Making sense of crazy times #1
A “sudden” pandemic, global lockdown, previously unthinkable changes in our behaviour to isolate ourselves from one another, wearing masks like we might glasses or a sweater, fear, anxiety, widespread unemployment, mental health issues on the rise…Or perhaps for you it has been a welcome period of no commuting, being at home with your loved ones, time to yourself, doing the work you would have normally done at the office through screens from the comfort of your own house or garden, the opportunity to slow down and hear the birdsong. However you are making sense of the last few months in this pivotal 2020, it is clear all round that massive changes are already well underway in how we organise ourselves and interact to flourish as socieites, both with one another and our environment. These trends were there before COVID-19 and have been accelerated by the collective rabbit-hole we are all still in.
This is the first in a series of posts which will offer different contexts, ideas and patterns to help us make sense of WTF is going on. “Digital myopia and the coming of post-industial civilization”, produced in 2019 by the Silicon Valley-based thinktank, the Post Lean Institute, describes some of those massive changes we are currently experiencing. It then goes on to present opportunities and threats at different scales — individual, organisational and national.
What rings true for you from the white paper? What disconfirms things you believed to be true? If you had read this paper in 2019, how might your response have been different?
We’ll be back in a few days with more thoughts. Enjoy the read!
