Social distancing will continue to be an important practice for reducing community transmission of the virus. At The Spur Group (where I work), for example, we were getting ready to move into new, larger office space before the virus struck. Because of the pandemic, we’ve modified the build-out of the new space to ensure social distancing in the office. One of the things that means is that when we do return, not everyone will be able to be in the office at the same time, so we’ll need a plan for controlling who’s in the office when, how many people can be there at one time, and what level of PPE we will require in the office. Businesses (especially large companies) will have to figure out how to manage social distancing when people return to the office, whether by reconfiguring the space, or figuring out how to enforce distancing if they don’t, or can’t afford, to reconfigure. What are the must-do’s? The Obvious Stuff Let’s examine them a little more closely. The nice-to-do’s. These are a whole bunch of small, but significant and impactful things that can strengthen the bonds we have with our employees, our customers, and our communities.Īnd we must layer over these things the uncertainty that exists currently about timelines for reopening. Current plans are based on the current situation and current projections. If reopening doesn’t result in spikes of new cases and deaths, we may see a smooth return to some semblance of normalcy in business, albeit with semi-permanent or permanent changes to many elements of how business is conducted. If there is a resurgence during the colder months (some projections hold that that resurgence may be far more severe than the current wave), then we are in for a surge in infections and deaths, and some of the changes I’ll talk about may take place more slowly. But what is certain is that there are going to be foundational changes to how we do business, some of which will far outlast the pandemic.The must-do’s. These include everything from re-thinking remote work as a core part of how business operates to re-thinking how we sell, market, and service, to thinking about how we care for employees, customers, and partners, perhaps in ways we didn’t consider before.We can group the things that businesses will need to think deeply about into two broad categories: The consensus opinion in the virology/epidemiology community is that we will see spikes in infections and deaths as a result of states re-opening, and it’s likely that the virus will wane during the summer months, and come back with a vengeance in the Fall and Winter. State governments and businesses will have to adjust their plans accordingly. It will take about the same amount of time to find a vaccine, produce it in the huge quantities that we’ll need, and vaccinate 70% or more of the population. Here in the US, states are beginning to re-open, some, seemingly, without a plan beyond “we need to re-open,” and some, like my state of Washington, taking a phased, gradual approach. As of this writing, the best science and data says that we are looking at another 18-24 months before we either develop some sort of herd immunity, or we have a vaccine. Developing herd immunity, according to the experts, will mean something on the order of 70% of the population being exposed to the virus, and some percentage of that 70% will die. What I said I would talk about in my next article was how I thought that business would be different after the pandemic. Since I wrote that article, we’ve gotten a clearer picture of what the next 12-18 or 24 months will probably look like. In my last article, What Will the Future of Business Be After COVID-19?, it turns out that I talked more, frankly, about what I thought life would be like than I did about what I thought business would be like once we’re past the huge disruption in our lives, the economy, and the world that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has visited upon us. I guess it was a little dark, because my almost 26-year-old daughter texted me the next morning, and said, “Your article isn’t very optimistic…”
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