Most of the time, when I hear people talk about the "New Normal" they're talking about face-masks, social distancing and remote working. But I think the new normality we face will impact us much more broadly than that.

I see a confluence of three factors;

1. COVID-19 and future more frequent pandemics,
2. Climate change, and,
3. Global societal changes.

The result of these will, in my opinion, create a new normal that is underpinned by significant societal change leading to a world where we are all challenged to frequently adapt to our new, rapidly changing environments.

I'll be looking out for companies and technologies that are ready for the new normal. Let me know if there's a company you think I should take a look at.

Societal Changes

Both, the coronavirus pandemic and climate change are already causing changes and shifts in our societies. I want to touch on just a couple of points relating to this, that I hope stimulate wider thinking - Pandemic driven change, and, Climate driven change.

Pandemic driven change

Companies have been forced into adopting digital strategies that were previously consider too complex, risky or costly. This is resulting in companies that have decided to fully adopt distributed teams, others that will try to bring some staff back into the office for at least a few days a week, and a few that will try to get back to the old normal as soon as they can.

Amongst all of this, workers are learning new skills, discovering that they don't need to choose employment, housing, or schools that allow them to commute to an office. Indeed, a friend recently moved his family from London to Cornwall, as there was no longer a need to commute or "be in town".

Employers are discovering they don't need to spend fortunes on real-estate and that they can now reach previously unreachable talent, globally.

For both employee and employer, a new world awaits, with new reach, new competitors and new potential.

But this doesn't come for free. New, distributed companies will emerge, and under the radar, they will take previously untouchable companies by surprise.

Employees, or perhaps to break that paradigm too, "workers", will struggle with the human side of remote working, most notably mental and physical health, and employers will struggle to find the balance between their obligations to care for their workers and intrusive invasions of personal privacy.

Insurance, taxation, crime, housing and real-estate in general will all feel the change, too. These will, in turn, be catalysts for further societal change.

Further reading on this topic

I've selected four posts below that touch on some of the topics above. Carry on reading, for more thoughts on Climate driven changes.