COVID-19: An invitation for the world to do better, be better.

As COVID-19 takes over our lives, social media is full of posts reminding me to “Never waste a good crisis.” And while it seems flippant, given the scale of the crisis, it actually speaks to the resilience of our community that its response is ‘no matter how bad this gets, let’s use it to do better, be better.’

Globally we’re being forced to reevaluate what it means to conduct business as usual. With state borders closed and all but essential services in lockdown, something exciting has happened. The digital revolution that was (at best) a decade away, has happened all at once. Dissolving long-held social barriers to remote work, online education and global collaboration. Organisations, educators and individuals have all been required to ask ‘how can I/my team/my community continue to connect, communicate and grow together meaningfully while in lockdown?’

It may then come as no surprise that the only thing more in demand than online collaboration tools right now is toilet roll:

• Zoom became the most downloaded business app in the US on iOS for the first time this month, at the same time it was the top business app in 11 other markets. (The №1 US business spot had previously been occupied by the job search site Indeed.) Source: Vox
• In the last week, Mindhive saw discussions launched by new members in Boden (Sweden), Ontario (Canada), Wellington (NZ) and New York (US) - only one of which had any mention of coronavirus.
• The Duchess of Cornwall and I both signed up to HouseParty this week. Due to their notification setup, I’m seeing 15–20 people in my circle of friends arriving ‘In the House’ every day.

The most exciting thing about these trends is they demonstrate two things:

• Organisations aren’t just using this time to find immediate solutions for adapting to coronavirus measures or impacts. They’re committed to ‘never wasting a good crisis’ and using the time to think bigger on questions or issues that matter to them — World Happiness Awards, Virtual Reality for mental health, growing talent and cleaning up old fuel sites.
• It’s not just professional collaboration tools people want. Individuals want fun ways to maintain social ties with people they care about, but they also want to put their energy to making a difference. People are seeking connection and purpose in uncertain times.

I’m going to use this time to help as many people as I can access tools that will help them keep thinking bigger and questioning ‘business as usual’ long after the restrictions have lifted.

Let’s not waste this crisis — let’s use it to be better, do better.