Is a post COVID “golden era” ours for the taking?

And so endeth another season of Change Happens. Gosh I've loved it. And as 2021 wraps up, and I look back at the Change Happens podcasts we recorded this year, I’m reminded of a narrative we’re hearing a bit at the moment.

?It says that after a global crisis – like say, a pandemic – there follows a golden era.

Take for instance, the devastating bubonic plague of the Middle Ages. When its spread was finally halted, suddenly we had the Renaissance, an epoch bursting with culture, art, music and literature. There were revolutions in political thinking, discovery – by all accounts, it was a glorious age.

?Another oft-quoted historic example is the Spanish flu. From 1920 when the worst of the pandemic was over, we ushered in the “Roaring 20s”, a decade of economic and cultural prosperity, enabled by fabulous new technologies.

?Now, call me tired and a little bit lockdown and ‘track-and-trace’ weary after these last couple of years, but seriously - who doesn’t want to live in a golden era?

?So, after COVID, we should expect more creativity, more visionaries, more innovation than we’ve ever known, right?

?Well yes, but it’s bit more complicated than that. Those golden-age Renaissance innovations we think of today - everything from fine arts and weaponry, to trade and banking – actually had their roots in the Middle Ages. So rather than a clear before-and-after, it was more a continuum of change, with multiple changes reinforcing each other.

?To forecast how our lives and businesses will change most profoundly following the 2020 pandemic, we need to not just look at radical, rapid changes, but at the existing trends that achieved lift-off in the pandemic.

?And who better to illuminate those than my podcast guests?

?Reflecting on the conversations I’ve had with awe-inspiring leaders and change makers in this year’s Change Happens podcasts, I remember straight-talking people from all walks of life, from all sectors. They shared their experiences with a generosity and candour that has warmed my heart and continued to teach me a ton about change.

?What do they say about the post-pandemic age? What do their leadership styles and fresh perspectives say about the future of organisations? For me it distils down to a list of human themes that never seem to change, however much the world does.

?This is how these leaders are steering their ships into a golden age – or at least, a transformed age, as the waves of change keep rolling; and how they keep afloat when storms threaten to engulf them.

"You're ok now because you told people that you weren't ok a month ago."

Hugh van Cuylenburg founding director and facilitator of the Resilience Project, reminded me that the irony of pretending you’re OK and not being honest with how you’re travelling often leads you to being even more not OK. For Hugh, supporting wellbeing during lockdowns, cognitive overload and loneliness comes down to things like allowing humility to give way to curiosity, harnessing humour, and #GEM?(gratitude, empathy and mindfulness).

?“The world is built by people no smarter than you and I.”

?Part philosopher, part change maker, part tech entrepreneur, Adam Jacobs, co-founder of?THE ICONIC?and?Hatch encouraged me to look at the world critically – to challenge everything, pointing out how many of us are operating on auto pilot. With the belief that each of us has the same capabilities to build the future as anyone does, Adam’s infectious motivation is to not just participate in a world that’s changing, but to be an influence on a world that’s improving.

"We need every little girl in this world to wake up and have the same opportunity as every little boy. We need every child in this world to wake up and have the same opportunity no matter where they’re born."

?In an age where equality and access gaps are just getting bigger, we can all get inspiration from Audette Exel AO, founder and chair of Adara Group. Listening to Audette is like sitting through a masterclass on what it means to use power and influence to effect world changing outcomes, all the while leading with heart and soul. Her lessons on what it means to lead from behind and in front, to bridge seemingly disconnected worlds, to sew together for-profit and for-purpose business models and to use compassion and connections to drive social change are profound.

“There was no structure really but my goodness, there was goodwill.?Of course, there was and so how do you bottle that??How do you bottle the goodwill that comes from everyone in a crisis where they just want to help?”

?If anyone knows about crisis, change, leadership and inclusion, it’s?Lisa Paul AO PSM. Lisa led the domestic response to the Bali bombings, led the?Business Council of Australia?"BizRebuild" initiative during the Australian bushfires and has served as a Secretary in Federal Government under five prime ministers and nine cabinet ministers! She talked about how working through crisis and change led her to become a CEO who was a culturalist rather than a structuralist - investing in people and behaviours to drive outcomes.

"You just have to front up....so I did".

?Author, lecturer, change agent and former Victorian Police Commissioner?Christine Nixon is a person of many firsts: a passionate pioneer and a brave leader who spoke to me about what it was like to have misjudged a situation. She also spoke about effecting change when you're the "lowest of low" and there's nothing to lose, versus using power and influence to effect change from the top.

?"Now you know what you know, what are you going to do? How are you going to support us in creating this change?"

This was the question?Mundanara Bayles AFHEA MAICD posed during our discussion, and it is one I have continued to reflect on. She is the co-founder of?Black Card LLC, which provides cultural awareness training and business consultancy to corporate Australia. Walking between two worlds, displaying the resilience inherent in being part of the oldest living civilisation, and demonstrating the power of storytelling, Mundanara challenged us to all consider the question “what kind of honourable ancestor will you be to our future generations?”

"I have a healthy respect for failure, because from those humiliating moments, have come the most illuminating moments, about myself, about other people, about organisations, about society."

