COVID-19 has had a devastating emotional and mental health impact on the human race. Asignificant change is that since people have been forced into lockdown and working from home, the family unit has become more important in people’s lives.Employees were forced to change their behavioural and activity patterns relating to how and where they worked. Situations were not chosen; they were imposed on the employees. Working from home gave birth to unfamiliar feelings and behavioural patterns for many.
Research has shown that the idea of people panicking during a crisis is a myth (depending upon the type of crisis). In most crises, people will behave in a manner that looks after each other – the sharing and caring manner. People will take an orderly approach to a crisis. People will tend to work (group) together with other affected persons, and the group’s resilience grows stronger through a crisis. This same trend occurs when a crisis happens within an organisation. People will group and help each other to overcome this crisis.
We know that change is constant and will never stop. We need to keep up with change; otherwise, we will get left behind. The change brought about by COVID-19 was unexpected and forced upon us compared to the normal changes that occur within an organisation. You can expect resistance to change during a normal organisational change, whereas the opposite occurs when there is a crisis, people tend to bond together for survival.
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged our typical thinking about change and resistance to change.
Some of the key learnings:
1. Neuroscience of change has been forced to the forefront of our thinking.
2. There is a new understanding of people’s resilience.
3. Changes that are not planned can lead to greater innovation.
4. Adaption and evolution are key to a sustainable pathway forward.
5. Before the pandemic, new changes would usually take a long time, but the pandemic has shown that change can occur within weeks.
6. Organisations have learned to develop more agile operations, allowing them to quickly respond to change without massive disruption.
7. The Omdia’s Future of Work survey also revealed that 68% of enterprises saw increased productivity from employees working away from the office.
8. IT is no longer a separate from any company – IT is now the main driver that supports the business to enable it to survive and thrived
9. The pandemic has taught organisations worldwide to become digitally enhanced, and technology has boomed.
10. Because organisations are coming to grips with the use of digital technology, employees will need to retrain and upskill to meet the change in the organisation.
11. Leaders who connected to the human aspect (their employees) have survived