I remember back in 2010 I started telling friends and people with businesses they should start adopting digital technologies, how things would change and they had to or risk being left behind. Fast forward to 2016, I gave speeches at universities and organizations talking about the Next Economy and how 10 key technologies would drive and change everything.
In 2016, the organizations that adopted digital technologies were mainly the ones leading their industry. Today, things have changed. The pandemic has changed the world as we know it. For businesses and organization, it has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies because they’ve had to; not because they wanted to.
With that said, from my perspective, it took a pandemic to realize these 8 things:
- Homeschool is going mainstream. Education doesn’t end because schools have shutdown. It continues. Parents across the world have taken the mantle of enablers, creating the conditions for their children to learn while at home, whether through a video conference with a teacher of themselves acting like a teacher.
- Working at an office is mostly unnecessary. Is the death of the office near? No. The pandemic has accelerated work from home, work from anywhere, and it’s here to stay because its worked. People still need to see each other, but the assumption that you need to see each to get work done has been busted wide open.
- Telemedicine should be default. In the future we’ll still need to see doctors face to face, no doubt about it. But the pandemic has made one thing very obvious: most things can be resolved through a video call. This will stick going forward.
- Megacities aren’t the only option for work. Attachment happens, and people will stay in one place for many reasons. Right now people are leaving a metropolis like California for other states because the economics don’t make sense, or simple fear of the pandemic. Driving this is the combination of not having to go to the office and living in places where the economics work; smaller cities are booming.
- Education is better delivered through a combination of personalized online-offline. I love learning and can learn on my own. Most people are not like this. Which is why remote learning is getting a bad rap, there is a group of people who believe it sucks; while others believe it’s the best thing ever.
- Switching careers ain’t that bad. This pandemic has served as a reset button for some people. While some people are jobless, other people have evolved into other careers.
- Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. Many people are jobless, and they’ll remain that way until everything gets back to “normal”. Which is sad, because the pandemic has created opportunities to be an entrepreneur. Yet most people would rather stick to the safety of a paycheck than hustle.
- It takes a crisis for people and organizations to change. This is well known, but nobody has it present when they’re going through crisis or before it. It’s part of the human condition, and will remain this way.
That’s my list for now. What would you add?