The Pandemic's Gift

I’d like to propose an interesting idea in the form of a question. Is it possible for your organization to shape a post-COVID-19 professional culture during this period of work-from-home isolation? A shared mental model that will allow us to emerge from this socially distanced landscape and not “return to normal” but “return to better?”

Here is a more personal version of the same question. What can you do, individually, given the current situation to “return to better?”

Obviously, I think both are great ideas or I wouldn’t have posed the questions. Cultural and personal improvement is about embracing new beliefs, ideas, and values even more than improving vocational aspects of your job or organization. 

The current situation has provided us two gifts of enormous magnitude, if we can turn off the bad news media and their COVID-19 death scoreboards long enough to realize it. These gifts are precious, and almost seem like they are from a lost era.  Solitude and time to think, two things so many of us have had to live without for so long.

Those of us “of a certain age” can remember the technological siren song from the 1990’s. We were told that this new internet thing and rapidly shrinking magical cellular devices would finally realize Nikola Tesla’s vision. Having our “offices in our vest pocket,” would free us to work from anywhere on our own time. Of course we all know how that worked out. These miracle tools ended up becoming electronic leashes with shock collars and our work day became everywhere at all times. We were robbed of (or we gave away) our solitude and protected time so necessary for deep thinking. But now, thanks to this tragic global pandemic, we have been given a bit of it back. We should recognize this as the gift that it is, and take full advantage of it.

Of course, I realize the e-leashes and shock collars are still attached, but things have changed enough for us to set aside some time – if we are willing – to do some digital detoxification and actually think about important things. Things like who we are as individuals and organizations, what we are doing, why we are doing it, and perhaps most critically, who and what we are becoming.

How many of us working in our normal environments would feel self-conscious if we were “caught” reading a book, or staring off into space as we pondered a deep question?  Now is the time for this vital self-renewing activity. It’s a time for ideas.

The Evolution of an Idea

Although I’ve never been able to fit this notion into my 10th grade teacher’s biology definitions, I know that ideas are life forms – living organisms that require nutrients and time to mature. A few of our ideas still grow to bear fruit, but as our time and reflective solitude continue to shrink, more ideas die at various stages of immaturity, and most never take root and lie dormant - unwatered by time and thought - yet still full of potential.

Ideas go through the same “survival of the fittest” Darwinian process as carbon based lifeforms, but the nutrients for growth are not of the physical world as we normally think of it. They exist in the minds of men and women.

I suggest new ideas go though roughly the same four evolutionary steps in our minds.

The first is exposure to the idea in some form. Ideas can spring from anywhere. My personal muses include song lyrics, classic movie lines, science fiction, and of course, nature. One of my most highly-rated lectures, The Zoology of Safety, came in a rush of insight after watching an ant colony working diligently for several hours on the side of a hill in Colorado. The concepts of redundant simplicity and cooperative specialization had been there forever, just waiting for me to look down and see it, comprehend it, and flesh it out for human consumption.

Step two is to form an opinion about the new idea. This often requires more time, research, and solitude. Sticking with my high altitude ant friends, I wandered through the internet and discovered a host of interesting facts, including that ant colonies are run almost exclusively by females. They not only rule, but do all the work. In most ant species, males have only one function, mating with the queen. While that sounds pretty cushy, they only get to do it once, and then are typically killed and eaten. So there’s that to consider. As I investigated deeper, the core of the important ideas I could share became clearer in my head. I had formed an opinion that this information was valuable to my life’s mission to promote human reliability and worth more thought and development.

The third step in the evolution of an idea is to develop conviction to move it forward. Conviction is critical as it feeds the courage to push the idea to others, many of whom will seek to kill it quickly though ridicule. Make no mistake, new ideas are not welcomed by the change resistant guardians of the status quo. The crushing grip of mediocrity is the fist that strangles most, even those which promise betterment. Conviction to battle past this choke hold is essential for any idea to survive long enough to lead to real change.

The final life-giving nutrient needed for an idea to move into practice is for someone to become committed enough to the idea to do the work required to move from concept into the real word of personal or organizational performance. This is the fourth and final step.

These steps all require time to understand, time to reflect, and time to evaluate our own personal belief structure unbridled by peer pressure, cultural norms, or the work demands of the day. This is best done alone and in a focused manner.

So it was for me over a decade ago, when I sat down to ponder the idea of professionalism.  I was led to this line of thought after reading yet another story (in what seemed like an endless series of them) about the misdeeds of high ranking executives and military officers, all of whom ended up being fired for unprofessional behavior.

I processed though the evolutionary steps of this idea, and after several years, published Going Pro: The Deliberate Practice of Professionalism. The book was written as a guide to what I called “extreme professionalism,” arguing that something important enough to derail high performers for not having enough of it (professionalism), ought to have path illuminated for those who want to get the most of it.

In the years since, the book has done quite well, and there are many individuals and organizations who have embraced it’s concepts and improved. In a word, the research and conceptual approach I worked to move from idea into reality has been validated, but by too few. As I reflect back to Step 4 - committed enough to the idea to do the work required to move from concept into the real word – I realized that my work did not end with the book's publication. I have much work left to do. A book cannot be committed to a cause, but an author can and must, and I've been slacking.

What if we all read the same book?

While we have the gifts of time and solitude, I challenge you to pick up a copy of this book, read it, and take time by yourself and/or with your team to reflect on the ideas of total engagement, personal and professional growth, and giving back to – and through – others that form the heartbeat of this idea of professionalism. 

If there is any interest, I will be happy to engage though this medium or others on any or all of the content, the research behind it, the results I have witnessed, or any other questions that come to mind.

The COVID-19 pandemic is the type of disruption that change agents live for. It is shuffling the cards in what might have been a stacked deck, where the protectors of the status quo or your competitors held all the trump cards. Use this time – and opportunity for solitude – to your advantage, even if we don’t all read the same book. Return to better.

Stay well.

tk