Here We Come, 2021! Six Things We Can All Do to Make the World a Better Place...
The next week or so will be filled with articles of prognostication over what 2021 will, or will not, bring. I will be reading and watching with a sense of curiosity balanced by pragmatism and logic.
What I've learned having celebrated 57 birthdays is that mile marker dates like birthdays and New Year's Day are just that - days that pass like any other and become whatever we make of them. I've also learned that the week between Christmas and New Year's Day is best spent reflecting upon the triumphs and challenges of the year that is closing and using the results of that reflection to finalize plans for the upcoming year.
I find the process of committing this reflection to the written word is highly cathartic and I strongly recommend everyone take up the practice.
2020 - The Year that Will Become a Term of Derision
We will undoubtedly all form unique narratives of a year that has shaped each of us in both subtle and profound ways. What makes the experience of 2020 unique is the amplitude of our highs and our lows. My own personal narrative conforms to this pattern and is populated with stories of great joy and feelings that border upon despair.
For example, I will look back on 2020 with great fondness over the unique opportunity my wife Linda and I had to strengthen our relationship during times of lockdown. I will always remember 2020 as the moment in time when I put pen to paper and wrote a book. I will recall 2020 as the year we took huge steps forward in listening to varied perspectives and embracing the benefits of diversity in our communities. I took on a new role at work, wrote a song with our youngest son, and our eldest was named chief resident by his hospital system! Our medical community produced a vaccine in less than a year - a timeline that should be remembered as a modern miracle.
Alternatively, 2020 was a year of tremendous suffering and pain. As I write this, 340,000 American lives were lost to a raging global pandemic. We were pitted against one another by the politicization of Covid-19 when we should have been banding together in unity against an unseen mass killer. Social inequity was thrust into full view and forced a national reckoning with the lack of progress we've made. Democracy shuddered under the pressure of political polarization and direct attacks against our electoral structures.
While reflecting on these highs and lows, it's clear to me that turning the page on a calendar will not represent the miraculous fix we're all hoping for. Navigating toward a new sense of normalcy will take longer than any of us expects and will require us all to grow into the next best versions of ourselves.
How Can We Influence a Better 2021?
I believe there are six things that we can all do to help construct a better 2021 from the ashes of 2020. This list is inclusive and represents ways each of us can improve in an effort to rebuild relationships, businesses, institutions, and economies.
Build Emotional Intelligence. As pundits search for certainties of 2021, one stands out from the rest: we will all heal from the psychological and physical damage wrought by the events of 2020 at a different pace. Some will crash into 2021 with a "just get on with it" attitude. Others will gently test the waters of expanded social interaction gingerly. To have the best chance of embracing change while simultaneously respecting the needs of diverse views, we must develop more finely tuned antennae to be aware of our surroundings and how our fellow humans are responding to new environments. We can neither return to the way things were, nor can we live forever in tight cocoons.
Embrace an Agile Mindset. Another certainty of 2021 is that change will dominate our collective experiences. Fixed, unyielding perspectives on the way things "should be" will only lead to disappointment and frustration. Open ears that listen intently to the benefits and challenges of the forks in the road we will encounter along our journey through 2021 will help us to make better decisions for ourselves and our communities.
Adopt a Continuous Improvement Approach. Opportunities for learning and growth will abound in 2021. Individuals and business leaders who are able to take the most advantage of those opportunities recognize that the way things get done in the current state can always be improved upon. Unfortunately, continuous improvement (a.k.a., Lean) gets a bad rap because of confusing terminology and an unfair link to cost-cutting in businesses. I'll be on a one-man mission to turn that perception around. Put simply, continuous improvement is the practice of (a) identifying and eliminating waste, (b) respecting your people, and (c) having a laser focus on delivering against the needs of your customer. Tough to argue with the benefits of focusing in these three areas.
Work Consciously to Build Trust. Whether in social circles, businesses, or institutions, trust is the foundation of healthy relationships and teams. While the work is difficult and at times painful, I can say definitively that work on establishing organizational trust always pays dividends if all parties enter the work with a constructive, agile mindset. Agility and emotional awareness are key to ensure the needs of the collective take precedence and are carefully balanced with the needs of individual contributors. The voice of Mr. Spock from Star Trek rings in my ears: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one."
Embrace Compromise. In the category of "how's that workin' for 'ya?"; it's clear to me that our current state of extreme polarization that dominates societal and political discourse is not leading to desirable outcomes. We have a lot of work to do in 2021 to repair our economies and social structures. Unyielding gridlock will only serve to build unnecessary tension and will prevent us from taking meaningful steps forward.
Promote Lifelong Learning. The five points above will only yield fruit if we all simultaneously play the role of learner and educator. Just as balance must be struck between leadership and followership, so too must we balance our roles as learners and educators. If we stop learning, agility wanes and fixed mindsets calcify. If we stop educating, entropy accelerates and our contributions to the greater good diminish. Education is the "great leveler" and has the power to challenge outdated norms and promote personal/professional growth.
Conclusion
We are all in desperate need of good news. We yearn for more human interaction. I want to crank up my guitar and sing for you at the top of my voice!
Unfortunately, while there is the promise of herd immunity from a widely vaccinated population, that future state is still many months away and we will undoubtedly encounter more bumps along the way. In addition, two of the three main challenges of 2020 were not the direct result of the pandemic, but were amplified by it.
I believe if we recognize that there are no miracle cures to our current state and instead turn our attention to the purposeful, consistent, and constructive work to heal that lies before us, the better off we'll be.
Emotional intelligence, agility, continuous improvement, trust, compromise, and education are the keys to a more positive future.
Happy New Year!
Andy