WHEN YOU GET A SECOND CHANCE, WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY

This tough time of COVID-19 pandemic has brought down the world to its knees. Everywhere we have been seeing and hearing about how this pandemic has consumed the world, people getting ill and getting vanquished, schools closed, the healthcare system is overrun by a storm of affected, employees lose their jobs, companies face bankruptcy, stock markets collapse and countries spending billions on bailouts and medical aid. And for everyone, whether directly hurt or not, Coronavirus has tested the civilization and has shaken up our psyche, triggering our fears and uncertainties.

All of this, it’s very serious and sad, but there are upsides as well. Therefore, along with the Eric Idle song “Always look on the bright side of life” let's move forward and make the choice to look at the good side of what the crisis gives us. As told by Albert Humphrey who invented SWOT analysis, there are not only threats but also opportunities. When I say opportunities, I don’t mean that the crisis giving the opportunity of generating extra business for companies like Zoom and Go to Webinar that enable virtual meetings, or for Amazon, which is planning to hire another 150,000 employees. The latter is probably more a threat than an opportunity for most, especially for the mom & pop stores that are going through difficult times already.

With opportunities, I mean general opportunities that are available for most people affected by the crisis. When I think of it, I see that the current crisis offers at least seven opportunities:

First Opportunity: More Time

In today’s exhaustive economy time is often seen as the most valuable and spare thing we have. This coronavirus pandemic has shown why: because we have loaded our week with socializing and entertainment such as going to the clubbing, birthdays, cinema, restaurant, bar, sports club, gym, music, festivals, concerts, and whatnot, all in the name of stress buster. Suddenly, all of that is null and void or prohibited, giving us significant amounts of extra time. And still, life goes on. It clearly says how easy it is to clear our calendars. Obviously, this doesn’t apply to the health-care sector and other crucial sectors, but beyond those, it applies to a large majority of sectors.

The opportunity is that we can spend this time on other things—or even better, on nothing and enjoy the free time. Looking at the crowded parks, waste collection points, garden centers, and DIY stores in the last week, many people seem to have a hard time with the latter. Rather than enjoying additional time, everyone tries to fill it instantly with other activities. To grab this first opportunity though, re-arranging how you spend your time and reserving time for nothingness is key. Not just during the crisis, but also after it.  

Second Opportunity: Reflect and reconsider

This pandemic has disrupted our day-to-day lives is a blessing in disguise if we look at it from a different angle From where I see it This crisis has provided us with an opportunity to reflect on things and to reconsider what we do, how we do it and why we do it. Things we took for granted—like going to the gym—are suddenly not possible anymore. Furthermore, most people have had to change their mode of working and work from home instead of from the office. This means that a huge portion of our routines are interrupted.

This offers a great opportunity to rethink our habits and routines and make changes. Now that you haven’t been able to go to the restaurant twice a week, commute 2 hours per day, hang out with your friends or go to a party every weekend, you can reflect on whether you really want to continue doing so after the crisis. The virus forces you to make changes to your daily life that you might actually want to keep also after the crisis.

Third Opportunity: Swiftness and novelty

Necessity is the mother of Innovation. This is the mantra for most of the innovations that the world has seen. This COVID-19 challenge has bought the world to a stage where organizations are forced to innovate. Today most of the organizations are burdened with lengthy procedures, multifaceted bureaucracies and stiff hierarchies making organizational life less than pleasant. This pandemic has forced many of them to break through these rigid structures and act instantly. Suddenly procedures can be hopped or augmented, rules can be side-tracked and decisions can be made more autonomously without formal approval. And suddenly employees are allowed to work from home without direct supervision.

This shows us that as soon as there is a strong enough stimulus, things can change. This leads to remarkable innovations. Not being allowed to meet publicly has diverted for online training and coaching, restaurants, for example, are shifting to delivery mode. And schools suddenly do much of the teaching and even some of the testing online. Online payments have increased multi-fold. This brings the opportunity to create innovations now that can be maintained after the crisis. And it also can help to keep the current speed and innovation mode afterward.

Fourth Opportunity: Reconnect and help

Challenging times offer a great opportunity for social bonding and other ways of connecting to and helping people. Of course, not being able to visit friends or family has increased isolation and feelings of loneliness in some cases. But the feeling of “we’re in this together” has also triggered interesting ways of connecting. Some of those have gone viral—such as we Indians applauding the heroes of the nation by clapping and making noise by tapping on the utensil and ringing bells together from their windows and balconies—but there are many small, local initiatives too to connect and help people who need it.

In the individualized societies many of us live in, this provides opportunities to reconnect and create more social coherence. Not only during the crisis, but also afterward. This opportunity comes with a big caveat though. Parallel to these nice initiatives we also witness how far people go to protect themselves and their families. People hoard food, medicine, toilet paper, and other daily needs without thinking a second of others. However, while it triggers self-serving egocentric behavior too, the COVID-19 crisis does provide us the opportunity to reconnect and show our social side.