0:00

the coronavirus vaccine has arrived

0:03

there have been hiccups and distribution

0:05

but as doses are distributed throughout

0:07

the country

0:08

employers and hr teams need to know when

0:10

they can plan to safely reopen offices

0:12

and return to business as usual or close

0:15

to usual yet thinking through this

0:16

though is more difficult than it seems

0:18

so in today's episode which is one of a

0:20

two-part series

0:22

we'll discuss how hr can make informed

0:24

decisions about evaluating how to return

0:25

to the office

0:26

during the pandemic we'll cover how

0:29

covid19 vaccine availability

0:31

can impact your return a useful tool

0:34

that can help you make important

0:36

decisions like returning to the office

0:38

and how bernie portal has used that tool

0:40

to consider making a decision about

0:41

reopening

0:42

our own office during the pandemic so

0:45

let's get to it

0:46

this past december in 2020 the fda

How COVID-19 Vaccine Availability Can Impact Your Return to the Office

0:49

approved emergency use for both the

0:52

pfizer

0:53

and moderna covid19 vaccines and while

0:57

doses are being administered throughout

0:58

the country this is going to take some

1:00

time

1:00

states have largely been responsible for

1:03

vaccination rollouts

1:04

and this means that from one state to

1:06

another and sometimes one county to

1:08

another

1:09

there are different rules regulations

1:10

and requirements in place that

1:12

can limit vaccine availability depending

1:15

on your industry

1:16

this could mean that your team is up for

1:18

vaccination sooner than others

1:20

and while vaccine availability is a

1:22

vital step for many businesses to

1:24

return to quote-unquote normal it's also

1:26

one of many considerations teams need to

1:28

take into account when deciding how

1:30

employees can

1:30

safely return to the office now i'll be

1:33

the first to admit

1:34

that safely returning to in-person work

1:36

is a tough tough

1:37

issue that we've struggled with on our

1:39

own team

1:40

i can't tell you how many times we've

1:42

pushed back our own return date

1:44

but at the end of this episode i'll walk

1:45

you through exactly how bernie portal

1:47

has approached making this decision

1:49

i'll also walk you through how you can

1:51

think through these considerations too

1:53

so

1:54

don't miss it in a next week's episode

1:57

we'll cover how bernie portal has

1:59

identified potential problems

2:01

that could impact our return to the

2:03

office and our plan to do that

Making Decisions Using the Kepner-Tregoe Method

2:05

but before we dig into our own

2:07

experience i first want to introduce you

2:09

to the useful system we've used in our

2:11

decision making

2:12

and it's called the kepner trigo method

2:15

created in the 1950s by management

2:17

consulting firm kepner trigo so that's

2:19

where it's got its name

2:20

this decision making method has helped

2:22

thousands of organizations around the

2:23

world

2:24

apply critical thinking tools to solve

2:25

difficult problems make the best

2:27

decisions

2:28

and analyze the potential risks and

2:30

opportunities present in any given

2:31

situation

2:32

the companies used its system to work

2:34

with some of the world's most well-known

2:35

organizations

2:36

like nasa siemens harley-davidson and

2:39

honda motor company

2:40

the kepner trigo method includes four

2:43

clear thinking

2:44

processes first there's situation

2:47

appraisal

2:48

which helps answer the question what's

2:50

going on then there's problem analysis

2:52

which helps answer another question what

2:55

went wrong

2:56

decision analysis is third and that

2:58

helps to answer the question

2:59

what's the best alternative and then

3:01

there's potential problem

3:03

an opportunity analysis which helps

3:05

answer

3:06

this last question what could go wrong

3:09

in this episode we'll be using the third

3:11

process the decision analysis

3:14

to illustrate how we've thought about

3:15

returning to the office this spring

3:17

now as i just mentioned the decision

3:19

analysis helps users make the best most

3:21

balanced

3:22

decision when the choice between

3:24

alternatives is unclear

3:26

or uncertain once we've arrived at a

3:28

tentative decision using that analysis

3:31

the potential problem and opportunity

3:33

