The Covid19 Crisis What-Has-Changed List

Working from home, my boss corrected me is a misleading statement. When defining the wreckage of the past few weeks, professionals like us have been facing a daunting task with very few items in our toolkit. During the #Covid19 response, almost every leader is working in a round-the-clock crisis mode. There is hardly any work-life balance and there is hardly anything the same about either life or work. We must work to identify how things have changed, and how they will never be the same again. In this crisis, it is our job to make sense of it all by perhaps defining - what to start doing and what to chuck out like yesterday's leftovers.

I have made this list to help determine the binary of both, establishing the new normal and dealing with the psychological impact of losing the old normal.

How have things have changed:

1. The allure of control has ended, rather drastically

When I think about what I was doing the day before WHO declared coronavirus a pandemic, I draw a blank. That is how unimportant that office politics is in the larger scheme of things. You can have plans to establish dominance or disciple or even a critical business process, and yet some obscure crowned-virus can have other plans for you.

What to do: Remember the legendary virus

2. We are less isolated than we think we are

Wuhan in China was not on the mind of several people; now, it is a word that can get you thrown off a train or bus. For Pakistanis, China is next door, its slightly more intimate a relationship, but the sense of interconnection can never be more profound than it is now. From China, the coronavirus almost trapesed its way onto Italy, making Europe the epicenter of a deadly disease. From there, with the assistance of digital hot maps, you realize, the Australia wildfire, born only months ago, had nothing on this virus. The conflagration caught onto the world like a bad smell.

What to do: Be respectful of global connections and be dignified about your sense of insularity

3. Crisis can bring out social polarity

I've always been aware of systemic racism, bigotry, classism, and xenophobia, by the way, "go back home" has played out during the coronavirus crisis is a new low for humanity. Organizations are challenged to act fast and establish a zero-tolerance for associating the virus with the Chinese. The Chinese are not a virus; they are a people, as much part of the randomness of the universe as the Spanish Flu or the African AIDS epidemic. I saw the AIDS epidemic wipe out many of my teachers, students, and marketplace merchants when I was growing up in East Africa during the 80s. All my school curriculum, led by donors, was revised to drive home the point of getting immune-compromised and how to stay safe. The region controlled the epidemic successfully by the time I was in my teens, but the blame of "white people" being the cause of the virus never ended really.

What to do: Resist the urge to be simplistic by blaming specific people for a global disaster. It solves nothing.

4. Authoritarianism springs up as the modus operandi

Think of Orwell's 1984. Think of Napoleon's sycophant Squealer, an intelligent creature who "could turn black into white." In the absence of clarity and amidst maddening uncertainty, I admit it is kind of nice to fall back on an authority figure. We would not have to stress about the responsibility of making considered choices. Instead, we would follow someone who looks and sounds sure and blame him/her if things go to hell. For eons, we have relied on this model. From families to organizations, the need to create a purposeful unit of command leads to a savior complex. As we know from the most astute observer of abuse of authority and abuse of office, Orwell says, the truth is that no one knows what is going on. "Can you not understand that liberty is worth more than just ribbons?" - This quote from Animal Farm, Orwell's other classic, tells us that no matter how much disaster strikes, some things are more significant than our individual suffering.

What to do: Do not take away anyone's voice and freedom. If you have accumulated power, this is the time to share it widely.

5. There are some choices still left to us

There are a few things we have been granted to us - our mobility is out the window during these mandatory lockdowns, as is our need to be asked what we wanted in the first place. Facts don't care about anyone's opinions. Nature is indiscriminate towards wealth or poverty, intellect or age, or even social service. The coronavirus is part of the destructive force of nature, but only if you look at it from a very sapiens perspective. We have wrecked the Earth'sEarth's delicate balance by overconsuming and exploitation; the virus is not as random as we think it is. It is born out of a few variables where humans felt they have some rank to pull on everything in their environment. We have a few choices as the force has clicked on the pause button on our behalf. What will you do? What will you give? What do you have most?

What to do: Almost all of us have a craft that no one has. Not everyone needs money or rations; what can you contribute to help the EarthEarth spinning without weeping.

6. You can still show up

What will never be the same again is our sense of overinflated significance and the realization that we can all do our small part. Do your small part. Show up to your online meetings with spirit, do chores around the domestic place that have gone dark with neglect, watch the sunrise, and the sunset without forgetting how the tyranny of time impacts daily wagers compared to how it affects you and your privilege.

What to do: Lastly, be kind to plants and animals - if covid19 has an antidote, it'll come from the very nature that created it.