Behaviour driven development: Making 'normal' better.

I'm aware we're far from 'out of the woods', and yet some sense of 'normality' is returning for many people across the world... and by 'normal' we really mean 'pre-Covid behaviour'. For some, it's going back to their offices, and for others it's the small things like getting a coffee from their favourite cafe that has reopened. Whatever it is, it's nice to remember all the things you liked about the world (and barista coffee) before lockdown happened.

Despite all the terrible and clearly devastating events, I believe that a small positive is that there is a better understanding of how people work. Even as recently as 10 years ago I remember that nobody ever said the phrase 'Working from home' to someone without that person repeating it back to them using the 'air quotes' action (like when Dr Evil says "Lasers"). Working from home (or WFH) was always the implied shorthand for "Doing some work and watching a lot of daytime TV" and it always bothered me. When I first worked from home in 2003, I actually ended up working longer hours than I would have had I been in an office... part of that was wanting to get the job done, but I'm sure subconsciously I was trying to prove that even though I was working remote, I wasn't slacking off.

It's clear that not everyone has the luxury of working from home as many jobs require direct human interaction or equipment not available in the average household. However, with more people working from home the understanding of what it's really like has grown exponentially. With the lockdown, there have been additional complications and pressures that might not normally be the case... like home-schooling, working in the kitchen and perhaps multiple people all sharing the same wifi connection at the same time. Despite that, there seems to be a better acknowledgement that, sometimes the sound is delayed, the conferencing software crashes or the neighbours have decided to hang pictures, just as you are outlining the Q3 financial reports. As more people experience what it is like and can relate, they empathise with each other...we've basically all experienced what it was like being on the TV show 'Undercover boss', without even realising it.

So let's move away from the phrase "The new normal" and focus on a 'Better future' - by using adapted approaches of remote working and understanding each other, even when we eventually work more closely again. Let's continue to be empathetic, keep all those systems in place that help people remain connected (whatever their GPS location), help colleagues out when they ask a question and make an effort to remember that you might not know what external pressures people are dealing with. You never fully understand what something is like until you experience it for yourself.