We all know that sustainability is a given today, and fortunately many people and companies have started making serious efforts to move towards a more sustainable future. Well, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is these initiatives aren’t working,  and what we’re doing  isn’t enough. The good news is that there is a way to accelerate the shift.

In their article Sustainability is the next digital, my former colleagues of Bain&Company brought to light two key facts: 

• only 4% of sustainability programs achieve their goal (vs 12% for all change programs)
• a bit less than one sustainability initiative out of 2 (47%) simply fail (vs 1 in 5 for all change programs). 

 

This is a result our society and the planet simply cannot afford.

Following this alarming observation, the authors provide interesting perspectives to help companies improve their success rate. Yet it seems that they are missing a key element and opportunity: unleashing the mobilising power of a few people will tip the balance towards guaranteed success.

Sustainability transition is not just a matter of strategy and operations. Remember Peter Drucker’s quote, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”? In the case of sustainability strategy, the last decade of successes and drawbacks leads me to adapt this to “Culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch and dinner”! If we want to accelerate a successful shift towards more sustainable businesses, the fundamental question to ask ourselves is: How do we accelerate corporate culture change? How do we get a high number of people to embrace change faster? 

In nature energy is essential to all living things. Corporate transformation is no different: it is fueled by the energy the stakeholders put into it. So how can we unlock the maximum change energy behind sustainability transformation?

A common pitfall in organizational engagement programs is to consider all stakeholders equal. Yet, just like we have seen superspreaders of the coronavirus, some of our stakeholders are superspreaders of change. They have a much greater desire and energy to put behind the transformation than others and will drive uncomparable impact. 

 

We call them the change frontrunners.

Once in motion and empowered with the right tools and structure, they spread their energy like no one, impacting the culture locally and shifting mindsets much more rapidly than you could ever have dreamed of with classic “engagement of all” frameworks. 

Are they substitutes to your change programs? No. But they will speed up the awareness, the engagement and the contribution to the change program through all layers of the organisation. And by their close proximity to local internal and external stakeholders, they contribute to build the organisation’s capacity for empathic understanding (meaning its capacity to tune in and adapt to the diversity of perspectives that forms the organization), which is another key element of successful change. Our experience at Innate Motion has shown that they offer higher quantity and quality of change than any other corporate change programs.

 

How to identify and mobilise the change frontrunners ?

Innate Motion’s 15 years experience of unlocking human potential in businesses and empathy-powered journeys of transformation led us to define a 4-step approach to mobilizing change frontrunners behind corporate sustainability transformation:

STEP 1: Trigger excitement. Formulate a Mobilising Change Idea that will be used as a rally call for the change frontrunners. It will voice the overarching job to be done to progress towards the sustainability vision and is therefore the necessary magnet for change frontrunners to feel attracted by and decide to steer their energy behind. 

Too often we see the corporate world talk of “Sustainability 2030”. This is neither a vision nor a Mobilising Change idea. It doesn’t state what vision of the future the company will contribute to nor acknowledge the starting point and the job to be done. If that’s what you have today, it might be time to re-think it.

For guidance, consider each word on its own:

• Mobilising: It has been carefully crafted on the base of all stakeholders’ ambitions to ensure it is aspirational and has the capacity to get many engaged behind it. 
• Change: it requires important transformation from the organisation.
• Idea: it is not a reality yet, it is an ideal.

In practice: 

Unilever’s Mobilising Change Idea that drives their ambition to make sustainable living commonplace.

STEP 2: Drive affiliation. Unify the change frontrunners into a tight alliance where they will combine their energy for exponential impact. Get them to connect with each other, to have deep conversations, to share meaningful experiences and to collectively sign a pact for impact. For these change pioneers to be at their best, they need a safe, shared community to learn, co-create and be inspired.

Depending on the size and the complexity of your organisation, there can be several alliances created. External alliances with partners are also key to sustainability transitions, and mobilising your partners is a powerful tool to accelerate impact. 

STEP 3: Build empowerment. Enable the change frontrunners to drive local engagement and contribution. This means you can’t expect them to behave as communication relays focused on driving awareness of your change program. 

In order to shift mindsets and really impact the company culture, they need to have the latitude to adapt the change ambition to the local context and encourage local contribution. Culture is guided by values but based on shared stories. And there are no better stories than the ones we can add a verse to: empower your change frontrunners, and create a stage for them where they can share the stories from their micro community, fostering the transformation bottom-up. 

