Redefining the Next Normal in a Post-Pandemic Era

As each week of our shared reality has unfolded, our new found Pandora’s box of emotions, thoughts and motivation that were once hidden within us (until around a month back before the madness of COVID-19 began) has opened up fresh thoughts on outlook towards a changed lifestyle —

1. What the “New Normal” will be?
2. Emotions of anxiety, composure, boredom, and fear while we adjust, jury-rig, improvise and experiment
3. Motivation to do things that we have always wanted to do — becoming home chefs, modest artists, laid-back writers, and things that we have started to do as a group digitally — group work out sessions from our living spaces, pouring a glass of wine over a video conference call for a celebration

… and I just couldn’t hold back from sharing what my Mother-in-Law and mother along with their friends and family have been doing in the hope of creating positive vibes in these uncertain times — assigning each person in the group a specific time for chanting the Vishnu Sahasranamam each day such that once the person finishes with the chant, the next person starts their chant from wherever they are in the world, with the aim of creating a chain of chanting for positive energy and vibes. (How cute and thoughtful is that, not to mention the level of coordination by taking into account the time differences across the globe!)

It turns out to me that, pretending we aren’t human simply doesn’t work in times when we are forced to confront our very own human fragility.

In these interesting times and probably the only time when couples are spending the largest length of their time together, they are discovering hilarious traits about each other especially while working from home. I am amazed by the things I am learning about my husband. I’m married to a Let’sTakeAStepBack.WhatProblemAreWeReallyTryingTo“SOLVE” guy — Who knew?… Pets making special appearances, toddlers climbing across parents’ laps, and mothers chiding their kids upon catching them doing something stupid are all happening on work video calls. All these examples point to the fact that the concept of work-life “balance” has evolved.

Telling that both work and family are our top priorities and treating both as mutually exclusive forces has ended abruptly.

We will be smarter (I pray), after finally realising that humans are not just resources or pieces of an organizational machine without families or feelings, and by the end of this crisis we will be stronger (I hope).

Have you ever felt like the last month had 1946 days to go through, and that every 5 seconds felt like a week? As the rate of change accelerates, yet time seems to slow down, organizations are finding ways to stay relevant, by formulating a problem, and finding solutions to “how to lead in times of uncertainty”, while the primary resources on which they depend, humans, have less emotional bandwidth. Are we expecting people to hit record high of emotionally metabolizing, even faster than the pace of change? Practically, it isn’t possible.

All the messages in my inbox and posts on social media about “how to lead in times of uncertainty” seem to miss out the most critical point — Being better listeners and observers. In moments when you feel you have to move forward, it is alright if you are frozen. In moments when you take a break and pause, you may feel the urgency to participate and be productive, as if silence means it’s the end of the world. We are obsessed with taking action in a society obsessed with productivity as its growth KPI. We need to let go of the post-industrial hangover of humans as machines without emotions.

In times like this, more than ever before, company culture that has always played a passive role till now, will now lead from the front. The decisions we make now, and the priorities and principles we set, will now be embedded in a team’s persona for the months and years to follow. It requires for us to go back to our personality and organizational DNA and start asking hard questions about the beliefs that we have, if they should change with dynamic times, and how these beliefs should translate into actions.

Spending quality time with family and friends has never meant more. How will that impact your work policy and schedule moving forward?

So, ask yourself: Where are you going to come out of this personally and in your professional lives? Are you falling for the rhetoric on one side or ignoring the opportunities on the other? Are you giving importance to “Humans First” — the way people are now using technology, blurring the boundaries between work and family? Are you recognizing the need to connect by using technology as an enabler to have social interactions and immersive experiences, and recognize that these immersive experiences are as simple as sharing a glass of wine over a video call?

Are you staying cognizant of the virtual platforms available out there and what works the best for you? Are you noting how easy it is to have a conversation and be productive without having to transport yourself physically? Are you paying attention to the times when your remote tools and software fall short of your needs — the nature of work that makes it indispensable to have face-to-face interaction with people in the same room at the same table?

Have you started having a new outlook and appreciation for those who fuel the ‘gig economy’, the people who have been the backbone of the drive so-called “Disruption”, and now are without a safety net and have few choices? However, many people not belonging to the ‘gig economy’ are finding themselves in similar places now as a result of the COVID-19 crises.

What about leaders? Are you starting to better understand between leaders and rulers? Between leadership and power? Between “leading by example” or controlling by “what is in it for me?” Is the strength of your leaders shaped by humanity that shapes the team’s culture? Is the strength of your team’s culture shaped by integrity that will ultimately shape your resiliency?

What is REALLY important? What looked like a crisis yesterday seems to now shrink to a speck in comparison to the madness of today, right? Do the circumstances of today give us a fresh perspective on must haves, good to have, nice to have, and do I really care?

Consider the very physical structure and the spaces our offices provide. Five feet of personal space seemed to be the standard of luxury. But now, with working from home, the idea of luxury space would change. How will that affect seating plans at work? What about restaurants? Would you be ok to sit at a communal table? Will you be comfortable being seated mere inches from the next table? Are you comfortable trying on clothes in a store that others might have tried it on first? This is just the beginning…

Talking about new beginnings — the season of Ramadan is going on, Easter just finished, and India celebrated New Year across its various states during the last month. All these are festivals of renewal, of fresh starts, and new thinking. And these new beginnings have never been about a “New Normal”, but have always been about dynamism, prosperity, and excitement. The confluence of pandemic, technology and festivals will push us to adapt, innovate and transform not to some new normal that becomes yet another platform or model for best practices sitting on a power point deck, but to a New Normal that is characterised by its flexibility to constantly evolve for the novel world.

We will be… we ARE evolving to a new standard.

As we rethink and redefine what it means to be “professional,” we will start setting standards of stronger relationships, more resilient individuals, and more meaningful work, and bringing in what makes us human instead of leaving it at home.

Last, and maybe the most important one — Trust. Trust has taken a huge beating overtime. Everyone (from leaders to team members) is blaming each other. The number of fake and unverified news on the internet is flooding. Naive people are blindly believing in self-proclaimed “immortals” without facts. And the game changes every hour. Trust, internal and external, between people and institutions, between teams, between all of us has crumbled. In these difficult times, trust needs to be reinforced, and we need a reset.

This is just the start of the discussion that you should be having with your family, friends, team and company. Those who return to “normal”, by simply reverting to old ways after making through all of this, and glibly call it the “new normal”, will lose out and fall by the wayside. But if we evolve to face this new world with brave and fresh thinking, the opportunities are endless.

We NEED to restart — jumpstart — trust as a new beginning.