Ten Behavioral shifts to expect and drive post the current crisis

1.    Education democratization – Until now, education was largely relegated to finding great individuals (teachers) in a great brick-and-mortar building (a school or college), which was limited by high costs (private school/college fees) and archaic assessment methods (SAT scores and ridiculous cutoffs for Board results for college admissions) to a few who considered themselves lucky to get admitted in that school/college. Now, education moving online opens up multiple possibilities; while the current phase is limited to accessing material from one’s own school, I am very sure that students will be motivated to access content from the best colleges around the globe taught by the best teacher. This will create high quality access of best content at lowest cost for all: a truly noble transformation! 

2.    Hygiene – We are forced to relearn the very basics of hygiene: of properly cleaning and washing our hands, of not sneezing/coughing in open spaces, and of not keeping surfaces un-sanitized. While the current need is to be overly hygienic, I am sure that, post this crisis, we will learn to being much more hygienic than we were before it.

3.    Nature and Environment – With reduced travel across the world by planes and automobiles, the air quality index has certainly improved. For a world which had become extremely warm, careless and hurried, nature is forcing us to go back to expected natural behaviors of taking the time to care for oneself, others around us and the overall environment.

4.    Spirituality – With most places of worship currently closed and limited mobility, people around the world are discovering meditation to discover the divinity in one’s own self. This shift towards self-discovery and self-realization will create amazing dividends for humanity.

5.    Home Cooked Farm Fresh Food – With logistics challenged, more food in the markets are from local farms with a reduced farm-to-table duration. The food is fresher, cooked at home and cooked with love in a non-hurried manner with contribution from everyone in the family: the great cooks, the occasional ones and the first-timers.

6.    Family and Friends – After a long time in the history of humankind, families across the world are spending time together and discovering newer depths in relationships and friendships. I just love the video of neighbors joining for a sing along across balconies in Italy amidst this crisis.

7.    Respect and Empathy – The concept of social distancing has an extremely high element of respect and empathy for others. The concentric circles that each of us create are as important for others whom we meet, as it is for us. Recent videos wherein people are developing alternate ways of greeting each other including Namaste, Bowing to each other or Elbow Bumping are all new and interesting ways to greet each other which hopefully continues post the crisis.

8.    Flexibility (Work From Home) – In a recent article, I had highlighted about the efficiency gains for working from home. I believe the recently discovered flexibility in operating from home for work or education, which translates into better productivity as well as better work-life balance, will be a habit to keep.

9.    Work Travel – In recent times, I have had video interactions with customers, investors, analysts and media, which would have been unfathomable in the recent past. I am suddenly global in the same day, with an interaction with a customer in Japan in the morning and a Board member in the US in the evening while sitting in the comforts of my home. I have never felt so efficient and liberated from the vagaries of travel without the worry of visas, flight delays, and meeting scheduling. I now have my calendar open for anyone from anywhere in the world to interact, without worrying about meeting them only through physical travel. I definitely intend to leverage this extensively.

10. Creativity - With the left, logical brain unable to make sense of the events around in a new environment, the right brain is challenged into more use. I have been able to unleash some of my creativity by writing multiple articles in the same week on LinkedIn and Twitter.  It has been creative for me, don’t know about the readers :)