How to Survive and Thrive During the Post-Pandemic Recovery (Video and Podcast)

As we continue to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and adjust to the post-pandemic world, it’s important to identify and meet your basic needs. That’s the key take-away message of this episode of the Wise Decision Maker Show, which describes how to survive and thrive during the post-pandemic recovery.

Video: “How to Survive and Thrive During the Post-Pandemic Recovery”

Podcast: “How to Survive and Thrive During the Post-Pandemic Recovery”

Links Mentioned in Videocast and Podcast

• Here is the article about how you can thrive after this pandemic.
• The book Never Go With Your Gut: How Pioneering Leaders Make the Best Decisions and Avoid Business Disasters is available here
• The book Resilience: Adapt and Plan for the New Abnormal of the COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic is available here
• You are welcome to register for the free Wise Decision Maker Course 

Transcript

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the wise decision maker show where we help you make the wisest and most profitable decisions. We’re in a wonderful time where vaccines, at least in the US, and in the UK, are available, widespread, available to whoever wants them. So we’re entering a stage of post pandemic recovery. And that’s great. I’m so excited about it. And you and I, and everyone need to figure out how to survive and thrive in this new stage in our lives this post pandemic recovery. And that’s what today’s show is about how to survive and thrive in the post pandemic recovery. So the first thing to understand is to go back to the context, the history, what happened with COVID. Very briefly, of course, it very much disrupted our reality very much changed everything in March 2020. With the lockdowns funded, our professional lives depended our personal lives, all of these were changed drastically, dramatically, by COVID, whether it’s our households that are disrupted, whether it’s our jobs that were disrupted, all of that led to massive work life imbalance, led to a lot of changes led to a lot of shifts. So that’s the broader context from which you’re coming into this post pandemic recovery. And again, there are lots of cycles of up down COVID surge, not surge, conflict, seven of our masks and not masks, issues with working from home, all of that sort of stuff. That’s where we’re coming from. So if you understand the context with which we’re going into the post pandemic, recovery, and face this new abnormal spouse, pandemic recovery, with clear eyes, not just kind of, you know, rainbows and unicorns and denying everything that happened. But with clear eyes, we must acknowledge what’s real, what are the facts on the ground here, where we’re coming from, how people are thinking, how people are feeling, this history of the pandemic. For the goals, one of the goals of doing so we want to thrive and not just survive. So thriving means flourishing. That means in every area of your life, doing what you want to do in your professional life, achieving your goals, in your personal life, achieving your goals in your Fitness, Health, whatever, all sorts of things with your family, with your social life, that’s personal life, your professional life, your career, your business, your organization, whatever it is thriving, meaning achieving your goals, feeling fulfilled, not just surviving, then just getting by. That’s the goal of succeeding effectively, in this new post pandemic recovery in this new post pandemic reality, which is the, we’re still not quite there yet. We’re in the recovery stage from the pandemic and the tail end of the pandemic. So we say, and to do so, effectively, we must fight these dangerous judgment errors known as cognitive biases, which you’ve probably heard before, if you’ve checked out the wise decision maker show that these are the dangerous judgment errors we make as human beings, just because of how our brains are wired. Our brains are not wired for the modern environment. They’re wired for the savanna environment, when we lived in small tribes of 15 people, 250 people, and we had to respond to threats very immediately in life or death situations or the fight or flight response. We might have heard of it as a saber toothed Tiger response where you have to jump at 100 shadows in order to get away from that one saber toothed tiger, you might notice that many of us saber toothed tigers in the modern environment, but we still react with the fight or flight response. And we still have very strong tribal responses in the modern environment. Neither of those are great. And there are many, many other problems that come from this event environment. The specific ways our brain goes wrong. Because of the savanna environment, because of its structure of the brain are called cognitive biases. These are mental blind spots that lead us to make bad bad judgment errors. The biggest one for the pandemic. And the post pandemic recovery is called the normalcy bias. The normalcy bias. That’s the biggest problem for the post pandemic recovery stage in which we’re in right now, as well as it was for the pandemic. That’s the perception that the future will be much like a date. That was a safe bet in this event environment. I mean, what’s going to change the seasons is the main change for winter, spring, summer fall. That’s the main change in the Savannah environment. But that’s what happens in the modern environment. Our environment is very disrupted, very disrupted by the pandemic before that 2008 2009 fiscal crisis. by things like the rise of the smartphone, the rise of the Internet and so on. You can still remember back to the 1990s when you had to get out The internet for the phone that sounded II. You, we, for those, you know, an agent, clearly I’m aging myself. But yes, this is something that really reveals my age. But that’s something that was a major disrupter for my environment from my life. And it’s something that is a major factor in our modern environment that, despite us feeling that the future will be much like to date, things will be normal. That’s not what actually ends up happening, the future is much more disrupted than we thought. So it’s much more disrupted. And thus, we tend to minimize the impact of the disruption of the pandemic. So we minimize the impact of the pandemic destruction. Despite the fact that the post pandemic recovery will not go back to what we imagined everything being normal, the prior pandemic, the anti pandemic, normal, that’s what we imagined. But we will never go back to that time that prior to the pandemic, January 2020, that’s just not in the cards, things happened, we changed, our life changed. And we will all will keep a lot of these changes that came from the pandemic, that’s pandemic changed our habits, how we behave, I mean, how long good we stay under lockdown masks, working from home virtual interactions, all of that sort of stuff, ordering global groceries, online, whatever you’re doing, all of that sort of stuff, not seeing our family’s values, how what we value, what we care about the risks, problems, health issues, all of those are changed in significant ways, our preferences, what we prefer to do. So many people now prefer much more to work from home, we have surveys indicating that over half of all employees who work from home would much much rather have worked from home more than half the time. But rather than go back to the office, and that’s a serious issue, we have other plenty of other preferences. I mean, let’s say people are cooking at home much more. So they will not be going out to restaurants, nearly the same rate as they were previously, our desires, and so on. All of these things are changed in fundamental ways, what we value, what we want, our habits, our preferences, so everything will not go back to normal. So after the pandemic, some of the things that you need to be thinking about, there will continue to be a lot more work from home. And this is not simply coming from the employee surveys employers are definitely planning to do a lot more hybrid work where people are mostly working from home downsizing the office, some companies are moving to fully remote allowing some or all workers to work fully remote leanness is not only tech companies, this is major old traditional companies like say Nationwide Insurance right here where I am in