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“Unlike 2001, unlike 2009, half of CEOs anticipated an economic downturn in 2020. They didn’t expect COVID-19 and that crisis, but they did expect a downturn.”

Business leaders “use economic downturns to change direction and to fix things.”

“We rely on business leaders to grow our companies, to produce the things we need to get through this crisis, and to deliver the jobs we all need.”

“CEOs want to restore good growth in 2021.”

“Technology is one of the key levers they are going to use to find the growth that they need.”

 “Three ways CIOs can help their CEOs restore good growth are 1) accelerate smoothly; 2) nurture people; and 3) rebuild better.”

CIOs should “focus on scaling up the digital business mainstream. Don’t push digital experimental extremes.”

Learn more in the Smarter With Gartner article.

“The leadership compass shows how CIOs must lead in every direction: up to senior leadership; down to direct reports; out to influence functional peers; and within to improve their skills and capabilities.”

“Two of the most common questions CIOs are asking Gartner right now are 1) How do I engage the workforce post-crisis? and 2) How do we create effective distributed workforce practices?”

“Start within. CIOs must check their own engagement levels first, and set aside time to improve their leadership skills, energy and commitment.”

“Consider the whole person. Call out the concept of wellness to your team and make sure you model it yourself.”

“Encourage growth and development. This is how we will get from where we are today to where we need to be.”

Gartner surveys show 48% of employees will work remotely some or all of the time post-COVD19.

“The shift to a distributed workforce is not an individual decision you can make. CIOs need to ‘lead outward’ and partner with peers to harness opportunities and address challenges.”

“Humans are generally very good at predicting what is going to happen. But it turns out, when we are wrong about the future, we’re wrong in predictable ways.”

“Many of the assumptions we make are usually right. We think that the future will be like today, and most of the time it is.”

“For the things you can control, you want to own them. And that starts, as always, by being explicit and deliberate about your goals and aspirations.” 

“An important part of thinking about the future is to question your assumptions. Check for overconfidence, and to counter the optimism bias, make sure you know the odds of achieving your goal—and you want to achieve it anyways.”

“Techniques like scenario planning, contingency planning, options and spread bets can help to identify a range of possible futures, rather than focusing on the ones we’re hoping for.”

“Increasing your organizational resilience is not about the accuracy of a single bet, but the ability to maintain as many different bets as long as possible, to ease that stress of uncertainty.”