In my conversations, in client inquiries, and in ongoing projects, I notice: We are in a new phase, Phase 2. Phase 1 in 2020 after the outbreak of Corona was about being able to continue working at all when suddenly many people were working from home. Enabling virtual collaboration, virtual leadership, and virtual selling. This was not about implementing well-prepared concepts, but rather about survival, self-help, and a lot of improvisation.
This was naturally reflected in the training sessions we conducted.
For example, it was about training sales teams to conduct customer meetings virtually and make a professional impression. Leaders asked themselves: “Okay, what do I need to do now? And how do I do it when everyone is at home and we only work together virtually?”
This was, of course, mainly a “problem for people who work in offices.” We know that only about 40% of employed people in Germany are even eligible for home office. But the Corona situation has naturally also changed, for example, collaboration and issues for leaders in production, logistics, etc. When everyone is working from home, some on short-time work, but logistics is working overtime because shift work has been introduced for hygiene or Corona reasons, as a leader after many, many months, I naturally have a team that does not appreciate this and increasingly has no acceptance for this suddenly introduced shift work. This is just one of the many practical examples I experienced last year.
The Transition from Phase 1 to Phase 2
Supporting people in managing this situation and challenges and working properly under the difficult conditions of COVID-19 is Phase 1 for me. And I believe we are now in Phase 2. 2.
Phase 2 means finally implementing what I and many other colleagues have been calling for a long time: namely, truly establishing rules for so-called New Work. Which rarely means what founder Frithjof Bergmann actually meant. But we must decide what virtual work should look like. What makes sense? What might be counterproductive? What do our communication channels look like? Simply rolling out Microsoft Teams and providing everyone with initial enablement was Phase 1. Now it is about determining which channels we no longer need. Where is project-relevant information actually stored? How can we avoid redundancies? We must clarify all of this now.
Phase 3: The New Normal
This is also reflected in the inquiries we increasingly receive. Management and organizational developers are now demanding solutions for Phase 3: the new normal. One does not even want to use this term anymore because it has been used and thus worn out too often. But it is, of course, still somehow true.
We need a new design of the future workplace, which has already partially begun. And we must now really decide which tools we want to continue working with in the future. What will be the percentage of employees working from home? How many conversations with customers will continue to take place virtually, etc.? And that is exactly why the current situation is so important for all those responsible for designing these rules, standards, and processes.
And I believe this phase will also be important for everyone who advises and trains in the areas of professional communication and collaboration, leadership, and sales. Increasingly, it is about the interaction and collaboration between people and technology. As a trainer, consultant, and learning designer, I can no longer avoid this. I must understand where the journey is heading, what solutions exist, and what the requirements for employees will look like in one, two, three, five years. Drawing the four-ears model and the change curve on flipcharts and telling nice stories will no longer be enough.
The question for the two topics mentioned—communication and change—is:
- What tools does my client use?
- What processes exist there?
- What rules?
- Okay, there are no rules?
Then training might not make sense at all for now. This is not new at all. Good trainers have also conducted thorough assessments in the past and often determined: Training is not the solution. We need to go much deeper and first analyze the situation. But this now also includes knowing and understanding current and future solutions.
“This All Makes No Sense”
I am currently conducting a lot of training in the area of live online training. Sometimes I am also invited as a guest; there are initial introductory rounds. And I often experience the desire for a return to the normal of before, the old normal. And what I often experience is that colleagues who are the same age as me or perhaps even significantly older feel justified: “This cannot continue, these short online sessions. This all makes no sense, etc.” Such a frequently repeated credo or mantra.
But it is completely irrelevant how I, as an old white man, criticize current trends. What matters is what the reality of the working world looks like and how my clients perceive it. And these are often participants the age of my children.
Those who believe they can explain what the future looks like from the command post of bygone times will be surprised. They will not even get a bloody nose, but will simply stand very alone on their command post of knowledge and experience from the last 30 years. Because the new generation of decision-makers often does not even openly engage in these conflicts, but simply withdraws from communication.
Ghosting is a phenomenon in dating and relationship building, but is increasingly becoming relevant in the business context as well. The end of collaboration is no longer even explained, but simply executed—not as a formal act, but one is simply out.
Those who do not want to suffer this sad fate must get fit, dive into the brave new world of online collaboration, new ways of working with virtual tools, and experience for themselves what works or does not work. Only then can we continue to participate and contribute our important experience. Because, of course, communication in the virtual world is not just logical, but still psychological. Nothing has changed about our brain, and it is even less suited for the new collaborative and thus even more complex world than for the old world of 2019. That was already complex enough.
Mindset, Skillset, Toolset
And that is exactly the widespread mistake of those who believe the solution to all challenges lies only in selecting the right tool. The good old triangle of mindset, skillset, toolset still applies, of course.
And in a country like Germany, where we cannot send all people beyond Generation Y into early retirement, it does matter how I can bring people aged 45 and up into the new world, get them to view virtual meetings with customers not as a temporary emergency solution, but as a welcome expansion and change to their professional and everyday life.
And that is, after all, all about psychology. Emotions, communication—people my age are pleased because I can say: Yes, that is exactly it. I am excellent at that. I know my way around. I know what matters. True. But if I do not know how Microsoft Teams really works well, if when it comes to Viva I currently do not think of Microsoft Viva but of an old TV channel that broadcast music videos, I am simply no longer up to date.
Therefore: My small phase model 1, 2, 3 also applies to us, to me as a trainer, consultant, organizational developer, coach, etc. It is no longer about simply keeping our business models alive online, but about developing new solutions that truly meet our clients’ needs.
Each of us must now decide: Are we still part of the new normal? My thesis here is: Many overestimate themselves and believe their content and experience competence from the old world would be just as in demand in the new world. I believe that is unfortunately not the case, regardless of whether that is good or bad.
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