Post… you know what! Remain in the COVID Vortex or Come Back Different: From Apathy to Transformation

Consider the past two years. They were a never-ending repetition of day after day. For some it was endless monotony, for others great loss and, for the lucky few, gain. We trudged along, days turned to months, and months to years. Malaise and apathy quietly became disguised as a sort of resigned acceptance: “It is what it is,” became an easy phrase to throw about. The isolation, misinformation, and lack of citizen participation led to what felt at times to be a gradual stripping away of our power to name or change our reality. The power to transform slipped into, “It is what it is.”

However, in the midst of what I call the COVID vortex, there was a moment where the culmination of innocent black people being murdered could no longer be tolerated. Long overdue, yet just in time, there was a rising. There was a taking back of the power to demand accountability for crimes committed and a demand for systemic change to bring about racial justice. “It is NOT what it is!” While by no means complete, this ignited the power to transform something much deeper and more ingrained in the fabric of our country than the pandemic.

Then, finally, there was the long-awaited time to come out of hiding and bounce back into life. It was crazy making to believe that work and school and leisure, on hold for so long, would be expected to resume as they once were. Everything is different—our lives, our work, public services, restaurants, hotels, our relationships, and our psyches. You name it, and it has been through the ringer. The “going back to normal” message, is again denying our reality and trading in our power to transform for a societal blindfold.

What we see and feel is real but gets lost if we cannot name it. There really are people freaking out, depressed, confused, and guarded. Services have changed, businesses are closing, work settings have changed, people are leaving. Again, amidst the back to normal phase, many workers or at least those who can, are saying NO. They are saying they have had enough, or that they found working from home to be liberating. As a result of this and other factors, there are work shortages, and empty offices. Millions are being spent to quash union organizing, but many are signing on. Some workers have seen where their companies’ loyalties lie and are open to taking back their collective power.

Our world has changed; we have changed. The power to re-create starts here. We must name it to transform it. What has changed (or could change) in our institutions, organizations, and in the services that we touch day to day, must be acknowledged and transformed in an intentional manner. Going back to “how it was” when it clearly it is not the same, or radically changing without planning or process is shocking to people’s psyches and wreaks havoc in organizations.

Thankfully, it is not an either-or proposition. It will take both naming what’s changed or is not working and taking the time to dialog with all stakeholders, and brainstorm new ways to organize that benefit all parties as well as the organization or institution itself. This is the time between the old (what was), and the new (what could be but isn’t yet so). William Bridges calls it the neutral zone. It is uncomfortable, but it is also a time of great creativity. And it is far better than remaining in the COVID vortex!

This IS a time when we can start by coming together deliberately to re-create our workplaces, schools and public services in a way that truly needs meets the needs of all. Creating a more socially, racially, and economically just world starts here, with us.