analysis gives us the tools to

3:34

change and improve our outcomes by

3:36

thinking through what might go wrong as

3:38

we finalize that tentative decision

3:40

more on that in the next episode and in

3:43

fact i could spend several episodes

3:44

discussing the ins and outs

3:46

of every single step in the kepner trigo

3:47

method and i've even included a few

3:49

resources in the episode description for

3:51

your use

3:52

and reference anytime you're making a

3:54

decision

3:55

that could result in unforeseen or

3:57

unintended consequences

3:59

for example if you're shifting your

4:00

payroll schedule anytime you're hosting

4:02

a big event

4:03

or pretty much any topic we've covered

4:06

in past hr party event videos

4:08

you can use kepner trigo to enhance your

4:10

decision-making abilities

Using a Kepner-Tregoe Decision Analysis to Reopen the Office

4:12

but for this episode's topic let's talk

4:14

about how it applies to bernie portal's

4:16

own approach to reopening our office

4:20

first bernie portal put together a

4:22

decision analysis based on the kepner

4:24

trigo principles

4:26

to evaluate six different approaches to

4:28

managing our return to working in the

4:30

office

4:31

the first step was defining the question

4:32

we were trying to answer our question

4:34

was

4:35

what is the best way for bernie portal

4:37

to manage the initial

4:39

reopening of our offices before

4:41

generating alternative ideas

4:43

in response to that question kepner

4:46

trigo

4:46

insists on first establishing objectives

4:50

those objectives are to be divided into

4:52

musts and once in other words what

4:56

objectives

4:57

must an alternative meet to be viable

5:00

and what objectives

5:01

do we just want it to meet here's the

5:04

lists of our musts

5:06

phase one of nashville's vaccine

5:07

deployment is complete and we're moving

5:09

into phase

5:10

two the transition is administratively

5:13

straightforward

5:14

for our managers and also for hr

5:17

recognizes our team has a diverse array

5:20

of viewpoints and positions on

5:21

vaccination

5:22

and returning to the office recognizes

5:24

that our clients have a diverse array of

5:26

viewpoints and positions on vaccination

5:28

and returning to the office

5:29

and our hr team won't be responsible for

5:31

enforcing safety precautions

5:33

and adheres to our guiding principle of

5:35

mutual respect

5:37

now here are our wants

5:40

recognizes that some people are eager to

5:42

return to the office and may be

5:43

suffering health consequences from

5:44

working in isolation at home

5:46

ensures that people on our team have

5:48

reasonable access to the vaccine

5:50

waits until tennessee has completed

5:51

phase two of the vaccine rollout before

5:54

we require employees to return

5:55

recognizes some employees

5:57

have better work from home

5:58

accommodations than others addresses the

6:00

concerns of people who are worried about

6:02

cobit but also

6:03

don't want to get the vaccine and we're

6:04

able to regain some of the communication

6:06

and team benefits that come

6:07

with sharing the same physical space

6:10

while we work

6:11

once we had our lists of musts and wants

6:13

we weighted the wants

6:15

in other words for an alternative to be

6:17

viable it has to satisfy all the musts

6:19

but it doesn't necessarily have to

6:20

satisfy any given wants

6:22

and some wants can be more important

6:24

than others which is why we weight them

6:26

after this work was done we generated

6:28

alternative ideas answering the question

6:30

of how bernie portal could best

6:31

manage the initial reopening of our

6:33

offices creativity is encouraged at this

6:36

step

6:36

come up with as many alternatives as you

6:38

can no bad ideas

6:40

and here are the alternatives we came up

6:42

with alternative one

6:44

everyone returns to the office after

6:45

nashville's phase one vaccine deployment

6:47

finishes

6:48

without exception alternative two

6:50

requires some team members to return

6:52

once phase one is finished

6:53

but not all and that would be based on

6:55

role and tenure number three

6:57

make in-person work voluntary for

6:59

everyone so they can come and go as they

7:00

please

7:01

alternative four everyone returns to the

7:04

office after nashville's phase

7:05

two vaccine deployment finishes

7:08