STEP 4. Feed their desire for achievement. Engineer for fulfilment through measuring progress on their pact for impact. Keep the spirits up and the energy flowing by clearly defining milestones for their actions and giving them the opportunity to witness their impact: how many people have they effectively engaged, number of change initiatives they have ignited, stories being shared, quantity and quality of meaningful conversations in the community… Use these to show gratitude and appreciation for their continuous engagement. 

 

This community of change frontrunners will build an incredible momentum in your organisation, the kind that is needed to implement systemic changes. 

Intentional energy and Empathy are 2 essential superpowers organisations needed to be set free in order to successfully transition towards sustainable futures. What’s holding you back from unleashing them ?

Would you like to learn more ? Reach out and let’s chat!
Muriel Soupart 

 

Projective techniques play a crucial role in enabling empathy to tackle rational or defensive answers during interviews, especially on polarizing topics like vaccinations.

In our previous article, we explained how we discovered that pro and anti-vaxxers are more alike than we think. They share a common vision and aspiration for society and an evolved vaccine system. In this article, we explain how we work to come to these insights.

When we talk to people about polarizing topics we use a set of specific projective techniques. When people are interviewed on a sensitive topic they often start with the intent to persuade or to protect themselves, showing up with prepared arguments and data. To have conversations beyond listening to arguments and statistics of anti-vaxxers and pro-vaxxers, we designed the following projective exercises:

Word association. We ask people to close their eyes and reflect the emotions/feelings/free association that comes to their mind when they hear the word ‘body’. This technique gives us insight into immediate reactions, personal connections, as well as an understanding of the language used. We ask them to complete this task quickly so we can capture initial thoughts before the response is rationalized.

Why does the word association work? This helps people break their barriers and discover images, emotions, and associations related to a specific topic. It requires them to answer in an instinctual way rather than a rational way.

Tip: Ask participants to sit comfortably, close their eyes, and breathe regularly. This gives them the mental and emotional space to answer the question. After a moment, ask them about their associations. Probe them to evoke images, emotions.

Body metaphor. We ask people to pick a metaphor to describe their body. We heard beautiful metaphors like, “my body is like a temple, it keeps what is essential for me,” or, “my body is active like a car, but needs maintenance once in a while.”

This technique is a more developed version of the word association. Here participants are presented with a sentence or a story that contains a blank and asked to fill in the missing word or words.

Why does the body metaphor work? This encourages creative thinking and can uncover thoughts and attitudes associated with various situations. It helps to break conventions and beliefs that people take for granted.

Tip: Ask people to describe what this metaphor means to them and how do they feel about it, rather than asking for a rational explanation.

Transparent Body. We have people imagine they have a magical power to see through everything in their body, the way it functions on the skin, the blood, the cell, on each organ. Then you ask them what happens when they inject or are exposed to the topic at hand. Have them describe in an imaginative, not scientific way, what happens.

Why does the Transparent Body work? When working with a concept or product that impacts the body, using the Transparent Body technique helps to get to people’s true feelings and understandings around the idea.

Tip: Give this one a bit of time. People need time to project this and to feel the impact, so don’t rush it.

Solar System. We made a solar system with “Vaccine” as our sun, and the planets were: politics, environment, science, science, society. We asked people to position the planets, with the most relevant being closest.

Why does the Solar System work? This helps to unveil the hidden influences, perceptions, concerns, and reasoning related to the vaccines and get a deeper understanding of the dynamics at play.

Tip: make it playful by using visualization as part of the technique to guide the process.

World With and Without. We ask people to think about the World With Vaccination and the World Without Vaccination, describing how that world looks, smells, what the people are like, how they interact, and how they live.

This exercise reveals and builds on deep desires and fears by asking people to imagine and describe a world without something dear to them.

Why does the World With/Without Work? The extraction or adding of an element forces people to choose to really imagine the impact of that element in their lives. It is pushing the boundaries of their imagination. It allows them to step away from logic, tapping into the emotions.

Tip: Make sure to explore nuances. Not making it a black and white picture.

Research is not just about asking straight questions that would lead to straight arguments. The verbally based process of interviewing limits the potential for imagination and creativity. There aren’t enough words for some of the more complex situations and feelings we encounter.

Projective techniques make it safer to talk about things that people are reluctant to talk about. Without the use of these techniques, research becomes superficial and inaccurate.

Stay tuned as another series about vaccines will come soon!

 

Moniek Tersmette, Jasmine Huang, Mai Huan-Maury

Empathy is the most powerful way to connect with others, understanding how and why people feel the way they do. After a challenging 2020 we learned the importance of considering those around us. We believe that to be ‘empathy fit’ one must train this “muscle” as you would any other – by practicing often. 

