CHANGE IS NOT FOR EVERYONE — The pandemic may lock you down to the past

Since the pandemic began, I have been hearing people announcing definitive change. They say the world is changing, mankind is changing, people are changing. 

Right at the beginning, when everybody was told that they had to stay home, a time for deep reflection was widely announced. We would all now have to look inside, towards our inner world, and admit the importance of self-knowledge.

Along with that, when it became clear that viruses do not respect immigration laws, the trade war between the US and China, walls between countries or Brexit, an era of worldwide mutual cooperation was announced. We would now have to overcome our prejudices, our selfishness and admit that we are all one.

The same happened in the world of working. Both professionals and companies announced that the time for digital transformation had come. Professionals and companies would, from now on, willingly and completely recreate their work, leadership, management, business models and products.

However, reality is a bitch.

Less than two months after the lockdown began, people started to realize that human nature does not necessarily abide by beautiful ideals.

We are discovering that deep reflection and self-knowledge won’t immediately turn us into elevated spiritual beings. That might happen, if we were to persist on reflecting for a few years. But, first, we will have to face our fears, loneliness, tendency to give up and many other ugly realities about ourselves — our Shadow.

Worldwide mutual cooperation seemed to be the obvious outcome of the crisis. But are we ready overcome our prejudices? Do we really want to help others? Do we really want our countries to use taxpayers’ money to help other countries? Are we really going to stop the rebirth of nationalism from destroying the newborn globalization? — Globalization is in itself a pretty controversial idea…

Digital transformation is certainly the future. But the future may not cancel the present data brought to us by Forbes Magazine: only 1% of the companies will succeed in this process (1). Will we be disciplined enough, at ease with our solitude and in harmony with those we live with in order to work from home? Will bosses overcome their need to command and control, so embedded in human nature? Will the outcome be that companies finally overcome their shocking resistance to home office? Will companies leave behind “the way they have always done things” and willingly embrace digital transformation?

Human beings are complex beings.

Consciously, most people declare to be open to change, to beautiful ideals, to the future. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why phrases like “the world is changing” and “paradigm shift” are being used so often, to the point of becoming meaningless commonplaces.

Underneath this thin conscious layer, a whole set of unconscious emotions accumulate. Instead of change, people may unconsciously long for “going back to their normal lives”. Instead of deep reflection, people may unconsciously want to simply resume social interaction. Instead of collaborating globally, people may unconsciously want to just stick to their local communities and surroundings. Instead of developing high performance and autonomy, professionals may unconsciously want to simply obey their bosses; and bosses may unconsciously want to just command and control. Instead of digital transformation, companies may unconsciously want to just keep doing things the same way they always did — and according to the World Economic Forum, that number is 99%. I believe that such a number is probably the same when it comes to people.

These unconscious emotions are strong enough to enforce their own will. Among other things, they currently enforce “going back to a normal life”. Given the situation we now face, this is quite dangerous.

A pandemic is a too big thing to not cause changes. People seem to be more inclined to accept, or even wish for, more control from their governments. People tend to use more the internet and technology than before. Companies will probably change their dynamics, either because they experimented more effective changes during the pandemics, or because they will use the opportunity to just fire some people. 99% of companies will fail to accomplish digital transformation, but 1% will succeed and the difference they will make is probably going to be unsurmountable — big tech is made of only a handful of companies. Whatever these changes are, they will be impactful.

This time, to not change is dangerous.

Greek Mythology — this user guide of human life — tells us the myth of Uranus, the god who shows why people don’t change — and most importantly how to change.

Uranus united himself with Gaia every night. He conceived children with her, but never allowed them to be born. One day, Gaia managed to give birth to Kronos. When he was ready, she gave him a scythe. He then castrated his father, took his place and created the universe by placing the constellations on the sky.

This myth is clear. Changing requires withstanding the pain of losing parts of yourself. It requires you to lose your normal life and accept that you will never go back. It requires you to give up wanting everything your way and accepting that you will have to collaborate on a different level. It requires understanding that your previous job may not be there, or your previous work may not be necessary anymore “when this is over” and accept that you will have to recreate yourself as a professional.

People who do not withstand the pain run the risk of, like Uranus, remaining eternally conceiving a new life, but never letting it be born. They will be locked down into the past.

On the other hand, those who do withstand the necessary pain will watch a whole new universe being born in their lives. 

There is no way of changing without change.

References:

1: World Economic Forum. “The Digital Enterprise: moving from experimentation to transformation”. Sep 18th, 2018.

https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-digital-enterpise-moving-from-experimentation-to-transformation