If the coronavirus crisis is to bring about anything positive, the same wishes are often expressed. For what really needs to happen now. For example:
- We have more time for each other, for our loved ones and family, for our hobbies, for tidying up our homes – all very nice. But the enthusiasm doesn't last long, especially when you have a family to feed, a business to run, projects to manage, or other concerns about shaping the future.
- Digitalization is experiencing a strong boost – suddenly, digital technologies are finding their way into areas of life and work at a speed that previously seemed impossible. This second area appears exciting and interesting.
But: Is this really sustainable? What are the chances that this development will actually continue? Here are a few thoughts on this.
Digitalization everywhere – suddenly everything seems possible
Home offices, video conferencing, digital offices, digital schools – until March 2020, many of these developments seemed like nothing more than bold dreams that would fail due to the same old obstacles: “It won't work, we can't do it, we don't want to” – the answers often boiled down to the same thing. And then suddenly, within a matter of days, everything had to happen very quickly.
- Digital communication: People look out at the world through their monitors. If you want to reach them now, you can almost only do so digitally. With social media platforms, tools, apps, the web. Anyone who doesn't have a digital solution ready now has a problem and can no longer communicate.
- Online shops: Videos of crying retailers went viral and testified to how much had been missed before. It could be so easy for every retailer, and suddenly it works for them too: you set up a simple digital sales channel, even if it's just a WhatsApp address at first. But this often isn't professional and only has the charm of improvisation. This means that anyone who doesn't pay attention now and urgently upgrade could quickly become obsolete.
- Home office and organization: This happened really quickly because it had to. Many companies managed to do it in no time at all. Tools that used to take months to get approved, let alone purchased, were suddenly available and often ready to use right away. Everyone involved is still extremely willing to overlook initial difficulties. The focus is on having fun and enjoying working together. The hope of getting through a difficult time together makes many things easier and possible. Companies are happy and communicating.
- Digital schools and digital learning: It was as if it would never be possible, as if people would resist it until the end of time. As if students would have to march to school with heavy bags forever. And then suddenly, digital learning units, colloquiums, teaching materials, and much more became possible. Students learn, teachers teach digitally, and it works—who would have thought?
- Digital medicine: This is definitely where the most work needs to be done. Simply because doctors in private practice currently have so much to deal with in terms of other acute problems, some are still in the early stages of using communication technologies, guidelines and frameworks have to be taken into account, and sometimes people may not dare to “just do it.” For example, digital consultation hours for patients and doctors are often still real adventures.
- Trade fairs, presentations, conferences: still in their infancy, but there is potential here. Organizing a conference like a digital rock concert requires imagination, technological knowledge and equipment, and a flair for communication and marketing. Some pioneers are already very good at this – e.g. Digital Masterclass, OMR and others. But traditional trade fair providers and companies are often still not using alternative solutions here either. Simply because they often still lack the imagination to see how their clients can be reached, so the trade fair is canceled and the business doesn't happen.
- Digital payment – ne me touche pas, don't touch me. Just a few weeks before Corona, cashless payment seemed to some, in Germany of all places (!!!!), like a wet dream of bold digital dreamers that no one here (!!!!) really believed in. And today? Suddenly, you can pay in every small shop without touching potential virus carriers.
The opportunities – what wonderful things can come of this
At DRIVE, we are experiencing it ourselves: we have been digitally connected and organized since the beginning, working and communicating with each other in this way. And now, from one day to the next, everyone went to work from home, and it worked right from the start. With a lot of fun, enthusiasm, fully functional project and job management, easy communication via email and chat, video tools, and more. But we also have it easy: we are a pretty good digital agency, we think :), and we are experienced on top of that. Everyone here is proficient with the tools and learns new ones super fast. This puts us and many others in a special situation that gives us positive advantages. These are as follows.
Values that are “valuable” for working in the company are experienced, developed, and reinforced
- Respect for one another, across all levels and teams
- Responsibility for one another and for joint projects
- Care and consideration for clients, their objectives, and tasks
- Experiencing community: People look forward to seeing each other, to interacting with their colleagues, value the time they spend together, and make the most of it
- Trust in colleagues with whom they want to achieve something and on whom they rely
- Trust in the company and the employer, whose role is to ensure that jobs are secure; in clients, whose demands and commitments also enable trust in the future and thus provide prospects
- Pride: in one's own work, in the results achieved together with others
- Courage to tackle new things, to take on further new projects and technologies
- Joy and meaning: Work is seen as meaningful; I can organize my day myself, freely and not completely, set my own goals, and achieve them
Further advantages of digitalization, briefly and in general
- All processes are becoming digital, finally
- Important tools are being introduced for the long term
- Modern ways of working are becoming firmly established, such as working from home instead of in the office, video conferencing instead of traveling, and much more
- Time is used efficiently: working instead of traveling and wasting time
- Money is saved and can be used differently = better: travel, rent, and so on
- New business opportunities become possible. Here we will simply refer to the hundreds of thousands of digital articles on the subject. However, the situation is different for every industry, every business, and every company and must be considered individually.
For us digital natives, most of the advantages are obvious: if you do digital right, you simply become faster, better, more effective, more economical, and, at least in the medium term, more successful—so you should have done it anyway, right? And why hasn't it worked so far? And now everything is supposed to be different all of a sudden?
It's not impossible
At some point, even the worst crisis will be over. What will happen then? Will the wonderful achievements of digital technology endure? Will everyone continue to live and work digitally, as is currently working so well? It's possible. But there are a few risks lurking along the way. These include the following, for example.