At Innate Motion we have witnessed how being ‘empathy fit’ can transform brands and companies to be more in tune to the people they serve. To make the world more human we have committed to using empathy as a tool both in our daily lives at home and with colleagues at work. 

In order to encourage others to do the same Innate Motion has created a simple online challenge. The 5 day challenge will run live from Monday, 25 January 2021 to Friday, 29 January 2021. 

Each day we will post a video with an exercise. By the end of the 5 days, you will feel more centered, mindful and connected. Join us in our mission to get more empathy fit! Bring a friend, colleague, partner, anyone you like!

See you there! #empathyfitnesschallenge2021 #EFC2021

 

DAY 1 

 

Welcome to Day 1 of our empathy fitness week!

Today, Kanchana Moodliar, business humanizer at #innatemotion will introduce you to the first challenge, which is all about self-empathy. How can we better get in tune with ourselves? How can we show ourselves more kindness and appreciation, in order to better do it for others? 

By turning our negative thoughts into positive statements, we can really change the way we feel and act towards others.

Share your experience in the comments. When we did the mindfulness exercise, what physical sensation and/or emotion did you become aware of that you weren’t fully conscious of before? Let us know! 

Join us in our mission to get more empathy fit! #empathyfitnesschallenge2021 

DAY 2 

 

Did you know that everyday, you take about 35 thousand decisions? You do this without even noticing that you are doing so. Just like we don’t notice this, we often don’t realize that our decisions are filled with unconscious biases that we acquired along our lives, from our upbringing, culture and so on.  Only when we are aware of the biases we carry, can we begin to improve them.

Femke Van Loon, business humanizer at #innatemotion will walk you through today’s challenge on battling our behaviours and actions that are consequences of our biases.

Take the test here: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/selectatest.html 

Let us know what are the unconscious biases that you discovered in yourself and how this made you feel.

Join us in our mission to get more empathy fit! #empathyfitnesschallenge2021 #EFC2021

 

Day 3

 

Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and you can tell that they are totally disconnected? Well, today’s challenge is all about the art of listening.

Learning how to be an empathetic listener allows the person you are speaking to feel heard and understood. Megan Pratt, business humanizer at #innatemotion will give you some practical examples of the pitfalls of the art of listening, hopefully allowing you to become more aware and a better listener. 

Let us know which of the empathetic listening actions you practiced today? How did it change your conversation? 

Join us in our mission to get more empathy fit! #empathyfitnesschallenge2021 #EFC2021

 

 DAY 4 

 

One of the secrets of stepping into someone else’s shoes is to find common ground.  Not an easy task in a society that is increasingly becoming more and more polarizing. But we need to challenge ourselves and exercise our empathy muscles and remember that in the end of the day, there is more that unites us, than divides us and narrowing labels are the root of disruption. 

Join Riccardo Cristiani, business humanizer at #innatemotion to see how you can practice finding common grounds in life and at work. 
Check out this video for inspiration: https://youtu.be/jD8tjhVO1Tc

Use this document to facilitate the game.

Share what you have learned with us! How did it go? What  were the common grounds? Has this game changed the way you interact with others? 

Join us in our mission to get more empathy fit! #empathyfitnesschallenge2021 #EFC2021 

DAY 5  

 

Welcome to day 5, our last day of the empathy fitness week!!! Thank you for sticking to us and challenging yourself this week.

Yaw Sarkodie, business humanizer at #innatemotion, will talk you through the last challenge! We want you to think about a situation where your point of view is different from someone else. Today, you will put yourself in their shoes and try to understand why they think, act, feel the way they do.  For inspiration, on completing this exercise, you can check out this talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/lori_gottlieb_how_changing_your_story_can_change_your_life 

Share your stories with us and tell us how this has impacted your perspective! 

Join us in our mission to get more empathy fit!
#empathyfitnesschallenge2021 #EFC2021

 

Breaking news! Pfizer announced a 90% efficient vaccine against Covid-19. We expect that launching this vaccine reignites controversial conversations around vaccination. Why is the conversation increasingly polarising? We talked to anti-vaxxers and pro-vaxxers to understand their perspective. What surprised us the most is what appears as a paradox: pro- and anti-vaxxers are more alike than we thought.

We spoke to 23 people, both for and against vaccines, and touched all continents and all generations. Listening to different opinions, feeling how they feel to get to an understanding of what drives their point of view. People are passionately divided in what seems an impossible dialogue, full of misunderstanding, anger and fear. Anti-vaxxers are easily perceived as detached from society and reality. Neither side feels they are being heard. We will explain how we came to meaningful conversations next week.

