Volumes of books and articles will be written about the year 2020. Authors will dissect and contextualize leaders at all levels and their response to the demands and challenges of the year. Nation X versus Nation Y, political leaders, business leaders, healthcare leaders, community and civic leaders, frontline leaders, generational leaders, and activists will all be judged.
It’s not only government and business leaders who are forced to respond and modify systems– it’s everyone, and we all have different ways of doing so. How agile are you in adapting to changing circumstances? Do you experience unexpected change as loss, opportunity, or both? Do you embrace or dodge challenges? How deliberately do you adjust your own thoughts, words, and behavior to meet the evolving times? Think back to December 31, 2019; you had ideas and plans for the new year. How have those plans turned out thus far? While we can plan for the future, we can’t accurately and consistently predict it. But we can respond to it when it arrives
Life has altered a great deal in the past few months, but I envision that it’s just the beginning and that almost every business sector will have significant transformation– from healthcare and education, to manufacturing, retail, and entertainment. Acceptable and unacceptable social and political norms will be redefined. We’ll adopt different rules for large and small group gatherings, both indoor and outdoor.
Some people will resist this change, perhaps until their death. Others will wait for its certainty and ability to sustain over time. Some have already begun to accommodate the inevitable challenges that come with the change. And others have been leaders throughout it, embracing the fact that unprecedented times provide unprecedented opportunity.
We’ve all probably done a little self-reflection recently, and I’d venture to say that you’re starting to see yourself differently. I’ve reflected on the various ways in which I, my family and friends, and my clients have responded to the current demands and opportunities we’ve faced this year, including how we fit into categories of the Consumer Adoption Lifestyle (well-known to anyone in marketing and, perhaps painfully so, attended business school). I offer a brief description of each category and where I fall in, along with suggestions for responding to circumstances that relate to the transformation occurring in the world.
In my next blog
I offer an overview of the 5 Consumer Adoption Groups as well as suggestions for you based on your consumer adoption lifestyle.