Collaboration is king… long live the king

Everyone is saying that “The world has changed” but we can only speculate as to what that really means.  What we do know is that competition has swiftly been set aside in favour of collaboration.  Trust has increased because we know we now share the same goal – to get through this with as many lives and livelihoods saved as we can.    Within days the internal market of the NHS has been set aside in favour of shared, focussed endeavour.  We see private enterprises focussing on doing all they can to help staff, customers and community not shareholders.  Massive collaboration, trust and kindness - we always had it in us and now it shines beautifully in adversity.  Right now, competition is dead, and collaboration is king.  The question is for how long?

Some believe that the world will change for ever, that history will talk of ‘Before Covid BC’ and ‘After Covid - AC’.  Many point to the end of World War II and the emergence of a global framework of shared values – a liberal international framework which, until the Covid pandemic, seemed to be under threat.   

Many offer specific predictions as to how our lives will change for the long term. Predictions such as...

- Remote working will be here to stay – homes will need to change

- Business travel will largely cease - conferences will change for ever

- Customers and the community will have more voice in corporate governance

- Salaries of ‘essential workers’ will increase and the pay gap will narrow

- There will be more online education provision at all levels

- There will be more localised food production and distribution

I'm sure you will have read many more.  We are not short of predictions…

Many of these trends were spoken of before Covid19 and have been accelerated through necessity. Some suggest that the changes will only last as long as the pandemic does, that we will look back and say ‘oh that was the Covid year’, others believe that our world will change forever.   

Who is right?  Will Covid change us forever?

It depends. It depends on how the pandemic lasts, how many lives it takes, how many of us it affects, how deeply it affects us, how many businesses and organisations close or are changed forever, how well our leaders lead us, how our governments respond, how much we work internationally, how much we learn…. So many variables.  

What is sadly clear is that we face much worse to come and for much longer than we first thought. The only way to face this is through compassion and collaboration, competition won't help. Collaboration will be king for some time because the cliché is true – we are all in in together and can only get through it together.  Collaboration is kind, it is compassionate it is what makes us human. My belief is that the longer collaboration is king the more we will come to love it. And the more we love it the more we will refuse to let go of it 'what this is all over', the more we will want it to guide us through an ‘AC’ world. Collaboration is king, long live the king.