Here first some surprising observations that we did: 4 shared beliefs of anti-vaxxers and pro- vaxxers.shared desire for a harmonious world

• Pro-vaxxers think anti-vaxxers have a predilection for conspiracy thinking and government mistrust. They want to destroy society.
• Anti-vaxxers think pro-vaxxers don’t dare to care, are too lazy to challenge the system, and just follow the flow.

However, they actually share the same worries and views on society. We live in a polarized world today where division, chaos and dissension are extreme. Both want a more peaceful, harmonious world. A more just and equal society, where we can be stronger together.

Shared trust in science and medicine.

Pro-vaxxers think anti-vaxxers are utopians, mistrust science and believe pharmaceutical industries want to sell products regardless of harmful consequences.

Anti-vaxxers think pro-vaxxers are misinformed. They lack the ability to discern and don’t question the information they receive.

Surprisingly, in our post-truth world, both sides believe science research is the only way for society to evolve. Though they interpret some of the data differently, both rely on science to inform themselves, protect their body and their children the best way they can. Science drives their decision making.

Shared care and love for nature and body

Anti-vaxxers believe pro-vaxxers rely too much on modern chemical treatments on health issues, forgetting about the body’s own healing mechanisms.

Pro-vaxxers believe anti-vaxxers see their body as a holy temple they only treat with natural products.

In reality, both believe the body and health wellbeing are crucial. Love for nature and a proper wellness routine is needed everyday to take care of it. Both adopt things like: spiritual practices, mental and emotional health, integrating exercise, healthy eating habits in their routines.

Shared desire to evolve the vaccination system

Anti-vaxxers believe vaccines are harmful with dangerous side effects. Current information does not provide enough space for discussion, information exchange or questions.

Pro-vaxxers believe vaccination should be mandatory for everyone, that it is a symbol of a healthy civilization. This means we should all give full compliance and support to build a resilient world for the next generation.

You may be surprised to find out that both pro-vaxxers and anti-vaxxers want to evolve the vaccination system. Pro-vaxxers believe one size does not fit all; they rather wish for more freedom and more room for an exchange of views and customized solutions based on personal profiles.

Anti-vaxxers wish to improve the system, to be given more freedom to discuss, and more transparency regarding side effects. Those are the starting points for them to re-evaluate vaccination and rethink their decisions.

So how does this make you feel? Anti-vaxxers and pro-vaxxers sharing beliefs. It is almost mind-blowing, right? It was for sure for us the case. Anti-vaxxers are not detached and rejectors of science. They actually want to use science to better the vaccination program and to better society. We realized that with empathy we could stop polarising conversations and find a shared way forward.

 

By: Jasmine, Moniek and Mai 

Lockdown. It’s a unique situation to be in that none of us expected — a far cry from the hustle and bustle that is our usual everyday life. 

For many of us it is the first time that we have been really, truly “home” in a long time. The home is often more of a base where we keep our stuff, sleep, and stop briefly to fuel ourselves to continue with our busy schedules. 

To be confined has been a revelation for some — about how they keep their space, what bothers them about it, whether they can see themselves reflected in it or not. How many people do you know who took the lockdown as an opportunity to declutter and organize? But that’s not the only way people have dealt with rediscovering their home, or releasing their pent up frustration into the spaces they’ve been stuck in. 

Our environments can have an incredibly significant impact on our mental and emotional wellbeing. I wanted to know more about how people’s space has impacted them now that they have the time to really dwell in it, and how they have been putting their energy into their home during this time. 

To explore this idea, and the motivations behind it, I talked to some of the Innate Motion Business Humanizers. Despite the idea of a home office being nothing new for them, the extra time spent inside sparked something that caused them to make some changes. 

 

Home as an anchor 

Moniek – The Netherlands 

For many years Moniek’s reality was being constantly on-the-go, traveling to meet clients, manage projects, spending holidays away. When the world shut down she was suddenly faced with the fact that she felt like a visitor in her own home. She also became overwhelmed by all of the organization projects that had piled up over the years. 

The lack of travel, social obligations and family visits gave her the time and the mental and emotional space to tackle the organization bit by bit, and in the process put a bit of herself back into her home. Her biggest project has been decluttering the family’s extensive book collection. 

“It did help me with landing in the house. That was kind of confrontational actually; because of the life I live I am kind of disconnected from the place. It brought a sense of groundedness, but also a bit of panic. Where does it stop? What else do I have to do?”

