Change, Struggle, Solution

Feeling down? Depressed? Helpless in the face of challenges. What to do, who to see, how to handle the problems? How to make it through? Survive?

Welcome to 2020!


Life is changing. Routines will be different. So too, the economy, careers and culture. Repeat that: “Routines will be different; so too, the economy, careers and culture.”


Change is both the good and bad. Together they lead to struggle, survival and invention of the new. All of these yield to a better situation. Struggle and hardship create the better.


I watched the Governor of Illinois present his daily COVID-19 briefing Tuesday afternoon. He said there was no playbook on how to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are inventing that playbook now, each day,” he said. And he and his team pledged to change it, edit it as need arises. That’s how emergency management works. We invent solutions as we live the crisis. First public safety and well-being; then the action; then dealing with the challenges that result.


With the pandemic, business operations will change. Products and services will change. Relative value of some products and services will change or likely disappear entirely. What was important before is not after the pandemic.


So, as business changes, so do social norms, institutions, and the definition of work. With work changed, careers will change to support needs and new definitions. How will people adapt to such changes, new job descriptions, new careers? Only time will answer that question.


The challenge to change leads to struggle, which leads to invention. Creativity will respond to challenges. Reaching out to others doing the same, or working in similar fields, may spark new ideas to incorporate with new solutions. Products and services soon follow.


Education is a continuing need for healthy societies. What is taught and learned is vital to the future of all societies. How it is done will change through time to meet circumstances. The pandemic teaches this lesson well! How will we proceed in the future? Will classes be ‘virtual’? Will they be congregate? If so, large or small? Spaced out or close in? Will learning be lecture, hands-on, reading and workbook, or something entirely different? How about the experiential lab work and team projects?


Who is looking into just this aspect of change? Are Colleges of Education doing this? Are they inventing new professional standards and protocols? Are they using people outside of the profession to help them visualize the reality stage of the need for change?


Reaching out and including diverse sources of input will aid the invention of solutions. We are all a part of this. It is a process. Of adaptation and realization. Of the new, the need for new, and the active creation of solutions.


Each of us is called to lend our unique hand to this process. In whatever profession, field of endeavor or business; this is our calling. Recognize it and answer the call.


Life is changing. Routines will be different. So too the economy, careers and culture.


Create an exciting future. For you and others.


The reward? You will know it when you experience it.


May 7, 2020