?Lord Mayor of Melbourne Sally Capp is a self-confessed "serial have-a-goer". Her positive reframing is both inspiring and infectious, combined with an unshakeable conviction and a proven track record that she can make change happen.

Someone else with a positive take on failure is food creator and publisher Donna Hay

?? “I always say to myself at the end of the year, ‘how many failures did I have this year?’ Because if I haven’t made failures, it means that I’ve been too comfortable, I’m just doing the same thing again.”

?Donna also talked about what it was like to be catapulted into everyone’s homes during lockdown via ZOOM cooking lessons, and whilst she found the immediate and unexpected intimacy a challenge, it forced her to “get over my highly-scripted self”.

?When?Garth Callender MBA GAICD?asks,

“What happens when your boss gets blown up unexpectedly?”

..it feels like a metaphorical question, but in his case it’s literal. Australia’s first serious casualty of the Iraq war, now an author and managing director of Trebuchet Pivot, Garth has applied lessons and training as an Australian officer to his business life. For him, learnings about risk come from live experiences – he had a lot to say about resilience, curiosity, empathy, decision-making and the role of family in life choices.

?“People would say what do you mean, four guys in Star Trek uniforms are going to America to break it, how’s that going to happen? That’s enough for us, we’re all spurred on.”

?Former MD of?The Wiggles, entrepreneur, documentary maker, and resilience coach Mike Conway embodies someone motivated by the word ‘no” – using it as impetus to prove otherwise. His sense of wonder, optimism and appreciation for fun and play serve as a strong reminder of the power of carrying those child-like attributes into our grown-up worlds.

?“If you're not happy before the medal, you won't be happy after the medal".

?Olympic-gold-medal-winning rower Jessica Morrisson talked about not attaching happiness and identity to gold medals. Also, in the face of severe injuries, a lost swimming scholarship, re-building in a new sport, and the challenges of a pandemic-impacted Olympics, Jess gave me insight into the power of the athlete’s mindset and the value of strong coaching. Oh – and her favourite quote, reflective of her wryness and pragmatic view still makes me laugh when I think about it: “If the grass seems greener on the other side, it’s probably astroturf”.

?“Those who tell the stories – rule the world”.

That quote has been credited to Aristotle, Plato and others, but it is the cornerstone of everything that author and founder of Jargon Free Fridays Gabrielle Dolan believes and does. Gabrielle outlines the attributes of what makes a good story – one of which is relatability. It has since had me wondering about this pandemic. The largest collective change experiment of our living memory – such a high level of relatability globally – what will be the stories we tell ourselves from here?

"In many ways it’s a bit like the kids in the playground standing up to the bullies… nine nuclear weapon states have had the other countries turn on them and say, these weapons are not okay."?

Margaret Beavis is director of Quit Nukes: Nuclear Weapon Free Finance and co-chair of?International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)?Australia. In helping convene United Nations meetings, Margaret knows about the power of partnerships and platforms, but as she well points out – alongside the data and research, it is the human stories that create the cut-through. The visceral stories of loss and heartbreak, of pain or renewal that ignite the impetus for action.

“If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.”

These are the words that underpin the way Chairperson of the?Australian Sports Commission?and co-founder and principal of construction company,?Buildcorp Josephine Sukkar AM operates. Coming from a person who has gone very far, Josephine knows how to work with her husband, her teams, governments, education and associations to find common grounds for change. In her inimitable way, Josephine challenges us to, “Be brave in asking for change!”

?“The greatest gift that we’ve got when we are trying to achieve change is momentum.”

?Globally renowned thought leader, author and clear momentum-maker Holly Ransom shared many stories and lessons of driving micro and macro changes. She also talked about changing the narrative of who leaders are - that we can all be leaders no matter what our role or title. This discussion traversed everything from how to evoke the “why” of others, curiosity, challenging the status quo and the power of the collective. Her quote from (to her knowledge) anthropologist Margaret Meade still stays with me - “Never doubt that a group of thoughtful and committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Human above all

Like the Middle Ages flowed into the Renaissance and sowed the seeds of change, many of these insights and leadership philosophies existed in a pre-COVID world. But the pandemic has made us more accustomed to a velocity of change we couldn’t have imagined before. It has made this kind of change – technological and otherwise, feel do-able. At the same time, it has brought fundamental human needs into the spotlight.

?Technology is the enabler, but not the be all and end all. Mundanara Bayles knew that when she told us that the only way to create change is if we can actually come from a human level, drawing from our own experiences.

?Will CBDs still be the centre of office life? How will the nodes in supply chains be altered? What role will public transport play? Will we replace handshakes with elbow bumps? Those shifts in business practices, consumer behaviour and social norms are still working themselves out.

?This golden age of innovation that awaits us is real – we’re already seeing the positives that can come out of a devastating crisis like COVID-19. But all of us will need to follow the lead of the visionary leaders I met in 2021, and keep humans at centre.

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To listen to the Change Happens podcasts featuring these guests, click here to listen on: Apple:?https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/change-happens/id1504191551?or Spotify?https://open.spotify.com/show/0kbVFkhthSc7lL0g5suZha#:~:text=Change%20Happens.,it%20or%20not%2C%20Change%20Happens.

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