For too long we have been conditioned to work and do business in a manner which is all about efficiency,rules, rights and wrongs, good and bad, policies and procedures, politeness, niceties mixed with large doses of daily grind. Have we missed something here? Have we failed to see that this approach often gives a sense of disconnect and frustration coupled with complications so deeply ingrained that many businesses, business owners and employees lose their mojo and lose sight of the business core values.
Compromising, lowering of standards, shortcuts, shortchanging have all become normalised and many people just keep going on autopilot time after time because they would rather do that than face the reality that something needs to fundamentally shift within.
Add to this the fact that we have devised insidious and strategic ways of fooling ourselves into thinking that we are actually doing something meaningful when often we are only going around in a loop, stuck in time. Band aid solutions are easy to come by.
I know some might call me a pessimist to see things this way, when the many parts of the world seems to be semi celebrating after having come out of a lockdown, and looking forward to going back to ‘normal’
But how about some real Truth? What if genuinely there isn’t much to really celebrate, but rather an opportunity to instead look deeply into whether we need to raise our standards for what we consider normal? Not just in the workplace, or in businesses, but in everyday relationships and life in general. This is not a lofty ideal that I am propagating here but a way of doing life and business in harmony, or at the very least a basic level of decency and mutual respect, and it is absolutely possible.
How much excess that we actually don’t need have we covered our true selves with and made that the normal demand and supply of the global marketplace? What is our insatiable appetite really about? The song ‘I can’t get no satisfaction’ pretty much sums it up.
If we quantify all of the above, we will actually be able to see the vast amount of impositional force that impresses upon us the ‘drive’, misled determination and emotions that have made mental illness, depression, loneliness, suicide, domestic violence, abuse etc normalised aspects of human life.
An amazing man I know – Neil Gamble – a leader in his business world has spoken about this precisely in his book: https://www.theleadershiptrance.com
In a few hundred years of so-called evolution from the Renaissance and the industrial revolution periods we have gone from making life only about survival of the fittest to a large extent.
No matter how much we dress it up, our human societies and the ways of our businesses are very much out there in the open for anyone to see through if we look closely enough.
Is there a way beyond the dog eat dog corporate mindset and greed being fueled by the culture of striving endlessly for material gain and success (the so-called human & technological advancement, and the coming singularity)? A way beyond the underlying disillusionment, loneliness and disconnection?
And now as we head closer to the ‘post-pandemic’ future, we have the real pandemic that humanity is yet to fully open its eyes to, to see what’s really going on. Disease rates, mental illness and domestic violence are just some of things that are through the roof. And these are just the more obvious aspects? What about the levels of exhaustion and withdrawal, addictions etc? Are these not actually encouraged by the Digital, Drug and Tech industries in our current times?
The juggernauts that own the digital domains know this and have deliberately set it up so that we can indulge our wildest fantasies, our tripped out ‘out of this world’ trawlings, and thus being left with little energy, motivation or inspiration to connect to the present in full and what’s really needed for us to bounce back in our businesses and in our lives with true vitality.
Digital/Tech is a mere tool or enabler that can be used for true evolution or sending us further into the abyss, cementing our patterns.
But before we get too comfortable pointing the finger here, let’s remember the basics of economics: demand and supply. Are we not, on some level, actually demanding all of this?
The actual enablers are all of us in that case.
Since the past decade Digital has been propagated to ‘replace’ or ‘enhance’ humanity in a myriad of ways. But is this really what we truly need? What are we substituting this for, and at the expense of What? Substituting The Grandness of What we truly are for Humanoids, CyberHumans, whatever we want to label that. Really!
Especially in the workplaces, across industries, Digital and Tech businesses saw more than 10X growth in their revenues during the period 2019-mid 2021. More digital businesses/business owners became millionaires during the pandemic but the question to ask is – what did they sell?
Netflix, Payper View Porn, Gaming, Social Media platforms, Virtual reality, Online Shopping, all of these fuel our escapist fantasies and need for relentless stimulation and distraction. Ultimately are these things not draining us on some level?
So, what did we learn whilst in the global lockdowns? Any lessons learnt there to take to the future or change the present way of doing life and doing business?
I am sure we do have some poignant and enriching lessons to communicate as a collective.
In the post Covid digital era we are currently in, marketers and brand owners may find it especially challenging to be able to hold the attention of their target audiences, and to motivate their teams and even themselves.
Coupled with the overwhelming state of play all around the world, getting people to align with values and visions of a company is now beyond just a set of manuals or a code of conduct, but rather a deeper understanding of everyone’s physical, psychological and emotional wellbeing. The forces of domination weigh heavy all around us.
Is this the call that can shift perspectives and truly turn around businesses all over the world?
Understanding what’s really going on for yourself, people around you – family, friends, colleagues, customers, staff etc – is the key to having a healthy organisation.
Digital has its strengths and weaknesses no doubt. And there are industries like medical science, construction, bio technology, infrastructure, aerospace science, where Digital and technology are being used to understand aspects of human life and also support in many ways. But really do we even need Digital to show us that?
I feel the turnaround will happen when we take ownership and see our part in it all, when we can reclaim the power that Digital has over us currently in so many ways, when we have the courage to stand together and say No.
Digital is a mere tool but we have become slaves to technology and this was never part of the plan for true human evolution. We can either continue to give our power away and wait for the inevitable fall-out, or we can be the holder of the Digital reins and thus chariot our businesses, and our relationships in the directions they need to go.
We can live a different future right here right now and literally change the game.
The choices are all ours!
Our brand founder and author of this blog Chetan Jha is leading not just change but also innovation across the board through best practises that echo compassion understanding and reflection. To know more, email us: [email protected]