The Covid-morphosis, from the self to the collective
What will the landscape be like after the confinement? What lessons will we learn from this long period in the thinking corner? Will it be a reconstruction of the old or will the world change into something new? In this post, I want to share some of the signs that are appearing in this time of pause, that make me talk about a “Covid-morphosis”, from the being to the collective.
Why do I talk about covid-morphosis? Because I refuse to accept that everything will be the same again, that we have learned nothing and that we have not alternated our priorities. We used to say that the old did not go away and the new did not emerge. That’s it, it’s over. The old is falling apart so that the new can emerge.
I see this time as a purge, a drain, a letting go of the old. Life has turned us upside down to get out of the inertia, to move on to a different place. It forced us to go to the darkest place, to visit our fears, to meet what we avoid, to open our wounds. It was the macabre game to retune us as human beings, to be masters of our lives.
7 SIGNS OF COVID-MORPHOSIS
I imposed on myself a diet of communication “fears” to explore in search of new ideas that could enlighten me in the midst of so much darkness. This is the harvest of that search in the form of 7 signs of this covid-morphosis.
#1. DO I REALLY NEED IT?
The last few decades have been a cult of having, whether they were possessions or likes. Vanity has been a refuge from our lack of security and trust. We look to appearances for what we don’t want to accept inside. The bug left us unable to hold on to anything on the outside. All our external power has collapsed. And it confronted us with a harsh reality, that of asking ourselves what we are not doing right in our lives. Are we really looking at our life or the life that other people want?
So there won’t be a return to normal, or the new normal, but a covidmorphosis. For some it will be health, for others it will be family or money. For the vast majority, it will be time. Deep down, we’re mutating our scale of values. What do I want to spend my time on?
Also with the backpack we carry. Everything I have, do I really need it? Going through this (already long) test will give us more security. When I am safe (inside), I don’t need so much (outside). We are going to be more minimalist and more digital nomads.
I really liked the way José Antonio Gómez García put it in the form of 3 questions:
- And when this happens, what world do I want to create?
- And when this happens, what life do I want to foster for those around me.
- And when this happens, what professional environment do I want to develop myself and my collaborators?
We don’t need so many things. What we want right now is what we really want. It is time to return to the priorities, to the people, to our family, to our friends.
# 2. WHEN EVERYONE LOSES, EVERYONE WINS
I already anticipated this signal in an article requested by Salva Molina, for Ecofin, with a central idea: when everyone loses, everyone wins. We are going to move from ‘Just do it’ to ‘Do it for everyone’. That which does not take into account the common good will be seen as a selfish imitation. The new priority is Humanity. That which unites beyond ideologies at the antipodes.
#3. PUBLIC-CITIZEN COLLABORATION
It’s time to co-create. The “experts” failed us, they didn’t see it coming. Covid has been new to everyone. It has forced us to reinvent ourselves (together). There have been multiple initiatives from people who left their jobs to join the fight against the deadly disease. From companies that stopped building cars to manufacture fans to free collection and delivery of material to replace delayed official shipments. Self-help citizen networks have emerged, such as Stop the Curve, and neighbours have offered to do the shopping for older people.
The new normality that this covid-morphosis will bring us is to work in a network. Without anyone sending us, no matter how we do it, with the only motivation of wanting to contribute to solving a common problem.
It is a great precedent to face the pending challenges that we still have as Humanity: the climate change, the increasing loneliness or the aging of the population in the old Europe. We have seen that, if we wait for the rulers to solve our problems, we will only warm our heads. It is better to act together.
Governments have to accept with humility that they cannot solve everything. The famous public-citizen partnership must be activated. Leaders can put the focus on what we should be concerned about. And, together, contribute to the search for a solution. The 21st century will be the century of the collaborative state, where citizens not only vote, but also work to solve common challenges as Humanity.
I heard a phrase that I liked. Now, it is time more for wise men than for experts. It is time to take care of ourselves.
#4. THE WHOLE UNIT, NOT COMPARTMENTS
We applaud from our windows those who look out for others. We criticize in the nets those who only look out for their own benefit. The values on the rise from now on are empathy, tolerance and compassion.
It is an amendment to the way of thinking of capitalism, in which status was marked by external symbols such as the most expensive car or house. Our new heroes have risked their lives to save those of others. They are the ones who have risen to the occasion. And, to what comes next, with the economic and social aftershocks of the health earthquake.
It’s no longer just about making profits for shareholders. For society as well. Some of the dogmas of the efficiency of hypercapitalism to grow at all costs are going to be rethought. I will give you two examples:
- Back from offshoring. Now we were buying seasonal T-shirts for a few euros, which had been made in Bangladesh, India or Morocco by people with hardly any labour rights, for little more than taking a picture of the selfie. Relocating all production to China because it was cheaper has made us dependent on Asian manufactures when we needed masks urgently. Does this make sense? Many people had to take out the sewing machine because, in the face of the emergency, we could not depend on the other part of the world.
