Mindset Matters: Lessons Learned From The Year That Sucked!

Summer is coming to a close, as we head into the home stretch, we can now look at this past year with perhaps some greater insight and perspective and begin to find some key lessons that will be helpful in the years to come. In the world of work, we are learning that business is in a constant state of flux. Despite the hiccups early on everyone from small businesses to large companies have had to learn how to adapt and continue to develop more robust strategies to meet the needs of employees as well as the demands of their customers. This year has also led to a reinvention of consumer behavior that has pushed businesses to rethink how they engage these end-users and develop creative ways to sell products.

One of the lasting impressions of the year that sucked is the fact that companies were faced with the question of how consumer behavior has changed, not only in the basic attraction of a product and service but the real sense of need. As COVID presented new barriers in brick and mortar stores, a new question arose, how can organizations utilize the platform of online shopping in new ways to not only enhance the shopping experience but find avenues to create a singular relationship between the product or service and the end-user? As organizations prepare to move forward in a post COVID world, everyone from marketing directors to those in product design has to reassess the value of experience as something that will be paramount in the sales cycle for all goods and services.

Another takeaway from the year that sucked that cannot be overlooked is the need to embrace issues of diversity and inclusion. We have seen the violence of police brutality played across our television screens, the emergence of a new generation of activists, and the evolution amongst corporate culture to embrace the importance of Black Lives Matter. We are at a moment where representation matters, where film and television are exploring the stories of persons with disabilities like never before, where actors with a range of disabilities are showing Hollywood that the axiom “Nothing About Us Without Us” has a true meaning that can no longer be minimized. What we are witnessing is the role that diversity and inclusion play as a pathway to an awakening of intersectionality that spans across political, social, and economic boundaries. Perhaps this year will teach us that each of these elements is fundamental to create real change.

However, this year has also shown us that diversity and inclusion need the commercial aspect of culture to serve as the driver for social and political change. As we have seen this year, from Netflix films such as Crip Camp to Phoenix Rising, each in their own way tell the story of the disability evolution, one from the perspective of politics and the other from sport. Each is equally important in that they are a reminder that art and commerce can help push the human spirit even in times of trouble to illustrate the potential of what the world could be.

As we’ve spent a considerable amount of time sitting at home in self-isolation or quarantine, people continue to struggle with a sense of existential angst. This should lead companies to reassess their mission and think about their goals, values, and future. They must begin to reconsider their brand and what that will look like in the post COVID world where people are now thinking in earnest what is most important to them and their families. Companies need to think about what their responsibilities are to themselves and their customer base. They need to ask themselves, what matters to them, and how do they see that as essential to their long-term growth?

As we look upon these challenges in the coming months and years at the dawn of this new awakening, perhaps the most challenging test for organizations will be their ability to rethink their business strategy in broader terms.  Companies need to ask how they need to define themselves beyond sales and profit and become more fluent in their ability to speak in culture?  How will these organizations find more effective solutions to have the capability to reach a broad swath of potential consumers whose experiences are diverse and whose needs are different? These fundamental questions will serve as a springboard for a new wave to business thinking that will be imminent.

Despite living through a year that sucks, corporate culture can serve as a way to articulate what is possible under great duress. It now needs to continue this journey and find greater pathways of connection so that we as a species can push forward through one of the darkest chapters of human history and reclaim the promise of possibility.

By Jonathan Kaufman, Contributor