2020 was business as unusual for everyone. What will 2021 bring to your business?

What are you hoping for in 2021? Will the new year bring more business as unusual, a return to “normal”, or something new?

If anyone had told you on 31 December 2019 that the pneumonia outbreak under investigation by Chinese health officials in the city of Wuhan, China that had “sickened 27 people,” with 7 in serious condition, would lead to a worldwide pandemic and the deaths of over 1.8 million people in one year, would you have believed them?

Would you have believed the year that began with news headlines dominated by Australian bushfires would become the year of social distancing, mask-wearing, curfews, quarantines and lockdowns worldwide?

I certainly wouldn’t.

In January I was preparing to leave my cherished job at UBS Bank as Head of Design Thinking in favour of my new business at weinvolve. I had multi-million swiss franks contracts lined up and ready to go, and a belly full of fire and enthusiasm for the future.

As my leave date drew closer, and the headlines grew scarier, I confess to having had a few misgivings. Of course, I questioned the sanity of jumping ship in the face of what scientists were warning could be a major international health and economic disaster.

But I had clients lined up. I had a program to offer that I knew could reach more people through weinvolve than through UBS. I also knew that if things turned out to be as bad as the scientists were warning, people would need that program more than ever.

Because the Me-to-We framework I had devised was developed over twenty years of study and working in the fields of psychology, business strategy, innovation, talent development, change management, design thinking and human-centered design. It’s a system designed to anchor business in the eternal principles of ethical, sustainable, human-first and future-forward relationship building and problem solving that never goes out of fashion. In other words, it’s designed to help people not just survive but thrive in even the most challenging conditions.

So, while launching in 2020 was always going to be a challenge, it was a challenge I was well equipped to handle. After all, I always work on the principle of practicing what I teach, and leading by example. If I couldn’t do it, how could I teach it?

Even so, launching a new business into the headwinds of a growing global pandemic gave me a few sleepless nights. Especially when the multi-million-swiss franks contracts I had lined up fell through at the last minute due to the first national lockdown in Switzerland.

Suddenly adrift, with the world hunkering down to wait out the Coronavirus pandemic’s first wave and people being asked to stay home, our nascent company started a Facebook Group neuron@work to help entrepreneurs and business owners in that challenging time.

We ran a 60-Day Transformation Challenge that walked group members through our Me-To-We Strategy. We compressed our multi-thousand-Franks year-long program into 60 days, and gave it away for free as our Act of Kindness to help people to navigate in totally new circumstances. We set mini challenges, weekly challenges, and ran a point-based competition throughout.

The group took off immediately, and quickly became an engaged, lively place. Friendships and business partnerships were formed, and new businesses and products were created from scratch. The group is still going strong with over 600 members today. It’s a vibrant community where people share ideas, and push themselves to grow and thrive even in the current challenging economic climate. The program has generated over 300,000CHF in sales in under a year, despite the pandemic.

I go live every morning at 6:20 CET for approximately ten minutes in our Win YOUR Morning Wake-Up Call. I talk to the group in real time, answering their questions and comments. I share graphics that reinforce the day’s message, and encourage members who share their progress with me.

But here’s the thing: It’s not MY group.

Let me put it another way: The group isn’t FOR me.

It’s for the members. 

The Me-to-We Strategy guides people and businesses to co-create value by involving clients, customers, and other stakeholders in the design thinking and co-creation process. It explores Human-Centered Design. We hack human value and translate it into business opportunities. I push people to learn fast and make mistakes to refine their offerings. I teach people to get out of their comfort zones, to ask questions and explore like a 5-year-old, and to generally disrupt conventional thinking. Create value for their clients and increase profit for their business under any circumstances.

Conventional thinking at the moment seems to be focused on hope that the nascent coronavirus vaccines will magically return the world to how it was before the pandemic began. That things will return to “normal.”

That won’t happen because so many businesses have gone under during the past year. There’s been a massive transfer of wealth into the hands of bigger businesses. Entire industries have been shuttered.

It’s naive to think that as vaccination programs roll out and the second round of lockdowns ends, everyone is just going to go back to what they were doing before the nightmare began.It is a part of evolution and moving into next level, it is a part of growing and adaptive leadership is part of it. Rather than going back to normal we navigating as unusual.

Some can’t because their jobs are gone. Some won’t, because they have tasted a new and better way of working, one that honours family relationships and home life over career. And some will have learned new skills, started new businesses, and embarked on a whole new life during the interim.

So, I ask you, what do YOU want from 2021 in our new Linkedin group: https://www.dhirubhai.net/groups/8960621/

• Do you want Daily Challenges that help you grow?
• Do you want to join the Win YOUR Morning Wake-Up Call for a daily dose of CAN-DO? 
• Do you want to learn Design Thinking and Human-Centered Design while having fun? 
• Do you want to get out of your comfort zone and push yourself to grow, and to add real value to the world while making a profit?
• Do you want articles with eye-catching graphics?
• Do you want video over text, or text over video, or both?
• Maybe you want to know how to implement the Me-to-We strategy into your organisation? 
• Or how to reinvent your business and make good profit while generating great value?
• Maybe you want to work on live projects, share your problems, and get ideas? 
• Or maybe you want to get feedback on your business?

Whatever it is you want, I want to hear from you.

Because while 2020 was the year of Neuron@work on Facebook, in 2021, weinvolve is coming to LinkedIn.

I want to hear from you so that I can shape the group here to meet the needs of its members. So, let’s talk.

Wishing you a wonderful last day of the year 2020,

Wioletta Simonet