This week, I’m thinking a lot about organizations saying they are very eager to “return to normal” in this post-Covid world. Or “can’t wait to get back to business as usual.” When I hear this, it makes me cringe. It seems as if these limited-mind thinkers are lacking the ability to view the full picture that the world has changed. We have changed. Business tasks might be relatively the same, but there has been a fundamental human change that we can’t and shouldn’t ignore.

What we’ve been through as human beings has been labeled by psychologists as “grief” and a feeling of “languishing.” Our human make-up is not made to withstand and endure the amount of stress that we’ve gone through. Lots of us have lost loved ones. We’ve had an absence of “well-being” for an extended period of time. We’re humans. We’re not robots. There is no “returning to normal.” Instead, we are going to move forward as changed individuals. We can hope that businesses will embrace the humanistic approach (for the long-term). 

This week’s easily digestible tidbit is: Move forward with extra empathy and compassion during this transition to post-Covid time. If you are a leader or decision-maker, be sensitive to the language and phrasing you are using in communications. Have extra check-ins with your coworkers. Understand that we’re going to be in this period of transition for a while and a feeling of uncertainty and caution remains.