easy to suddenly get used to a series of new habits that are today

extremely necessary, such as avoiding contact when greeting people, frequently sanitizing our hands and reducing contact between our hands and face.

Changing attitudes and behaviors is a problem organizations face repeatedly whenever improvements are implemented. One lesson we can draw from management concepts regarding this aspect is standardization.

The best way to practice new behaviors is to incorporate them into new standards, in a simple way, and repeat them exhaustively until they become habit. Here is a trivial example: in my condominium, a container of hand sanitizer gel was placed next to the garage elevator button, which everyone passes on their way up to their apartments. This in itself is an important factor, since it makes it easier to sanitize our hands when we come in from outside. I created a personal “standard”: only press the button after using the sanitizer gel. At first I sometimes forgot, but it quickly became a habit that I now repeat automatically.

The virus spreads at an astonishing speed, and the only way to fight it is for us to learn more quickly how to face it, in a collective effort on a much larger scale than we did before, in every field of human knowledge.

Just as scientists from the most diverse fields, particularly epidemiology, are setting an example for the world of globalized collaboration for the rapid advancement and sharing of knowledge, everyone involved in management can also expand their contribution at all their levels of influence. With everyone's participation, I hope we can get out of this crisis as quickly as possible and come away with a positive balance of solidarity, collaboration and collective learning.