Forces of change : life after COVID
Behavioural science suggests that a notable crisis has the ability to permanently change behaviour .
The COVID-19 pandemic is still playing out in all its peaks and valleys across the globe , with various levels of lockdowns to curtail its spread – and glimmers of hope as vaccination enters the scene . It does , however , seem as if we can start to count on a few trend shifts in a post-contagious world . Here are five of them :
Louis Fourie of The Logic Filter
Trend 1 : A further separation between place and function . The global lockdowns have dramatically escalated the detachment of location and utility . Millions of office workers , students , shoppers , indeed , many professionals , have physically been severed from their familiar settings and habits , overnight . What seemed impossible in February 2020 was the norm a mere three months later , and a given one a year on . The physical legacy of the industrial economic model was knocked off its pedestal in one fell swoop .
The migration from the physical to the virtual world is of course not new . If you asked people recently where they bank , they were likely to point to their smartphones . If you asked them where they shop , some might have pointed to their tablets . They bought their books or music from stores they have never physically visited . Some have already allowed Siri and Alexa to become part of their households . With a swipe across a screen , families and friends could reunite across oceans . We have created an astonishing new toolbox in the last 20 years , but so many of us remained ensnared in the physical realm of work , an industrial way of managing production , and a supervisory style devised from our grandfathers ’ manufacturing models .
It took a virus to further erode the shackles of lazy habits , expensive offices and rushhour traffic . The new way of doing things , remotely , digitally , is likely to become the standard operating model – allowing us to do the same and more – at a lower cost , more efficiently and in an eco-friendlier way . Such transitions , of course , have teething problems , but they are eventually ironed out . But a new-found cost-benefit appreciation , home-bias , and contagion awareness is likely to sprout and flourish for years to come .
We are likely to get more and more alternative answers to questions such as : “ Where is your school ?”, “ What time do you start working ?”, “ Where is your doctor ’ s consultation rooms ?”, “ Where do you worship ?”, “ Where is your voting station ?”. Once some genies are let out of the bottle , they cannot ever be put back .
Trend 2 : A leap in preventative healthcare . In the past few decades , modern science has made significant strides in combatting disease . However , the pandemic has exposed structural weaknesses in health systems , response times and general disease awareness .
We are likely to see meaningful investments in healthcare infrastructure as the dust settles – to improve reaction times – and create access to dynamic and reliable healthcare in times of crises . Prevention and precaution will also become important themes in our daily lives .
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