Six Years Later: Why So Many Organizations Are Still Recovering from the Pandemic

When the world shut down in 2020, organizations did what they had to do. Boards met virtually. Staff adapted overnight. Volunteers stepped back. Policies were temporarily adjusted. Strategic plans were put on hold. Everyone was focused on one thing: survival.

At the time, those decisions made perfect sense.

The problem is that many organizations never had the opportunity to go back and rebuild what was temporarily put aside.
Today, we’re seeing the consequences of that everywhere.

While many people feel the pandemic is behind us, organizations are still living with its after-effects every single day. In fact, many of the governance, leadership and operational challenges we help clients solve can be traced back to decisions—or simply the lack of capacity—that emerged during those years.

The pandemic didn’t necessarily create these issues. It accelerated them.

Volunteer engagement has changed

Many organizations continue to struggle to recruit and retain volunteers. People’s priorities shifted. Some discovered they wanted more time with family. Others became more selective about where they invested their energy. Some simply never returned. Organizations that once relied on long-term volunteers are now competing for people’s limited time and attention. Traditional recruitment strategies no longer work the way they once did, and many organizations are realizing they need to rethink how they engage, support and retain volunteers.

Board recruitment isn’t what it used to be

Finding qualified board members has become increasingly difficult. Experienced leaders are stretched thin. Many who served on boards during the pandemic experienced significant burnout and chose not to continue. Others retired earlier than expected or stepped away from leadership altogether. At the same time, newer board members often arrive with tremendous enthusiasm but limited governance experience. Without intentional orientation, mentorship and ongoing education, boards can struggle to fulfill their governance responsibilities effectively. The result isn’t a lack of good people. It’s a shortage of prepared people.

Strategic planning created unintended gaps

Many organizations had strategic plans that suddenly became irrelevant in 2020. Understandably, planning was paused while leadership focused on crisis management. But for many organizations, the restart never happened. Plans expired. Annual priorities were never updated. Performance measures disappeared. Boards shifted from leading strategically to reacting operationally. Years later, many organizations are still operating without a clear roadmap. Staff work incredibly hard, but often without a shared understanding of where the organization is heading or how success should be measured.

Human resources has become far more complex

The workplace has changed dramatically. Organizations are managing new employee expectations around flexibility, mental health, work-life balance, recruitment and retention. Hiring has become more competitive, onboarding is more challenging, and leadership requires a different set of skills than it did just a few years ago. Many organizations are also experiencing succession challenges as experienced employees retire or move on, leaving behind vacancies that are increasingly difficult to fill. These aren’t simply HR problems. They’re organizational capacity problems.

The workplace itself has changed

Remote work allowed organizations to continue operating during an unprecedented crisis. It also fundamentally changed how people work together. Today, many organizations continue to navigate hybrid environments, differing expectations around in-office work, communication challenges and questions about accountability. Some employees thrive remotely. Others miss the collaboration, mentoring and spontaneous problem-solving that happens when people work together in person.
There is no universal solution. Each organization must intentionally determine what works best for its people, culture and mission rather than assuming old or new models will automatically succeed.

Governance follow-through quietly disappeared

One of the most common issues we encounter is governance drift. During the pandemic, boards understandably focused on immediate decisions. Routine governance work often took a back seat. Board evaluations were postponed. Governance reviews were delayed. Committee structures evolved without being revisited. Orientation programs became informal. Annual governance calendars were abandoned. None of this happened because boards weren’t committed. It happened because survival required immediate attention. But several years later, many of those temporary practices have quietly become permanent.

Policies and procedures were never updated

Organizations adapted incredibly quickly during COVID. Unfortunately, many policies never caught up. Emergency practices became everyday practices without being formally reviewed or approved. Employee manuals still reference work environments that no longer exist. Governance policies don’t reflect virtual meetings, hybrid workplaces or evolving legal and operational realities. Policies are meant to guide consistent decision-making. When they no longer reflect reality, they create confusion instead of clarity.

The knowledge gap is real

Perhaps the most significant challenge we see today is the loss of organizational knowledge. Experienced staff retired. Long-serving volunteers stepped away. Board members completed their terms. Leaders moved on. Many organizations lost decades of institutional knowledge in just a few years. Unfortunately, much of that knowledge was never documented. New leaders are now doing their best to move organizations forward without fully understanding why certain decisions were made, how processes evolved or what lessons were learned over many years. That creates unnecessary risk and often results in organizations reinventing work that was solved long ago.

The good news is that these problems are solvable

None of these challenges appeared overnight, and they won’t disappear overnight either.
They require organizations to intentionally pause, take an honest look at where they are today, and rebuild the foundations that support long-term success.

That’s exactly where we come in.

At LMDSolutions, we’ve noticed a clear shift in the work we’re being asked to do. Increasingly, organizations aren’t looking for someone to simply facilitate a strategic plan or deliver governance training. They’re asking for help untangling years of accumulated challenges that quietly emerged during and after the pandemic.

We’re helping boards reconnect with their governance responsibilities after years of operating in crisis mode. We’re rebuilding governance systems, modernizing policies and procedures, strengthening board recruitment and orientation, and helping organizations regain clarity around roles, accountability and decision-making.

We’re also helping leadership teams rebuild organizational knowledge, document critical processes before they’re lost, reconnect strategy with day-to-day operations, and create practical operational plans that turn good intentions into measurable progress.
In many ways, we’ve become organizational rebuilders.

Not because organizations failed, but because they adapted under extraordinary circumstances. They made the best decisions they could with the information, resources and time they had.

Now, the opportunity is different.

It’s time to move beyond simply recovering and begin building organizations that are stronger, more resilient and better prepared for whatever comes next.

Our role isn’t to tell organizations what they’re doing wrong. Our role is to help them identify what needs strengthening, prioritize what matters most, and put practical systems in place that will support their mission for years to come.

Because strong organizations don’t happen by accident. They are built intentionally. And sometimes, after years of simply surviving, the strongest thing an organization can do is decide it’s finally time to rebuild.

If this article resonated with you, chances are your organization isn’t alone.

Many of the challenges we’ve discussed are explored in greater depth in our book, Wake Up Call: Stop fixing the wrong things. It offers practical insights, reflection questions and a simple framework to help boards and leadership teams identify the root causes behind the issues they’re experiencing… and start building lasting solutions.

Whether you’re a board member, executive director, CEO or organizational leader, the first step toward meaningful change is understanding what’s really happening beneath the surface.

Ready to start the conversation?

Buy your copy of Wake Up Call on Amazon today, or contact us through www.lmdsolutions.ca and take the first step toward building a stronger, healthier organization.

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