A better tomorrow

With lives, livelihood and wellbeing all deeply hit by this pandemic, the only right thing to do has been to reach out in support to friends, family and community.

As the weeks roll by, I would like to also be talking about something else as well - taking this crisis and making sure that good comes from it also. It’s up to us to make sure that the change which is forced on us becomes positive and creative.

The future looks even more uncertain than ever - yet this terrible time is a spike in a century-long trend of increasing global disruption and unexpected directions of progress. Many expect that future pandemics will come with increasing frequency.

If this crisis tells us anything, it is that being open to change, willing and able to adapt are the key skills for the future.

“Actually, I like working from home!”

Agile is such a widely appropriated term that it has come to mean almost anything Yet, there are unifying threads, which I believe are based in the ways that more creative, evidence-driven and adaptable ways of working helps people feel greater job satisfaction and deliver better results together.

The emergency-stop switch to remote and flexible working has forced a rapid scaling of something that many organisations were trying to introduce more gradually. The silver-lining is that for some it prompted questions over what we really value and how more remote working may in the end be more enjoyable.

More Online = More People-I-Know

The crisis has also accelerated customer adoption of online and forced the difficult job of creating new shopping behaviours and habits. Where these feel more convenient and enjoyable, they will last.

To give that a personal reality - the local corner shop owner and butcher are now my valued friends, having bravely stayed open when each customer could be the one that infects them. Likewise the people who are delivering parcels and food, have become known faces.

My sister discovered Bread Ahead, a baking teacher who started doing daily live instagram classes. My two sisters and my father are all now learning the delights of baking together, and my youngest sister sent us all a delivery of flour, yeast and ever-so-naughty sticky buns from the Bread Ahead bakery as a gift.

The broader trend here, I believe, is further growth of online - which leads to a growth of in-person experiences with people you come to know and value.

As it happens, this broadly aligns with the strategic advice being given to many global businesses, that success in rolling out digital automation to improve customer stickiness and reduce costs will be the deciding factor between success and failure.

More collaborative, more creative

I do not believe that the future will be a dystopian AI reality - where humans are reduced to lazy, indulgent, consumption machines. I believe that how we collaborate together will become more creative, will unlock more of the creative potential within everyone, resulting in more progressive and productive growth.

One key to this is for a shared, human and simply-practical vision of what each organisation cares about is needed to act as a balance against the everyday realities of hitting the more usual targets that keep management awake and stressed under more normal circumstances.

Quick thoughts:

In the sense that the conversation has moved beyond single-issue campaigns and towards systemic ecosystem solutions, looking at the democratic process and longer-term corporate strategies then yes, this pandemic is accelerating society towards a greater consciousness and willingness to act to deliver sustainability. (Ok, that wasn’t so quick!)