3 POSITIVE LESSONS TO LEARN FROM COVID-19

 

Are you missing those tea or lunch break chats with your office friends? Do you feel that since the time to started working from home your work-life balance has got disturbed? Has your income dropped? Are you worried about job loss post pandemic? Is your business unpredictable now? Are you stressed out about how things will pan out for you post this pandemic? If yes, please read this blog till the end.

11th March 2020 WHO declared COVID-19 as Pandemic. Since then, this dreadful disease has caused a lot of disruption in lives of individuals, families and businesses. For over 1 year now there have been job losses, lives lost, collapsed businesses and all other bad things happening around you since this pandemic broke out.

This pandemic has taught us some very harsh lessons but not all of them are negative. Some lessons, if learned well, can actually benefit us. And we  really need to learn these lessons well because the way we are toying with nature, today it is COVID-19, tomorrow it can be something else and we need to be prepared for the changes these calamities will keep throwing at us. So let’s look at some positives lessons from COVID-19 that we need to learn, understand and adapt so as to keep our careers going and our businesses intact.

 I am Milind Sahanie, 10X Productivity Coach and founder of "New Skills for the New World" Platform. My goal is to increase the revenues of 30000 entrepreneurs by 10X in next 5 years.

Any pandemic or war, or anything that causes a major disruption in lives of people, is followed by a sharp economic recovery. These are catalysts for major changes to happen as stability and status quo is disrupted and rules are broken and twisted because it becomes a matter of survival. Rules generally block Innovations and once rules get broken Innovations happen and these Innovations help overcoming a disaster and also pave way for future progress. Current Covid-19 has sharp parallels with Spanish Flu which hit the world in 1918 killing over 5 Crore of people worldwide. Covid-19 has taken away about 35 Lakhs people from the world so far. Considering world population in 1918, Spanish Flu can be considered much worse than COVID-19. However, Post Spanish Flu, the entire Healthcare System and Industry went through an overhaul.  Something similar will happen post Covid-19.

 I believe the positive lessons or outcomes of this pandemic will be:

 

1.    Work From Home:

 

Many would have reservation about this but I can assure you that this actually is a good thing if executed and managed correctly. How can this be effective is a topic for some other time but be assured this can work in everybody’s favour. We in India are not accustomed to this concept but in more developed economies this has been tested quite successfully. Jobs that do not require you to come to office are best done at home for everyone's benefit. It brings a host of advantages both to the employers and employees, lets look at a few of those:

           A. Reduces Travel Time and thus lesser Traffic on the Road. Definite advantage for                     employees.

           B. Less Cars on the road means less air pollution. Less Petrol imports. Advantageous to              everyone.

           C. Less spending on Infrastructure for Employers. There will be definite reduction in                  cost of Office space, Staff Welfare costs, Electricity Costs and many other costs when                 people work from home. 

           D. Infrastructural pressure on Cities and Metros will be reduced as people can work 

           from their  locations away from these Cities and Metros and still work for employers of

           their choice. Even if they need to travel 1 or 2 hours once a week to come to office, the

           effort will still be worth it. Even Country benefits if this happens.

           E. I am certain that the overall cost of living will also drop, if people work from home.

 

2.    Basic Hygiene sense will Improve:

 

We in India don’t take hygiene and cleanliness seriously. We have forgotten the good manners that our forefathers taught us and nor have we copied the Western manners in its true form. We are kind of stuck in between and because of this we have paid a huge price in terms of loss of human lives as also loss of earnings for a lot of people. I expect this pandemic to teach us:

A.    Maintain basic personal hygiene like washing hands on regular basis, taking proper bath at least twice a day, washing and cleaning all the things that we are going to eat, keeping our surrounding clean, stop littering and many more.

B.  We will learn to maintain safe distances between people and avoid unnecessary touching and crowding.

C.    We will avoid eating at places which don’t follow cleanliness and hygiene standards in their establishments. This will force eateries to improve their standards if they wish to stay in business. 

D. Even Government is expected to take sanitization seriously and will be forced to provide basic sanitary facilities to its citizens.

 Overall Health standards should improve for us Indians.

 

3.    Infrastructural Developments:

 

This Pandemic required our government to move essential supplies swiftly to various corners in the country. Government required to address its citizens using technology since face to face interactions were not possible, Citizens needed to work from home making it necessary for services that will enable them to work from home. Many other infrastructural gaps also got exposed because of this pandemic including gaps in Healthcare Sector. With all these gaps now exposed, I expect Government to address the Infrastructural woes of our country and invest in its upgradation. I hope to see developments in the area of:

 

A.    Telecommunication: I foresee a major upgradation in this area especially in the area of Digitization and Internet. India has still a lot of catching up to do with respect to telecommunication and I believe this pandemic will provide the impetus. Recent announcements made by Government confirms up by belief.

B.    Road and Rail Network: This also will get upgraded as we have realized how important it is to move goods and people in emergencies like these. Again, recent announcements by Rail Ministry indicates that Government is moving in this direction.

C.    Healthcare : This sector has witnessed the worst of the pandemic and I am sure a large-scale resetting will be on the cards once the Pandemic comes under control.

Many such developments will happen which will result in progress of mankind and bring about stability once again.

It is imperative that some Industries will go out of business but those will be replaced by new. Some Technologies and products will fade away to be replaced by newer technologies and products. Any disruption breaks old Habits and new Habits create space for new needs. New normal's are set. It has already started to happen. How many of us were meeting on Zoom or Teams a year back? These were reserved for Corporates. Now even housewives are meeting on Zoom. Online Services, Healthcare, Automotive, Retail, Entertainment, Security, Food Services, Customer Service will see a major shift in their way of working and technologies they use. There are many new Technologies like Artificial Intelligence, 3D Printing, Internet of Things, Cyber Security, Blockchain, Electric Vehicles and many more that are around the corner. All these will require a new set of skills. Yes, your current job may not be available or your current skills may not be required anymore but for sure there will be work for you if you adapt and learn the skills required for the changing world. So do not  despair. All you need to do is to use your time proactively TODAY and start preparing for the skills and mindset required to be successful in the new tomorrow. Who knows, you might even get something much better than what you have today because you were the Early Bird and "Early Birds get the Best Worms".

 If you wish to discuss this further, you can connect with me by emailing directly at NewSkills4NewWorld@gmail.com

If you like my blog please like, comment and share with others and if you wish to bring in 10X Productivity in your Professional Life join my Facebook Group "New Skills for the New World"  by clicking on the link below and get other like minded people to join too. 

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Thanks a lot for staying with me for this entire blog.