Given the pandemic, it must be understood that an organisation must never quarantine fundamental orientation. Organisations need to follow social designing rather than social distancing.

The inadequacies of archaic thinking and ill-preparedness in the present has led to the COVID-19 pandemic’s long run and a greater impact. Therefore, learning from the mistakes of the past and present and creating a convincing and confident narrative for the future is essential. It would be worthwhile to avoid anticipating future disruptions and shift the spotlight to redefine the physiology and psychology of employees and the enterprise.

Nourishing fundamentals, nurturing institution The ‘Unexpected’ has four enterprising siblings (4 U).

• Uncertain

• Unseen

• Uncontrollable

• Unavoidable

Though they may be of different form, they are similar in spirit - unwelcome yet inevitable intruders of life! And each of them makes the intelligent seem foolish and the successful seem shallow. The 4 U represent varying degrees of uncertainties and embedded ambiguities that call for an altered approach. They are similar to unwelcome and undesirable intrusions in a state of equilibrium. We will have to raise the bar of the thought process to stem this innovation.

The responses to each of these unseen, unexpected scenarios might be case based or simulation based. However, the real answer would be resilience by way of building good times that can buffet gargantuan disruptions. The 4 Us symbolise the extent and magnitude of either helplessness or choicelessness due to a varying mix of variables.

Therefore, it would be best to amalgamate the solution for the 4 Us with an inherent application of the 5th U – ‘Unexpected’.

A deep exploration

A deep exploration into the varied parameters of organisational health is an integral immunity building to crush the microorganisms of uncertainty. In practical terms, leadership focuses on a host of inventive, illustrative, and informative parameters that explain the success and failure better would be a vital step in building immunity.

To reimagine the metrics portfolio, pursuing beyond obvious numbers to excavate deeper stories, remixing seemingly unconnected parameters for deeper analysis would be the vital tools to gain real commentary on health and the future. The 4 Us are the four signals that challenge our willingness to be more reflective even in good times to make the good better and actively persuade a multi-dimensional narrative of the word ‘Success’.

Financial discipline, compliance to ethics and values, quality advocacy, sustainable and sensible business practices, relentless fertilisation of innovative thinking, human resilience investment would not merely be concepts, ideas, and luxuries to be considered for another day. Rather, the moment is now - to re-examine, re-purpose and realign the fundamental life support structures optimising institutional immunity to combat vicious pathogens of disruption of which COVID-19 is merely one recognised manifestation.

The anti-bodies in an organisation’s bloodstream

Our reverence for fundamentals should never reduce in any of the two distinctive time frames. The basic when reinforced can rejuvenate the body and soul of an individual or institution. Waiting for the next bad occurrence to re-programme the good times can be disastrous.

The insights of good times act as an antidote to the infections of bad times. In such a situation, a vaccine is not a substitute for values and vision; it is a solution, not an answer. The answer is in the choice we make to provide greater importance to the fundamentals to boost our health, vigour and vitality.

We need to get away from our massive obsession with innovative thinking and substitute it with fundamental thinking. Incidentally, sustainable innovative thinking is the natural offspring of fundamental thinking. Given the pandemic, it must be understood that an organisation must never quarantine fundamental orientation. Organisations need to follow social designing rather than social distancing.