The holidays have concluded and we’ve closed the book on the utterly unforgettable year that was 2020. Now we happily turn our gaze on a brand new year. With multiple vaccines against Covid-19 on the horizon, we hopefully will soon get a handle on the terrible pandemic gripping our societies still.
What lessons as businesses and communicators have we learned that we can take into the new year?
I see three key themes that keep coming up time and again, in conversations with my clients and in my own business dealings. The myriad crises we’ve weathered in 2020 have revealed us humans to be:
- Surprisingly Resilient: we can bend further than we thought without snapping. Individuals are capable of taking on new and increasingly complex challenges as home and professional lives converge more than ever.
- Creatively Resourceful: under strained conditions, what creativity people have shown in solving problems in innovative ways. We are all entrepreneurs now, using many of the digital tools available to find new ways of working, learning, moving goods and services around.
- Innately Social: just when it seemed people were hopelessly isolated glued to their phones (think cell phone zombies crossing the road, couples at restaurants sitting in silence as they both scrolled through their devices) we were confined, and rediscovered our deep need for meaningful connection.
Now we are grateful that technology provides tools that help bridge the distances. It can bring grandparents and children together. Leaders and their team members. I expect that in 2021 we will not take for granted again the simple act of being together face to face.