alternative five

7:09

requiring some team members to return to

7:11

the office after phase two

7:12

deployment but not all again based on

7:15

role and tenure

7:16

and finally alternative six once we're

7:19

through phase one

7:20

allow employees to decide to identify as

7:22

remote

7:23

or in-person workers but once someone

7:25

becomes an in-person worker they can no

7:27

longer work remotely

7:28

finally we compared each alternative

7:30

against our must and want

7:32

objectives with respect to the musts

7:35

the alternative either met the objective

7:37

or it didn't

7:39

for the once we gave a score from one to

7:41

five for how well the alternative

7:43

met the objective now here you can see

7:46

how each alternative scored

7:47

it should be jumping out at you that

7:49

alternatives 2 3 and 5

7:50

didn't meet some of our must objectives

7:53

and that means they're out

7:54

there's no need to even rate them on the

7:56

wants that left us with alternatives one

7:59

four and six

8:00

which did address all the musts and so

8:02

we rated them on the wants

8:04

for example remember that one of our

8:05

wants was to recognize that some people

8:06

are eager to return to the office and

8:08

could be suffering health consequences

8:09

from working in isolation

8:11

we gave this one away to four and scored

8:13

it based on every

8:14

viable alternative now let's talk more

8:17

in detail about how this works

8:18

in alternative one when everyone returns

8:21

after phase one

8:22

we assigned this one a score of five it

8:25

received the highest possible score

8:26

because the sooner we reopen the sooner

8:27

we can stop working remotely

8:29

ending the isolation that can be harmful

8:31

to mental health however in

8:32

alternative four where everyone returns

8:34

after phase two

8:36

this same one scores a one well why

8:39

people have to wait longer to return to

8:40

the office and may continue to suffer

8:42

those adverse health effects from remote

8:43

work isolation

8:45

the lower score impacts the

8:46

alternative's overall score when all

8:48

wants are considered now as i was just

8:51

talking through

8:52

how we rated these alternatives on the

8:53

various ones you might have thought

8:56

i don't know about that ryan instead of

8:58

a three i think i would have given that

8:59

one a four

9:00

or something like that and that's part

9:03

of the benefit you get from kepner trigo

9:05

people can see exactly how the decision

9:07

was made and have productive

9:08

conversations about different

9:10

components we might still end up seeing

9:12

things differently but at least we have

9:13

a framework that enhances our ability to

9:15

have a productive conversation about it

9:17

once we rated each of the viable

9:19

alternatives on all the want objectives

9:22

we applied the weights and totaled the

9:23

score

9:25

turns out alternative 6 ended up with

9:27

the highest weighted point total

9:29

but that doesn't mean we're done this

What comes next?

9:31

only gives us a tentative decision

9:34

moving forward at this point without

9:35

applying the potential problem or

9:36

opportunity analysis

9:38

is what some kepner trigo fans call an

9:40

invitation

9:41

to disaster so how does the potential

9:45

problem

9:45

and opportunity analysis work well we're

9:48

going to cover that next week

9:50

but for now i encourage you to do some

9:53

thinking

9:53

about what your organization's

9:55

objectives should be

9:57

as they relate to the initial decision

9:59

to reopen your own offices

10:01

avoid getting into generating

10:02

alternatives like

10:04

we could do this or we could do that to

10:06

get objectives

10:08

ask what you're trying to accomplish

10:10

your objectives might be different than

10:12

bernie portals and that's okay

10:13

then follow the rest of this process

10:15

we've discussed today to get your own

10:17

tentative decision

10:18

and then we'll be ready to tackle the

10:20

potential problem and opportunity

10:21

analysis

10:22

next time thanks for watching this

10:24

episode if you haven't already here's a

10:26

reminder to please subscribe to our hr

10:28

party one channel

10:29

ring the bell to receive notifications

10:30

for the latest updates and new episodes

10:33

and as always remember your job is as

10:35

strategic as you make

10:55

[Applause]

11:01

you