Do you feel the same way? -We have spent our entire year with Corona. Corona, corona, corona. – Nobody can hear it anymore!
The Covid19 outbreak in 2020 has triggered an incredible amount of change. Not only does our everyday life look completely different today than it did a year ago, 2020 has also changed us as people and as a society. We will never be the same again.

We don’t want many of the changes in the world and society. And yet, whether we like it or not, we are constantly faced with new circumstances and we have to accept and deal with them. But how do we do that?

We have thought about the tasks that Corona presents us with:

• What are the demands on us as a company and on us as people?
• What is happening in our society?
• And above all: what should we do, what attitude is needed now?

We took our cue from the word corona and spelled it differently. How have we experienced the last few weeks, what describes our society in the run-up to Christmas?

C
Complex, more than ever…

O
Obliged to find new solutions
R Resistant to accept the vital need to share
O Open society-averse
N Not willing to listen to each other
A Addicted to story tellers

C
Complex, more than ever…

More complex than ever…

Yes, the world is complex. The acronym VUCA has already told us enough about this. But the pandemic has revealed more complexity than ever before.
The vaccine is a good example. We need a vaccine quickly. We wonder how long the development of Vaxin will take. And as soon as it is in sight, the next questions arise: who will get it first? Who decides on what basis? How is it distributed? How is the supply chain ensured – because some vaccines have to be stored at -70°? And what if the new mutation brings additional challenges? We simply don’t know. The complexity with which things are interwoven today is not only surprising, but also moving, because we learn a lot about ourselves and our society. Must. Because the crisis reveals the character…

O
Obliged to find new solutions

Committed to finding new ways

We won’t get anywhere with the way we’ve acted so far. New challenges need new solutions. There is no point in continuing to develop the old concepts. We all – me and you, companies, employees, the world – have the task of finding new solutions! Because individual success, the success of an industry, is not enough. We have only found new ways when we help each other, stand up for each other and stand back instead of looking for people to blame.

R
Resistant to accept the vital need to share

Refusing to accept that sharing is vital

When we develop an awareness that everything is complex and interconnected, then we also see that we are connected as human beings. And that in turn means that we won’t get anywhere if we think exclusively in terms of “us and them”, of “mine and yours”. We need a willingness to share.
Sharing is already a term that is used in various constellations: CarSharing or Information Sharing. But the willingness to share, which we consider essential, goes even further. This is not an attitude along the lines of “I have so much, so I’ll give a bit away” or “Yes, you can also share”. The attitude we need is the realization that sharing is (more than) vital. It is in all our interests to look at where something is most urgently needed and to lower our own expectations.

How can this be applied to society?

In 2021, there will be distribution battles – not only for the vaccine, but also for economic opportunities, for the survival of creative artists, restaurateurs and other industries.
If those who need it most do not receive the vaccine first, this will affect us all.
If entire industries collapse, this has an impact on society and therefore also on us. We are strongly networked, we are all connected, we are all in the same boat. We can only get through difficult times together!
We should give up our resistance to this realization.

O Open society-averse

Aversion to an open society

The best way to find new solutions is to adopt new ways of looking at things. Old ways of thinking will not lead us to new solutions. Other perspectives, on the other hand, allow us to take different approaches. Here we need to be open to others, to the unfamiliar.
The concept of the open society helps us to do this. To do this, we have to leave our “bubble” and engage with people and positions that contradict our own convictions.

Open to the unknown

It doesn’t help us to have a plan and to exclude those who don’t fit in. We need free development opportunities, both socially and in companies. Populist attitudes that differentiate between “us and them”, that harbor aversions to an open society, that want to “go back” are slowing down constructive developments.
To be able to be truly open with each other, we need to be attentive to each other, we need to trust each other and be honest with each other. In this way, we can also open ourselves up to the unknown. Being open to strangers does not mean “I lose my core, my essence”. It means being true to yourself and at the same time being open to the unknown. We will need this balance!

N
Not willing to listen to each other

Not willing to listen to each other

You’ve probably experienced it yourself: one person says something and the others immediately start talking. Everyone just wants to express their own opinion, the others are not listened to at all. People shoot at each other with pejoratives such as covidiots, sleeping sheep and so on. But there is often no exchange, understanding or even a desire to understand.
But that’s exactly what we need at the moment: to hear each other.
Someone has an opinion that you find completely strange? Then talk to each other!
If we don’t listen to each other, then we can’t understand. That is a very banal message.

A
Addicted to story tellers

Depending on storytellers

The current situation: there is a lot of pressure due to the virus, the restrictions, the economic situation and, on top of that, we have a great deal of complexity that makes orientation difficult. So how do we want to obtain the best information as quickly as possible in order to find the best solutions?
We need people who know and understand the facts and can simplify and explain them so that we then do what seems right now. At the moment, for example, we are dependent on what virologists, epidemiologists and infectologists tell us about their field. This is both a curse and a blessing. Because it is wonderful that there are highly specialized experts who share their knowledge. However, in an incredible number of cases we do not have the opportunity to check facts because we lack the basic knowledge and cannot acquire it in the shortest possible time.
Nevertheless, these stories are the basis for our further actions. How am I going to deduce for myself from the facts what is a good course of action in the pandemic? I’m checkmated. Thank you when Mr. Drosten tells me a good, credible story. We are dependent on these stories. Unfortunately.
Because, of course, there are also storytellers on the other side – from whom we all take an intellectual moral distance – who want to tell completely different stories; who want to set themselves apart, lump others together and stir up fantasies. We have all heard various conspiracy stories that have no factual basis.
The difficulty in the current situation is: who do I believe his story? Why do I believe them? – Because it fits into my value framework? No matter how likeable someone may seem to me, does that allow conclusions to be drawn about the factual content of their story? Here we are all challenged to form our opinion based on the facts! – And that’s where it gets complex again – which brings us back to the beginning with the C…

Let’s write a good story with many people in 2021!

2021
– What’s next?

The Corona acronym gives us some tasks for next year. The most important message is:
Let’s make sure that we behave responsibly in the near future!
Sharing and being there for each other in a benevolent and caring way should be our fundamental attitude in 2021!
Because the world needs a bit more of that right now than slogans like “America first”…