Photo by Ramón Salinero on Unsplash
Many people are running the narrative that the past few years have done us wrong. From Brexit, Covid, politics (‘The Tories’ etc) and now we feel the world owes us some kind of retribution for what’s happened. Few people are willing to take a share of responsibility for what’s gone down, or to put in the time and due diligence to make necessary changes in their life. Do we not all operate with some kind of entitlement? Wouldn’t many of us, if we were being honest, love the idea of working less, putting in minimal effort for maximum reward? Has the last 3 years affected our work ethic and left us more ‘checked out’ than ever?
Everyone wants that work-life balance which is being touted, encouraged and propagated, but does this essentially mean less work and more ‘unbalance’ in truth?
Factors including the current labour shortage, the pandemic, war, political turmoil etc have left many companies understaffed and scrambling for workers.
Also now, with recent industry-wide layoffs in the tech sector, even industries that seemed like they were thriving may be asking their teams to do the same amount or more work with fewer people. Google’s recent playout has questioned this in recent weeks. There are already immense and long term consequences with not enough vital workforce. Also being too lean as a team actually has increased costs, as many professionals experience burn-out that cripples the workings of a company. Many companies/Government organisations have already reached a crisis point.
The reality is that remote working, virtual and hybrid teams are not a trend, they are very much here to stay even though there are some who would love to go back to the workplace more than just the 1 or 2 day a week scenario. When did going to the office actually become unfashionable?
Also in certain sectors like hospitality, customer-facing services across industries, understaffed companies lead to customer retention and pricing instability. No one comes back or will pay premium prices if there is a lack of genuine customer engagement. This naturally increases the outgoing customer acquisition costs, as you try to convince them to buy your product/service.
All this heightens our responsibility to not just bring a whole different standard to the way we work, live and play but what is now needed is a whole new level of solidness like never seen before.
This world is moving at a pace that we cannot keep up with currently and not much is within our control, aside from our responses or reactions, and our ability to stay on the front foot, initiating and pivoting where needed. Especially now with the massive proliferation of Web3, AI, ChatGPT, Bard etc, life is never going to be the same.
But without wanting to make what is fast becoming reality too philosophical let’s focus on what is actually staring us in the face.
This past year a shaky economy, political tumultuousness, rise in utility bills and seemingly never-ending challenges with war and other natural calamities, most have found it harder than ever in many ways. Harder to work, harder to live, harder to come to terms with.
And now as we are all well underway into 2023 things look even more bleak with the real scare of food and energy shortages and looming recession. Time and time again this sort of scenario comes and goes in cycles throughout our human history. Now is the time to step up our level of collaboration, community and purpose. Opportunity in adversity and all that. Often times of utmost challenges and so called ‘recessions’ are actually innovation accelerators. When we can all come together in a larger vision for the entire world and not just our pockets of families, networks, societies, cities and countries.
It’s time now to connect deeper with each other, build more fulfilling relationships both at work and in our personal lives, for there is no such thing as separation of truth.
It’s a misnomer and the theory of our ‘separate lives’ has not worked for anyone one of us in the last few decades of so-called evolution, has it truly?
When we connect with our purpose – the purpose of each other – then our ideas have even more strength for they are fueled by a willingness to collaborate with and support each other.
This sort of co-created movement then becomes a simple flow where each day one goes to work in a truly empowered fashion. How powerful that can be is something we have yet to truly feel in this modern day work-life scenario.
When we actually look beyond the linear line of control, in how life plays out or has to play out, then the 360º approach is a freedom that is unleashed in the best possible way.
With this the bigger picture to look into is the massive deployment of Web3 and AI and what its futuristic agendas are?
Is it to completely do away with the human element – the human workforce – and ensure that soon machines rule man? Or is it actually addressing an endemically diseased and chronic understaffing across industries? How do we become vital with purpose and bring our A game each day?
What’s needed to shift so that we have thriving lives, thriving industries, and thriving joyful workplaces.
We leverage technology but in that we also maximise on each other’s strengths, honour the values that then brings a flow to the collaborations and innovations that fuel long term growth, build beautiful relationships and deeper embracing of debunking all the ways we do business and actually bring out of this world standards to how we can do business. To actually be more engaging with our colleagues, our customers and clients, our worlds.
Let’s bring acceleration to our lives instead of the couch surfing lackadaisical ethic that does not serve anyone or anything anymore.
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]