Columbus, Ohio globex. So that’s companies moving a lot of people to the, to the home working from home. And I count the number of companies transitioning to having at least one of their employees work from home permanently. And many all who are capable, basically, of having a hybrid model of them coming in maybe like two days a week or so. And some coming in weather ones who are working permanently from home maybe once a quarter to meet with their teams. So work from home will continue. And hybrid work will continue that will just continue to a large extent. After the pandemic, we’ll have a lot more virtual interactions, of course, not only at work, but in all sorts of professional settings where we have professional meetings and personal meetings where we meet with people, where we interact with service professionals and say, lawyers, real estate or someone you’re checking out some house in a different state where we want to move or someone we’re not going to go there. We’re going to have those virtual tours and so on lots more virtual interactions of various sorts, the game night will be a lot more virtual. So social life will be a lot more virtual entertainment will be a lot more virtual people will be doing much more streaming concerts will not come back at the previous rate they were theatres and so on. No matter how much these venues believe they will, fitness, people are going to do a lot more online fitness, a lot more of everything that they were doing at home. After the pandemic, of course, gyms will see a pickup and yoga studios but not nearly to the same extent that they had before the pandemic, education a lot more online education will continue to take place even after the pandemic, no question about it. So, and more broadly, there will be an orientation towards risk avoidance folks throughout the world, I can guarantee you this will be much more wary of risks will be much more avoidant of risks after the pandemic, in this post pandemic recovery and after the pandemic than they were before. So this is a substantial shift. These are all substantial shifts that you need to be thinking about for yourself , for your organization, for your household, what will be happening in this post pandemic recovery, and after the pandemic itself ends. Now, what you want to understand in order to survive and thrive. So understanding this shift, understanding of facing reality, understanding, we will never go back to January 2020, you want to define your post pandemic needs. So what’s going to be happening with yourself? What are these fundamental needs? Because the habits, values, preferences, desires changed, but our underlying needs didn’t. So think about what are these underlying needs, and how do you satisfy them, because those needs those wants, they remain the same those underlying fundamental urges, and that are free in particular, which needs to be satisfied, free needs, which you need to satisfy in order to make sure that you survive and thrive, that makes sure that you survive and thrive here are the three critical needs that you need to satisfy. So first, satisfy them differently, though, than you did before the pandemic. So let’s talk about those three needs that you need to satisfy in a different way before the pandemic. So fundamental needs of connection. So first, connecting with others, you’ll need to meet this differently after the pandemic, because we’ll have a lot more virtual interactions, you’ll still have a lot more virtual interactions with your colleagues, because you’ll be doing hybrid work or maybe full time remote work. And that will happen I mean, even people who are full time in the office will be doing a lot more virtual meetings than they previously did. No matter how much or little, you might like virtual meetings. So connection with colleagues, and connection with other people in your household. in your community, you’ll be doing a lot more virtual connection than you previously were. So that’s something for you to realize, understand that something these trends will be happening. And you need to figure out where you fall in these trends and how you will make sure that you satisfy your needs, your desires for connection in a different way. And of course, in the post pandemic recovery, we’re still in the tail end of the pandemic, you have to be thinking about, well, who’s vaccinated, who’s not, how do I interact with them, masks are masks off in their house, and so on, for and in the job in the workplace, and so on. All of these sorts of things will be part of the conversation that we’re entering into in the post pandemic recovery. Then safety, or some of these things, we’re talking about how to deal with safety of masks of, but also keeping yourself safe from risks. Like I told you, people will be much more risk avoidant after the pandemic, and you likely are more risk avoidant after the pandemic, or in other terms more realistic, around the risks because it will clearly be very much too optimistic about the risks prior to the pandemic. So think about how to prepare yourself not simply for the next pandemic, but other major disruptors in your world, in your business. For you, if you’re a business leader, think about that business continuity plan for major major disruptions. The next pandemic, the next thing a solar flare. And, you know, next hurricane or tornado, same thing for your household, how will you prepare for that major cyber attack of all that sort of stuff? How will you prepare for that, so make sure that you are safe, make sure that you have resources prepared, whatever resources you need to stay safe in your professional life and in your personal life. So that’s one, that’s the next thing. And the last one that you need to know as a fundamental need to meet is your self esteem. Now, connection and safety might be more obvious, but self esteem is a really critical one. Again, this is all based on research around our fundamental needs of self esteem is a really critical fundamental need, where we need to feel confident about ourselves, esteem ourselves, respect ourselves. And that comes from our ability to feel good about ourselves to feel good about our own our lives, about our progress, about the kind of life we lead about what we want to accomplish, you might want to for example, take up a new skill, learn something, develop yourself, as a person grow, feel good about yourself. Or if you’re doing things like let’s say raising a family, make sure that you’re raising your family in a way that makes you feel proud that you’re raising your kids in a certain way, or that you’re running your business in a certain way or that you’re developing your career in a certain way. All of these sorts of things feed into your self esteem. And you got to be thinking about how you fulfill that need in this post pandemic recovery in this different time. So think about that. Think about how to fulfill these different needs in the Different time the spouse pandemic environment, the tail end of the pandemic and the boss pandemic environment, the connection need the safety, the self esteem, because we’re never go back to that idyllic time of January 2020, we will have a lot more virtual interactions, people will be a lot more risk avoidant, there’ll be a lot more hybrid in the remote work. So think about all these things, as we’re entering the post pandemic recovery, to make sure that you survive and thrive in your professional and your personal life. All right, this has been another episode of the wise decision maker show. I hope you’ve liked this show. If so, make sure to subscribe to whatever venue you’re listening to, or watching. We have both video cast and the podcast version. So please check those out in the show notes a lot more information about how to survive and thrive in the pandemic is going to be in the post pandemic recovery is going to be in the show notes of blogs, books, and so on. And I hope that you will comment on the show. How did you like it? We’d love to hear your comments, love to hear your feedback. Please leave your thoughts in the comment notes. leave a review on whatever venue you’re checking us out. Alright everyone. I hope you’ve enjoyed this show. And I will look forward to seeing you next time on the wire decision maker show. And until that time, the wisest most profitable decisions to you, my friends. 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai 

