I could have given you a month-by-month of what 2020 was going to look like back in December of last year. I had it all planned out and itemized in my calendar – work events, social gatherings, holidays, you name it. It was bursting at the metaphorical seams.
Even when the headlines were making the rounds about this novel Coronavirus from China, as if I would have imagined it would drastically change our lives. I recalled the outbreaks of SARS and Swine Flu when Coronavirus hit and I said: “Well, this will come and go like those ones. Water off a duck’s back.”
It’s been well over six months since lives were locked down the world over. We are in the last quarter of the year and everything remains in flux. Our zig-zagging emotions, are no different. For a planner like me, this smudging of time and not knowing how to navigate it, has shook me to the core. Our collective wish for everything to return to normal, is normal. But, typical questions like, “where do you see yourself in a year’s time?” is now completely void.
We’ve all been forced to fast track our ability to assimilate and drop our ‘creatures of habit’ mode. It may feel totally paralyzing to think of rising above the weirdness that is 2020, but I think we have it in us to beat this thing. It is however, a huge drain on the brain – after all, stability allows us to function at our best. All this new way of being, expecting the unexpected and adjusting to uncertain, is hard work. Add to that, it’s a grieving process: the loss of what was normal, familiar and comfortable – I once read that familiarity is joy and unexpectedness is pain. Never has that felt truer than in this year.
How We’ve Had To Accelerate Our Ability to Assimilate
There hasn’t been much escape from the negativity in the news. Many of us faced the pandemic with a sense of denial to simply deal with it – but even that has been compromised because the virus is still here and things remain uncertain. There’s no escape. So, since we can’t control the current situation, how do we find ways to cope and move forward?
Striving for happiness seems a tad woo woo and unrealistic. Resilience, on the other hand, has a much greater life span and vital for weathering the storm.
Let’s give ourselves some credit in the first instance – humans can thrive during unexpected changes. it’s like we have this untapped reserve of accelerated brilliance that only presents itself when we are in fight or flight. During the pandemic, individuals and companies have been forced to pivot with new processes that they have accomplished with aplomb. Many had no choice but to migrate online and offer a digitized version of their services – whether that was through Zoom or developing an entirely new ecosystem online.
Shift HAPPENS. You’ve heard us say this many times with our megaphone. Even without a pandemic, shift happens but this year has accelerated the need to face change and assimilate with greater elasticity and resilience. The changes the pandemic has brought on, has altered the world so drastically that all companies need to undergo a transformation to avoid going extinct. As a Strategic Digital Transformation Consultancy, we come in and assess where a company is, understand where they want to be, and create the roadmap for how to get there.
In and amongst all the uncertainty in the world, digital transformation provides a sense of stability and knowingness that you are moving with the times, allowing you to grow. Digital Transformation is not just an IT or marketing initiative, but a commercial strategy and the first step of any organization to truly embrace and leverage new technologies along with accelerated changing consumer behaviors (how they have changed, as well!) to grow existing business and expand into new products and services.
But, if you really want some answers to the how and why of the status quo, our Commercial Analysis Software Tool (CAST) is the engine that equips you with a complete accelerated 360° data-fueled and simulation supported picture of the world, your competitors, your customers, and how wider events and the market, is and will affect your business.
The approach, models and methodologies developed in CAST have been verified by the U.S. Government and independent bodies as having over 90% accuracy in predicting and shaping thousands of political, social, economic and business outcomes. The implementation of CAST is the closest we can get to predicting the future with a contextualized understanding of where we are and where we want to be. Think of it as the data-backed crystal ball you always wanted to have.
The most important attitude to maintain throughout these massive changes in the world, is an open mind. We can’t expect to solve the crisis, instead, we have to learn to deal with it. Resistance does not breed immunity to the situation. Resilience and adapting to change, ensures sustainability and legacy survival.
Evoke International.
