Black Swan Events
Wow, the first quarter of 2020 is nearly up. I never envisaged we would all be on "lockdown" with the worst economic crisis in living memory potentially ahead in the coming months as this pandemic wreaks its havoc.
This Black Swan event is forcing us to live and work differently. It's an adaptive challenge of unprecedented nature. We must all learn to adapt and embrace this change as quickly as possible.
My view is that the world of work will change. This forced lockdown, working from home, is forcing us to work virtually using the technology that has been around for some years. Technology that many of us have stayed away from seeing it as a last resort. It's now a necessity. Already people are saying they are more productive working from home. People are benefiting from spending more time with their families and managing to deal with their workload while managing the kids and the dog!
Companies will realise they don't need considerable offices to entice people to give up their time by commuting 90 minutes to get to this big office. Where the majority of the time they're working alone anyway. Or they are in meetings which they could have all done at home anyway and avoided the soul munching commute of 3hrs a day.
From an environmental viewpoint, this forcing event has stopped our unnecessary travel. Pollution is clearing in China, and the fish are back in Venice. The adaptation caused by the crisis may produce new ways to live and operate in a symbiotic relationship with Earth. This very event may help us maintain what we have all enjoyed, and took for granted, for our future generations.
We may stem the tide of climate change by being forced to operate differently.
Think your way into a new way of acting or act your way into a new way of thinking.
Mother nature may be forcing us to act, so we change our thinking for good.
However, it relies on us all to exercise our leadership. A choice to lead through this crisis and come out the other side stronger. A decision to embrace change, find the positive and adapt how we live and work.
A choice to mobilise others outside of our authority. To act in the best interest of our world, our communities and our organisations.
A black swan event is caused by uncertainty, at the time it can't be predicted or foreseen what will happen. However during any event, we all have a choice of how to act. It's an adaptive challenge, its tough work, however, it's the real work we all need to get on with.
This is a call for leadership during these unprecedented times. We don't even know what questions we should be asking, let alone any answers. What we do know is that the world needs us all to lead. To make a choice to embrace what is happening. To learn, adapt and thrive in a new world. To help others make the same journey of discovery.
Image: Photo by dhaya eddine bentaleb on Unsplash
