Covid-19: professional reorganization and reflection between digitalization, health crisis and ecological crisis
We're all living in an extraordinary situation, and I imagine we're all trying to acclimatize to our new environment, tools and possibilities. If we look in the rear-view mirror, it's quite simply the nature of mankind: to continually adapt to change. I offer you this humble sharing of experience, may these few words be useful to you in your assignments and situations.
How digital tools support the situation
Logically, my employer (Siemens) made recommendations along the lines of home office. It's a well-known practice, adapted to the activities of my division, which is made up of some 20 people spread across Switzerland, with the right tools at its disposal and a well-informed management style, based on trust and common sense. As in the rest of Europe, Monday March 16 was a busy day for me. Working in business development, in the service of "energy transition and smart infrastructure" developments, I had to deal with cancelling appointments, setting up teleconferences, and taking into account the numerous directives from all sides. Our personal agenda has also had to adapt, in the knowledge that we are fortunate enough not to be among the thousands of employees and directors, small and medium-sized businesses and other institutions that have been hit hard. So what's the situation today, and what contribution is digitalization making to our activities?
The new cruising speed has been set. Our employer, as an industrial leader notably in Smart Building solutions, has already dematerialized its own infrastructure enormously, bringing together 380,000 employees. I was impressed by this when I was hired. Human resources and a large number of training courses are available online, along with our teleconferencing and chat tools, our classic online office, wikis and a wide variety of other media. Our smart cards PKI and other VPN and security methods enable us to access our cloud solutions and servers, on computers and cell phones. There were a few bugs and slowdowns in the early days, but by and large everything has returned to normal. In addition, we've set up 6 or 7 other teleconferencing platforms, to suit different customers and situations, accompanying e-mails, chats and calls between colleagues, online meetings with webcam and screen sharing, classic GSM calls between two or more people, WhatsApp groups with friends and Qi Gong sessions in video with the group. It's all pretty well functional, both professionally and personally. It's also possible that over the next few days our working time will be reduced, to be consistent with the technical divisions, which have had to slow down considerably due to the closure of the construction sites. We're adapting. Also in terms of the day-to-day transition of the whole team, generating, incidentally, empathy and sympathy, seeing, for example, the children sometimes pass by during e-meetings. Pretty good for team cohesion...
I imagine that all this is classic for many of us. And we realize that we're lucky to be in a group that already had a reliable digital infrastructure.
Between loss of productivity and reorganization of activities
Day-to-day tasks have adapted to the tools and resources available, and to the expectations and needs of the field, while maintaining the course of recalibrated objectives. There is certainly a loss of productivity through the postponement of opportunities; seen from another angle, a large number of trips are cancelled and appointments transferred online. The result is a great saving of time that can be revalued. Reducing the number of sales calls also means that we can refocus on other "back office" activities, which is also a real opportunity. We've never worked together as much as we have over the last few days, and we've made progress on important subjects, often carried away by the urgency of everyday life (illustration: Eisenhower matrix).
In our case, therefore, it's more a question of transferring tasks than of losing value outright. It's a rich period of refocusing that should bear fruit, when the business picks up again, which we expect to happen this autumn. Given the marathon, it's just as important to keep the threads "in the field". And it will be different, there will be a before and after Covid-19. I'm betting that this new teleconferencing habit, which I feel has been under-utilized up to now for a number of reasons, will remain firmly anchored in our daily lives, reducing our travel and related problems (e.g. CO2 emissions) and freeing up more useful time, with a gain in efficiency. It also seems to me that everyone listens to each other better, thanks to the capabilities of the tool (difficult to speak at the same time) and the overall atmosphere.
Once the urgency of the health crisis has passed, how will we tackle the importance of the climate crisis?
This is not the right time to talk about "energy transition and smart infrastructure", as current priorities are elsewhere. However, there are still some interesting opportunities for discussion, thanks to the time available for many players, given the general downturn in activity. And it's also in times of crisis that it's a good idea to look further ahead; every major change brings with it its extraordinary share of positive developments. We all know that the climate crisis is clearly a priority for our companies, and I like to think that the fallout from the health crisis will be very constructive in this area. While Covid-19 sadly impacts the human species, it's important to remember that it just as sadly impacts the entire functioning of our planet, causing just as much suffering to other species and ecosystems. This analogy is about to resurface, accompanying the "green wave" as well as current awareness of the resilience and action strengths of our institutions and organizations.
From the angle of the three pillars of sustainable development: the last economic crisis was managed, and the current health and social crisis reminds us that our systems are at the service of people (and not the other way round). So let's dreamof investing the same major efforts to solve the ecological crisis!
For the first time, humanity, fully interconnected and self-aware, is really looking in the same direction. Forced to face up together to this "new invisible and deadly enemy", just as CO2 is, also generating thousands of human casualties and other major destruction. Covid-19 refocuses on a quest for meaning and humanism in the new millennium. This awareness must build the future, and enable us to invest the resources needed to face the challenges of climate emergency and sustainability. And who knows, perhaps it will soon be oil and coal extraction that states will decide to totally and definitively confine, to achieve the energy transition desired by new generations!
So, it is with humility but conviction, with optimistic but conscious naivety, that I propose to see this crisis situation as an opportunity for the future. With my sincere and best encouragement for our medical and social institutions, for our political organizations and economic circles, and for all those who are currently facing the shock head-on. May we all weather this storm in the best possible conditions. Let's continue our transitional life together, thanks in particular to the Internet, and move forward into a 21st century that is connected, digital, ethical, responsible, humane and sustainable!
