COVID "Bounce-Back"; your resilience and purpose will seize opportunities.

There will be those who try to go back to BAU and pretend everything is normal, there will be those that say "retrench and rip out cost" to try survive, and there will be those who build on their forced COVID-resilience training, they who dream and lead a vision, they'll lead with purpose to alter the game to win. I know which camp I'm playing in! What about you?

Flex your grit

For those of you who believe in something called grit, it's something that you develop after you've worked your absolute 'butt' off. Whether it's Execs burning the midnight hour to achieve that IPO or M&A deal, or Creatives pitching and winning that mega-million dollar campaign, or Startup Co-Founders who grind day in, day out to get product-market-fit, and hit revenue, or it's Athletes who compete at the highest level, true grit is what makes us stronger. In a COVID-World, let's be honest, we all established some sort of grit, because we had to radically change, we had to alter our lives like we never have before and this was a test in resilience. Reading this? Well done, you passed the grit test!

As a Startup Founder, two of my multi-year deals with Deloitte as a headhunter, and EY as a partner for Future Directors, took sheer determination and grit when Partner and Directors would often push back, but I continued to go in another door, and pitch it again, and again, until in each case, it was grit when I got the repeatable "no", to get back up and go again.

Post-COVID Bounce-Back and WFH continues

During COVID, as an extrovert, I needed my social fix, so I created a weekly innovators call, and an UN Global Goals (SDGs) ideas jam fortnightly happy hour, these were my two pivots to stay connected. And I've been thinking, now kids are back at school, pubs and cafes are opening,

"What is the 'Bounce-Back' going to look like?"

As an optimist, I can't help but see the positives, the fact that people will have had a reset to find what's truly important. WFH has proven to produce higher productivity, organisations and governments have shifted rapidly into a digital world, and we have all become zoomers. Some might argue that baby boomers created this VUCA by driving a greed driven economy and a disregard for perceived infinite resources, but the reality is there's some big problems to solve. And industry will be key to leading the charge, so to governments will adapt more than ever. So how are you going to react? Or are you going to proactively lead the change? The innovation pendulum is rapidly swinging and it is happening with purpose.

During the week, I was fortunate to join Dr. Irena Yashin-Shaw on her Global Intrapreneurs Institute webinar led by the infectious wisdom of a global innovation leader, and "practicing" Professor of Intrapreneurship at the London College of International Business Studies, Mr. Gareth Bullen, and some of his perspectives are world class thinking, so read on because this is a dopamine hit like no other for your career right now!

The New Normal Adaptive Leadership

Generation X, Y and Z are driven by purpose. To bounce back, everything we need to do is to be creative, if we're not, we (organisations) will die.

By 2027, 75% of S&P500 will be companies we haven't heard of yet!

VUCA was developed by the US Forces, so when we apply this Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous to business, we're confused and worried. If we see VUCA as what Gareth says should be, Visionary, Unbound, Creative, Authentic, we can see opportunity, we see hope, we can live/work with purpose.

He believes organisations will react to post-COVID situations in 3 ways:

1. Retrenchers; cutting off arms and legs squeezing the business into survival mode. But the plane that uses most fuel at take off, these will be the ones that fly high. It’s those who put the most energy, resources and free up talent who will fly.
2. Deniers; there are those in denial, thinking it will be back to BAU, it will come back to normal. They are going to remain idle and continue with the same principles.
3. DREAMERS; The ones who survive are the "DREAMERS", the ones who see opportunities, and don't see threat! The wonderful Peter Drucker said, "culture eats strategy for breakfast". Gareth expresses,

"Culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Culture is the only thing that matters, so tap into the talent".

• That's what we need to do as intrapreneurs and leaders, is to unlock talent to seize opportunity. Even before the Covid-19 virus, the 4th Industrial (innovation) Revolution had brought such complexity and speed of change that top-down strategy is pointless; we must communicate a compelling vision then free everyone to seek opportunity.

Gareth goes on to explain his definition of "Innovation is Everything"; courageous leadership, absolute transparency, build borderless organisations, move from structure to community, and bring the outdoors in i.e. invite Tesco into share ideas with his Healthcare organisation.

As an entrepreneur for one decade, I developed oodles of grit, plus I had to rapidly adapt to beat the market, to hire best talent, so we did things differently. And now more than ever, we need resilient and innovative ways to create new ideas, reinvent business models, create new digital products and develop responsible a.i systems. Get excited because there will be leaders out there that are following Optus, Google and twitter WFH here forward saying, "WFH 2 days I week, I trust you to bring your creativity and deep-work time to us on those days, so go for it". At IdeaScale, we've gone all in on ideas, we constantly have our own ideation sessions, we ask ourselves, 'What ideas can we excel in this WFH / digital workforce? How can we embrace diversity to create new products and drive process innovation?' If you want to lead the change, let’s have a quick zoom to discuss resilient leadership and how to innovate to excel. Together, we can solve the future problems by asking how to crowdsource diversity across the workplace to cultivate the best ideas to create new opportunities.

So, if almost 400 of the future S&P500 companies in 2027, we don't know today, how might we be more resilient to take more risks, create new markets and establish future industries? What's your COVID Bounce-Back ideas and how are you going to adapt in the New Normal?