I was sitting in the traffic on the M25 yesterday staring at 2 miles of red taillights when I was overjoyed (?) to hear a government minister tell me how much he was keen to build back better following Covid 2019. Another case of the video not matching the audio which is becoming a common problem at the moment across the UK. A lot of talk about building back better but little real activity as the country heads back towards some form of norma.
It feels like we are about to miss an opportunity that only comes once (if at all in a generation). We have the opportunity to change the direction we have bene heading and do more to bring in the environment and the disconnected into the decision making processes.
But amongst business and government leaders across the world there is a looming decision that many have yet to take. Are leaders willing and able to change what they do and how the inspire the change we need? Are Leaders going to Lead?
And it is going to depend on what lessons you have taken away from the Covid crisis. Do you see it as an interruption to your sense of direction or do you see it as imbuing you with a new sense of purpose driven by the change that you and millions of others have been forced to go through over the past 6 months. Is everything going to return to the way that it was with a few tweaks around the edges (face masks and less office space for example) or will business and individuals begin to think differently and to really mean it when they say they want to build back better.
Building back better requires a lot of change and change is hard. Change requires a loss of control, it requires anger, pain and acceptance, a grieving for the old and a realisation that the new is possible and that it will be better. It requires significant effort. And the starting point, the loss of control (or the loss of existing norms, processes, relationships etc) is usually the most difficult thing to accomplish. And the bigger the change desired, the more people effected, the more complex the change being sought all leads to a greater desire for the status quo. It is for this reason that the term ‘create a burning platform’ is used so much in business to encourage people to let go of tradition.
So you can imagine how hard it is to change a country. It is hugely complex with vast numbers of people desperately clinging to the past and in many cases for very good reasons – the past works. Freeing up people to look to a new future is really hard. Which is why Covid 19 provides an opportunity that we should not waste.
Covid 19 forced the whole country to let go of the past almost overnight. Something that has probably not happened since the outbreak of the second world war. We have been through the toughest part of the change process already.
As we all adapted to Lockdown in the UK people began to enjoy the silence of less cars and planes, the ability to ride a bike and spend time with family, balancing work with personal life more effectively than they have been able to before. All the while a number of businesses maintained or improved their productivity and at least retained their levels of customer service. Do we really want to go back to the old ways
I am acutely aware that this has been a very tough time for a lot of people who are worried about their future and what and where they will be in a months time, let alone across the timelines required to build back better. But going back to the way we used to be with less in jobs and with a rapid growth in digitisation, automation and robotics coming (companies will be running quickly to automate so as to be less reliant on people who get sick) isn’t going to help these disconnected people either. Maybe creating role in sustainable enterprises that protect and enhance the environment or local communities might actually be a better idea?
I don’t want to think about all the effort people went through changing overnight to cope with the challenges of Covid 19 going to waste. That would be wrong and I want to lead in a different direction? And I hope to be trusted to do so
So will other leaders lead?
The Burble 