7 rules of the New Normal

In terms of lifestyle and technological changes, the Covid-19 crisis-lockdown represents the greatest fundamental shift since World War 2. Indeed the 2020s and beyond are already being dubbed the post-Covid era. Here are what appear to be some rules of the New Normal…

1. What can be WFHed will be WFHed: Previously there were Work From Home apprehensions from companies and bosses demanding the physical presence of their teams. This prevented the WFH culture from fully taking off. Those shackles have finally been removed even as collaboration and bandwidth players have upped their game.

2. Put it all on the cloud: It doesn’t matter whether it’s public, private or hybrid. You need to put your data on the cloud. You need to work on the cloud and facilitate your WFH employees to work on the cloud.

3. No touch is the way forward: No touch is not just a pandemic technology—It can work during other natural disasters like floods and earthquakes. (Why not during normal times too?) Drones. Robots. Automation. Collaboration. AR-VR-MR. There are many such technologies that can facilitate it. This will ensure Business Continuity Planning no matter what.

4. Surveillance is here to stay: Contact tracing has been embraced by governments all over the world. Facial recognition is spreading far and wide. Remote workers have to be monitored. Your mobile is your I-card and locator whether you like it or not. We have already entered the surveillance era. If 9/11 paved the way for the same, then Covid has only cemented it.

5. You can learn it all virtually: Training can be done online. Colleges can be conducted online. The tools were always there to do so, but only now have we realized them. An Indian hospital even conducted a surgery session online for the benefit of the entire world. (This doesn’t apply to schools though. Because it probably is inhuman to expect a small child to stare at a screen all day and not develop physical, extra-curricular, sporting and social skills that outdoors schools provide).

6. Skills over degrees: Degrees from reputed colleges now look hyped and outdated. Companies will be more interested in knowing what skills employees have. The more skills you have and the more you are willing to pick up along the way, the more relevant you will be in the post-Covid world. We may have many more relevant and popular online skill universities.

7. The only constant is change: This is a cliché but more so now. Technological change always had the velocity but now there is real acceleration. Whether you are an industry, company, division or individual, if you don’t change, upgrade and transform, you will end up being a fossil.