- Just in time. This English word means that to keep spare parts in the warehouse was to spend money that was not immediately profitable. If a spare part was needed, it was ordered and delivered to you in the afternoon. There was no need for a parts warehouse just in case. When the chain failed, because one of the actors had the shutter down, it became just-in-overdue-time. In delay. If it is necessary to have reserves for some commodities to guarantee supply, doesn’t it make sense to rethink it for the raw materials on which a business depends?
These two ideas can be summed up as a return to the local, which is also evident in an increased interest in life outside the cities. If we can do everything remotely, why suffer pollution on a daily basis and not enjoy nature?
Finally, a reflection: if the problems are common, the answers too, co-created collectively. From a systemic viewpoint, because all the pieces are linked by an invisible thread. The solution can no longer be to give painkillers or make-up to avoid pain. When it really hurts, we have to go to the real causes. Like those patients who, only when the heart attack comes, get serious and stop smoking (forever).
We are part of a unique system in which more than being sustainable, it is now important to be regenerative.
#5. VERTICAL AXIS: VISION AND PURPOSE
Otto Scharmer, the creator of Theory U, has already warned us that people will no longer differentiate themselves by their ideology between right and left, which is becoming increasingly outdated, by the way. A new coaxial axis emerges between less conscious and more conscious. Below, those who are guided by fear. Above, those who are guided by love and being useful to others. We will move from “labeling” people from a horizontal axis of ideologies to a vertical one of consciousness level.
In a certain way, this is what the spiral dynamic has done, based on the studies of evolutionary psychology. The best known adaptation of this new vertical scale is that of Laloux, by differentiating the management models of organizations in red, amber, orange, green and teal, of which we have written in 9Brains.
If we take as a reference the four pillars of the human being, of which the Greeks already spoke more than two thousand years ago, the horizontal axis would be represented by the body (processes and systems) and the heart (emotions), while in the new vertical axis we would attend more to the mind (shared vision and values) and the soul (purpose that transcends us).
The horizontal axis is a struggle between two polarities. At one extreme, modernism, which focuses on freedom and progress; at the other, post-modernism, which pulls towards equality and social welfare.
In order to leave behind this eternal confrontation between two antagonistic and irreconcilable positions, so present in TV political gatherings, and which already tires us so much, it is necessary to aim at the vertical axis, to have a common vision of what we want to be and what mark we want to leave.
The two greatest moments in the history of Spain, the Cortes de Cádiz and the Transition of 1978, have in common that the gazes of some were left behind and all the actors came together to look to the future together.
This is the magic formula that Nelson Mandela used to eliminate the cruelest system of segregation of the 21st century, apartheid. Using future thinking techniques and future scenarios to unite and walk together.
Along with the shared vision and values, we must also rethink our (vital and business) purpose. This is the idea behind the NER manifesto promoted by Koldo Saratxaga to define the new way of working based on purpose.
It is time to start doing “future conferences”.
#6. FROM FANATICISM TO ‘BOTH AND’.
Fanaticism, in which many took refuge to hide their fears of the effects of the digital revolution, has not been the solution. Those who do best in confinement are those who embraced remote work and automated business. As Fernando de la Rosa says, they are the ones who are going to pass this digital surprise exam.
As the Spanish expert in demoscopy Narciso Michavila said these days: “The one who continues with the traditional manual of polarizing will lose out”. For one reason. Because no ideology, on its own, is capable of having an overall vision. All fanaticisms have blind spots.
“We all know that what our brain is capable of perceiving is only a small part of what reality contains. However, when we act, we tend to act as if what we see is the only thing that exists.
Mario Alonso Puig (Reinventing Yourself)
The covid-morphosis will bring us what the English call “both and” and what Cervantes, in Don Quixote, called “baciyelms”.
Do you remember Don Quixote’s hat? In one chapter of the novel, the hidalgo is arguing with an innkeeper about his quirky armor. The innkeeper argues that it is a barber’s bowl, the utensil he used to put on his chin to improve hair aesthetics. The gentleman, on the other hand, claimed that it was the “helmet of the mambrino”, which made its wearer invincible. It was up to the squire, Sancho, to settle the dispute, and he invented a word “bacillus” to prove them both right, and at the same time to take it off.
The times to come will be prodigious in bacilli, to relate two apparently opposing ideas, and the result will be genius. For example, online coworking, which becomes a place of networking but virtual.
Fanaticisms and ideologies collapse when the two antagonistic visions are accepted and integrated to illuminate something new and much better. This is the basis of the new cultural wave of covid-morphis, metamodernism, which overcomes and integrates the confrontation between modernism based on freedom and post-modernism, focused on equality. The tension, the problems, are seen as an opportunity for improvement.
#7. HUMANITY-CENTERED DESIGN
Until now, people-centered design has been talked about more than products. With the Covid-morphosis we will go one step further. Products will be made that, above all, look out for humanity. The famous triple bottom line. It will be Humanity-centered design.
The products will not only pass the usability test, but a kind of ethics test. The new question for a product to come to market will be: At what cost? There is a lot of talk about robotization, but can we afford it? AirBNB, which seemed like a good idea, ended the gentrification of downtown neighborhoods.
We may not be able to predict the future, but we can prepare for him.
Pericles
So far, it’s only seven signs. Happy covid-morphosis!