Bio: Dr. Gleb Tsipursky is an internationally-renowned thought leader in future-proofing and cognitive bias risk management. He serves as the CEO of the boutique future-proofing consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts, which specializes in helping forward-looking leaders avoid dangerous threats and missed opportunities. A best-selling author, he wrote Never Go With Your Gut: How Pioneering Leaders Make the Best Decisions and Avoid Business Disasters (Career Press, 2019), The Blindspots Between Us: How to Overcome Unconscious Cognitive Bias and Build Better Relationships (New Harbinger, 2020), and Resilience: Adapt and Plan for the New Abnormal of the COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic (Changemakers Books, 2020). His writing was translated into Chinese, Korean, German, Russian, Polish, and other languages. He was featured in over 550 articles and 450 interviews in prominent venues. These include Fortune, USA Today, Inc. Magazine, CBS News, Business Insider, Government Executive, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Time, Fast Company, and elsewhere. His expertise comes from over 20 years of consulting, coaching, and speaking and training for mid-size and large organizations ranging from Aflac to Xerox. It also comes from over 15 years in academia as a behavioral scientist, including 7 as a professor at Ohio State University. You can contact him at Gleb[at]DisasterAvoidanceExperts[dot]com, LinkedIn, Twitter @gleb_tsipursky, Instagram @dr_gleb_tsipursky, Medium @dr_gleb_tsipursky, and gain free access to his “Assessment on Dangerous Judgment Errors in the Workplace” and his “Wise Decision Maker Course” with 8 video-based modules.