Humans have a great ability to use time as an important milestone for communicating hope. In many cases this helps us to see beyond our immediate situation and prepare for a time when things will be better. For example, someone undergoing cancer treatment may have a wish-list of things they wish to do after completing chemotherapy. Or a student may look forward to certain activities after they complete their exams. Having these tangible milestones certainly assists us in framing our thoughts to an environment where conditions are better, pain is less or time is more plentiful.
The challenge, however, is twofold in that many of the problems we face today do not have a defined start and end date. In addition when times are really tough they can put us on a path to inactivity while we wait for the milestone that will save us. For me on self reflection the current pandemic brought on by the COVID19 Coronavirus provided a great example of a situation requiring a different type of thinking.
1. Managing expectations when the end date is not defined
Epidemiologists, scientists, statisticians and all of the above of the armchair variety spent many hours and Excel spreadsheets trying to determine when the world would return to “normal” whatever that meant. For some it meant the production of a vaccine, for some the phenomenon of herd immunity and for some a rapid way of testing and treatment. Common phrases thrown about were that we were expected to hit a “peak” of new virus infections by a certain calendar date.
The significant challenge with all of these scenarios is that there never was a defined start and end date. If a vaccine were to be found, the speed at which it could be reproduced and distributed around the world is still unknown. There is no conclusive evidence that so called herd immunity will be a real thing yet and we have no idea how governments are going to manage society in the interim. And as we begin to accept that there are many of these unknowns we now solidly jump into the world of future speculation on what society might look like when all this happens. Which leads to the second pitfall of generating inactivity.
2. Generating inactivity
Armed with our various statistical scenarios we then default to waiting. Waiting to invest in a project because we want to see what the economy will look like. Waiting to launch a new product because we are unsure what the market will look like. Waiting to eat a restaurant because we are unsure how risky it will be. Avoiding sending our children to school because we are uncertain as to how safe they will be there. Waiting to make a decision on whether to return staff to offices because we are unsure what new infection rates will look like.
While we wait, opportunity passes us by and other entrepreneurs eat our lunch. While we wait some businesses close, some people’s health deteriorates and some children’s educational potential is stunted permanently for life.
3. There is no post Corona
One day it is likely that humans will defeat the Coronavirus. However, up until then life has to carry on. That date when post Corona starts doesn’t actually exist. We made it up and it is a myth. We are dealing with Coronavirus now and need to manage our lives everyday anyway. This is it! The challenges we are facing daily whether in terms of employment, bankruptcies, health, education and food security all need to be dealt with. But they need to be dealt with today and not post Corona. Why is this? Because there really is no post Corona. Every day that we are alive…this is it!
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