Of late there has been a flurry of articles, notes and predictions on what lies ahead. The much-used term “New Normal” stands to win the word/phrase of the century award. Undoubtedly, it is a reality — there is already a New Normal that is in place.

The trouble for someone like me is, how do I find this New Normal? And once I find it, what do I do with it? There is a lot of conversation on its existence but little on how to handle or even define it.

I am putting out a small guide that I have punched out for myself to follow both in personal life and business. I would be happy if everyone in my network critiques it, suggests changes to it, or adds to it so that similar seekers can make some sense of what is going to happen.

1. Know thyself

It’s time to be true and really go inside — both as a person and in your business. Have a clean, realistic status report of where you stand

a) Personally

i) Health – what’s your fitness level, what are your ailments, what will be required to take care of it.

ii) Wealth – what you have, what is accessible, what is due but may get deferred, what may not come.

iii) Emotional status – how you are feeling, why you are feeling that way and is it based on reality or only imaginary?

iv) Network status – a status check of your relationships and who will be with you in times of need.

b. Business/work :

i. Purpose – Is it still applicable, relevant in whole or in part? Has the importance of all the parts of the purpose remained same?

ii. Skill inventory - Not just what you got hired for or hired people for, but what else you or people you hired are capable of.

iii. Resource inventory – Both tangible and intangible, a little deeper than the balance sheet, more from the angle of real value vs booked value.

iv. Liability inventory - what is owed and when it is owed and how much can be negotiated to be deferred, discounted or written off.

v. Network inventory - Whom the business knows and how can they help, or you can help them.

vi. Accessibility – What resources, geographies, talent, customers, vendors can be accessed which you did not use/engage with earlier , but may be accessible now or with some effort can be made accessible.

2. Know thy neighbour

Silly as it sounds, in the current age, we often don’t know our neighbours at all or very little about them. It’s time to get acquainted

a. At home

i. Firstly, be aware who they are – you can’t reach out to anyone if you don’t know who they are.

ii. Get to know them better – digitally, through chat groups, video apps, check on each other, share knowledge, get different perspectives, share issues, share networks and recipes.

iii. Be also aware of differences in your situation and theirs — it works both ways, sometimes what works for them doesn’t work for you or they may have a solution for a problem that you haven’t found a solution to.

iv. Organise socialisations in small groups with physical distancing. For a long time to come this group will be your closest human contact besides your family.

v. Also know their health status and intimate them about yours. In an emergency they will be the closest help you can get or give.

b. At work

i. Neighbours could be other organisations situated/placed next to your office, could be competition in the same space or ‘other businesses’ that are somehow connected to you in the supply chain.

ii. Each one of them is a source of valuable information, resources or add to your scale and strength. For example: Another tenant on your office floor and you can join forces to renegotiate with the lessor, a common vendor or service provider.

iii. Evaluate carefully and you can either learn from their mistakes or take proactive measures for something that they walked into.

iv. Some neighbours can teach you what not to do.

3. Know thy space

a. Research extensively - Invest time and money in qualified and professional research, both at home and work. From community voice to customer voice, municipal regulations to new government policies, get to know all. Often, we rely on gut and superficial/popular communication on a changed situation. Getting the whole picture is important.

b. Review what you research frequently as things are changing fast, initially set up shorter intervals of review like once in three days, relax the timelines once small trends start getting repeated.

c. Build a situation persona for your unique status, try to spell out the needs, desires and behaviour of this situation persona against your environment. This will help you keep away from the herd mentality. It works well both in discovering relevant opportunities and threats.

For all you know, acting on these might get you a more visible, tangible New Normal and the past may soon start looking like ‘Abnormal’.

(Vaibhav Jain is an alumnus of IIHM-Aurangabad and XLRI, Jamshedpur, with 22 years of hospitality experience)

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