{"id":4269846,"date":"2021-04-01T13:11:48","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T11:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/insight\/adopting-a-mindset-that-enables-positive-change\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T12:37:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T10:37:41","slug":"adopting-a-mindset-that-enables-positive-change","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/en-au\/insight\/adopting-a-mindset-that-enables-positive-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Adopting a mindset that enables positive change"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\n\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tBack to all articles\t\t<\/span>\n\t\n<\/button>\n\t\tAdopting a mindset that enables positive change\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/picture>\n\t\n\t<\/div>
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\n\t\tPhilipp Bruns\t\t
\n\t\tHead of Digital Strategy\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t1 April 2021\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\tImagine it\u2019s March 2019 and somebody suggests that the world would continue even if all people worked from home and only communicated at a distance. If entire schools and universities went online. If concerts were held in the guitarist\u2019s living room and streamed into people\u2019s homes. Outrageous, isn\u2019t it? Imagine a list of all the counter-arguments the 2019-version of yourself would have come up with to explain why this would never work, not in a million years.\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tTwelve months later, in March 2020, everything has changed. In a matter of weeks, things have gotten weird and scary and possible. We are currently witnessing the global spread of COVID-19, a potentially deadly virus that is threatening to kill some of the weakest members of our societies, overburden our medical infrastructure and have a devastating impact on the economic status quo. People are scared of an uncertain future. But people are also showing an immense wave of adaptiveness, humanity and solidarity to make it through these complicated times.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tA new imperative\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tBy fast-forwarding social, political and technological developments* the Corona-Crisis is increasing the pressure on people, businesses and organisations to\u00a0reinvent what they do<\/a>. And a surprising amount of them\u00a0will transform<\/a>\u00a0faster and more thoroughly than ever seen before. But there are also those who were already overwhelmed by the rate of change in the Pre-Corona era. These people, businesses and organizations will be hit the hardest. Obviously, a crisis of this magnitude\u00a0will not go by without casualties. The key question is whether we understand that our (economical) survival depends on our ability to develop a positive outlook on the future and adapt to\u00a0whatever the Post-Corona world will look like<\/a>. That is the imperative of the present:\u00a0we must seize the opportunity to re-think the status quo and<\/strong>\u00a0build a better tomorrow<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tThe path to the next normal<\/a>\u00a0will consist of short-term- as well as mid- and long-term measures. In the short term, people, businesses and organizations must preserve at least some ability to act. By ensuring short-term business-continuity they protect the foundation for building a new world. This is what happened at our agency over the past few weeks: we kept DEPT\u00ae up and running by fully digitising our status quo. By turning meetings into video calls. By virtually pitching to potential clients.\u00a0By inventing and establishing remote\u00a0versions of our key services<\/a>. Most importantly, we managed to keep the human side of DEPT\u00ae intact. The culture of togetherness and solidarity and friendship that lived on in lunch, after work, and beer-hangouts. People were pitching in. People were listening. People were there for each other. We kept each other safe and sane and happy. These accomplishments have changed this agency for the better. They have made DEPT\u00ae more flexible, more efficient, more resilient.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tThe big picture\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tUnderstandably, most people, businesses and organizations are currently focussing on their short-term survival and have little capacity left to think about mid- and long-term measures. But luckily there are trend researchers and analysts who have started to make sense of the big picture. Over the past few days, we have seen an increasing amount of voices that called for a positive long-term view on the Corona-Crisis and its potential to mend some of the issues of the Pre-Corona-Status Quo. Matthias Horx, a future- and trends-analyst at Zukunftsinstitut, puts it like this: \u201cMaybe this virus is a messenger from the future, its drastic message being: the civilisations humanity has built have become too dense, too fast, overheated. They have rushed in a direction that does not bear a future. But civilisations can reinvent themselves. Reset their systems. Cool down. Play music on balconies. This is how we build our future.\u201d\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tYes, the status quo is in serious jeopardy. The changes brought about by the Corona-Crisis will most likely disrupt it irreversibly. What can we do to make these changes bearable? For one thing, we should acknowledge that there are many positive developments we could start building upon. In the midst of all the craziness, we see a renaissance of science in the public sphere. We see the failing and consequently the\u00a0decline of populism<\/a>. We see people going back to spending time together, as families, as friends, within their homes or remote. We see an\u00a0adorable amount of improvisation<\/a>\u00a0to maintain our routines. We see pressing social issues being put back on the agenda, from the\u00a0gender pay gap\u00a0to the understaffing and\u00a0undervaluing of caretakers\u00a0and other low-income groups. We see a\u00a0decline in environmental pollution<\/a>\u00a0that gives our planet a chance to catch a breath.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tWe must act now\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tWhat if we could build on the positive developments this crisis has brought about to shape the post-corona world? A world where people will most likely be more conscious of their physical, social and material needs. A world where the economy has evolved to provide for these needs instead of serving an end in itself. A world where technology is a means to satisfy these needs by enabling human interactions. A world where a digital agency helps businesses understand and satisfy these needs \u2013 by giving them access to creative methodology, technological infrastructure and the ethical use of data and intelligence.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tThe time to shape the Post-Corona world is now. After all, the measures that are currently being taken on a personal, business-, national and global level are already\u00a0setting the precedents for our new lives<\/a>. Plus, the window for positive change is closing. When the novelty of hangout parties and free concerts in live streams starts to wear off. When the clapping for hospital staff on balconies draws less and less people without leading to actual changes. Even the Zukunftsinstitut lists Matthias Horx\u2018s text (as quoted above) as only one out of\u00a0four different scenarios, with the other three painting a somewhat darker picture of the future. A lot depends on the next few days and weeks. On how harsh the shutdown of public life, the short-term consequences for the economy and the\u00a0long-term impact on the world<\/a>\u00a0we knew will turn out to be.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tAre you ready to build the post-corona world?\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tWhether the future holds a slightly better version of the old status quo or whether we need to find our way through an all-new shut-in economy \u2013 let us imagine and build the Post-Corona world together.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tHere is what you can do to help: adopt a mindset that enables you to drive positive change.\t<\/p>\n\n