- Mistrust of new ways of working: Not everyone in every company as a whole thinks that working from home is a good thing. Some don't appreciate it at all and want to see their employees and colleagues every day. They are going along with it now, but at some point after the coronavirus pandemic, they will quickly turn back the clock. Where does this mistrust come from, and what could the reservations be?
- The employee feels exploited: He/she works more than agreed, at least in his/her own perception. The employer demands more and more, especially in times of crisis, and exploits him/her. That's just the way the structures are: one person provides their labor, the other pays for it. Doesn't that define the entire relationship?
- The employer feels exploited: Employees are taking advantage of the situation, are unable or unwilling to motivate themselves sufficiently, whether real or perceived barriers are preventing results. At a certain point, are we all just selfish, only looking out for our own interests? A great deal of trust is needed to resolve or prevent conflicts in this area. If this trust does not exist, it is very difficult, especially when the desired results fail to materialize.
- Unrealistic plans are now particularly significant. What could previously be balanced out through pressure, power, or simply the next annual plan or a new quarterly project now inevitably leads to conflict.
- Technology is not cooperating: Wi-Fi is down, the internet is out. That's it for digitalization. And if the foundation is not right, see above for values and advantages, what remains? Exactly. And especially in Germany, we are apparently not as well equipped as we would like to be.
- Preserving the status quo seems safer to many than embracing the new and unknown. The idea that the world will be completely different after coronavirus, and therefore better in at least some important ways, is very romantic and possibly unrealistic. On the contrary, the longer a crisis lasts, the more valuable it may seem to many to return to the previous status quo. Despite some negative aspects, the previous situation at least provided security and therefore confidence. Have we really learned that the foundations are fragile and that everything can quickly collapse? Let's just hurry back to the comfort zone! Many will have lost something they want back, or something of equal value.
- Many companies will simply have collapsed – the longer the economic shutdown lasts, the more likely it is that many companies will not be able to meet their next or subsequent payment deadlines and will not survive. This will have serious consequences and losses for those affected, their clients, partners, employees, their families and communities, and all the institutions associated with them. This can be traumatic for a community as a whole, and there are many examples of this. Creating something good out of this is anything but inevitable and requires great creative effort, starting with the formulation of goals, how to secure the lives and livelihoods of all, what values this should be based on, and what instruments can be used to achieve this.
- Digitalization itself is not only “nice,” but can also be used repressively. Apps for time tracking, monitoring routes, times, recognizing and logging activities in the workplace—legal regulations currently stand in the way of this. But how quickly such regulations can be overturned is often only a question of a valid reason and the right argument at the right time.
- Many people also want to experience each other in real life and in person, not just communicate with each other via monitors, keyboards, and pointers. Especially after COVID-19, this need will be very strong for many people. And that alone will be enough in many organizations and institutions, and very quickly everything can go back to the way it was before. With everything that was good, but also everything that was not ideal. And then, very quickly, many supposed or real advantages will disappear again.
There are dangers lurking along the path to the brave new digital future of a supposedly or genuinely better world. So do messages about this often express the sender's pipe dreams rather than realistic possibilities with real prospects? We already saw this when the internet was introduced: if you ask the first generation of internet pioneers today, they will tell you about shattered dreams and hopes for a better world that never came to pass – the revolution devoured its children very quickly. Why should it be any different now?
How do we shape the future? Digitization is not an end in itself
What can we learn? How do we approach it, how do we move forward with digitization? Not just AFTER the crisis, but how do we survive it ourselves on the way to the end?
1. First the goals, the analysis, the concept, then the technology: When we digitize, it is not enough to simply buy tools and use them. We always need to have clear ideas, the right reasons, and actual goals in mind: why we want to digitize what and whom, and what we want to achieve with it. Otherwise, it won't work.
2. Many advantages of digital technology speak for themselves. Some things are simply faster, better, and more helpful when done digitally, and they save time for better things. That convinces even skeptics.
3. We have it in our own hands and can shape the future positively. By presenting our goals in concrete, positive images and describing the path to achieving them in a realistic and comprehensible way. The image we paint of ourselves and others shapes our thoughts and actions and thus also influences what we will actually achieve and create in the future.
4. Respect, trust, community—we work hard to achieve these things, and we must maintain and preserve them. They carry us forward and can lead to new perspectives on our shared endeavor as an organism that we all shape together, each to the best of our abilities, with sufficient space and room for each individual to secure the survival and livelihood of all and, ultimately, the realization of our shared and individual goals.
Some people introduce the model of “accomplices” à la “Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid” – a romantic idealization of gangs of criminals who want to work together successfully in the short term despite their selfish and conflicting goals. Unfortunately, this does not work for companies that are designed for the long term. At DRIVE, we follow the “atelier” model, in which everyone continuously contributes with the respect of everyone else in the company, thus ensuring that we can live and work together in the short, medium, and long term—everyone is an artist, engineer, and inventor, a creator, preserver, and developer, and contributes something valuable.
5. The world is changing anyway. Those who don't help shape it will be left behind, dying in the desert while the caravan moves on. Retailers without online shops will no longer be viable. Companies without home office options or video conferencing will simply find it too expensive to operate, and they will have a harder time finding good employees. Similarly, a sense of responsibility, self-control, and intrinsic motivation will become increasingly important qualities for everyone who works, whether they are driven by selfish or altruistic motives, whether they are bank robbers, artists, inventors, or simply people who want to do a good job.
Things are moving forward – let's get to work!
OK, that's it for now. If you enjoy thinking about these issues, you are welcome to join the discussion at: pole-position@drive.eu Stay healthy! This could take a while.