Though she has more tasks on her list that she’d like to accomplish, she notes that she has gained a sense of calm and focus from the progress she has already made. It has helped her to take charge over her space, and to ground herself more in her environment.

Home as a place to enjoy, together and apart

Benoit – France

Benoit’s home in the South of France is usually enjoyed by one or two people at a time. So when his family of 7 agreed to quarantine there together, he quickly realized that he needed to make some changes to better accommodate so many people in the house. 

He moved the TV from upstairs to the common area, and rearranged the furniture and added an additional table to make it a more comfortable communal space. In parallel he made a private workspace for himself so he could better concentrate during the workday. By rezoning he created the distance needed to coexist for such a long period of time. Even more important it provided the space to better enjoy moments of togetherness.

“The TV room downstairs has allowed us to watch a few movies together, though to be honest the biggest use is for the boys in the house to play on the PlayStation. Not bad, that gives the room a cosy feel.”

Home as a comforting cocoon

Katie – The Netherlands

Katie had noticed before that her living room felt a bit cold. Between meeting friends after work and volunteering, most of her time spent not working was out of the house, so she didn’t prioritize warming it up. 

Once COVID changed her evening activities she realized that she didn’t have a desire to be in that cold room — it felt uncomfortable and uninviting, and limited her ability to feel at ease in her space. She felt that she really needed that comfort and feeling of safety. Not only because she spent more time at home, but also because she felt more anxious about the world around her and needed a place where she could cocoon and retreat from that anxiety.

To solve it she brought in a beautiful Persian rug that belonged to her grandmother, and she rearranged the space to be more comfortable and inviting. It completely changed the environment and gave her a cosy place where she can spend her time peacefully, feeling secure and protected. 

“It’s amazing how changing something so small in your space can make your home feel really different.”

Home as an outlet for creative me-time

Muriel – Based in UK, quarantining in France

For Muriel, lockdown has been spent in her home away from home. Her family’s temporary escape from the UK to their holiday house in the South of France unexpectedly turned into an indefinite stay.  

Since she is usually only there for a few weeks at a time she never really takes the time to decorate, so she decided to use this opportunity to unleash her creativity to make the house a more beautiful place to spend time. But with the reality of being confined in the same space for weeks at a time with the whole family, her decorating endeavor also turned into a pleasant form of escapism. 

“It’s my me-time, a way to have a little self time away from the family. It’s the only little bubble I’ve had during lockdown, so it has definitely been a bit of an escape.” 

She has a stunning rose garden that she rarely gets to enjoy, so she decided to use that as inspiration and bring the beauty indoors. She took photographs of the flowers that she plans to frame so that she can beautify the house and appreciate the roses any time of year. 

Home as a space that works for everyone

Cilla – Indonesia

Cilla’s home office was situated to not only be her workspace, but to also facilitate a moment of connection with her daughter each day. She had a long desk with two chairs situated next to each other, and for about an hour each day she would get to enjoy working side-by-side with her daughter as she did her homework. 

With the abrupt shift to homeschooling that hour suddenly turned into the full workday. Between her own calls with clients and colleagues and her daughter’s calls for school, the situation was no longer workable for either of them. 

To adapt she created a new workspace for herself in another area of the house. What seemed like a very practical change was also a bit of an emotional push to give her daughter a new level of freedom. 

“We had to do it, but to be honest I kind of already wanted my own little office corner, so it’s the right opportunity. It’s really more about my daughter though, giving her more independence.”

Home as a source of vitality and hope

Rachel – Singapore 

When the COVID crisis began, like many of us, Rachel experienced a sense of helplessness over her ability to control the situation. Something in her compelled her to start buying plants, despite the fact that in the past she couldn’t even keep a cactus alive. 

She explained, “Having some kind of living thing I could care for was very comforting. Something clicked inside me that said, there’s chaos out there that I can’t control, but plants, if you take care of them, they grow. You give to them and they give back.”

As a result she has developed a new skillset, and a deep respect for the plants she has brought into her home. She now knows precisely how much water and light (and love) each type of plant in her home needs. The ability to master something that was once seemingly impossible has given her a sense of satisfaction. 

More importantly, the addition of vivacious green plants in her life has brought her joy, and a reminder that despite all of the chaos out there life does go on. 

Home as what we need it to be

This unique moment in time has given us a jolting reminder of how profoundly our surroundings can impact our emotional state and wellbeing. 

Yes, home is a functional habitation, but it’s also a social zone, an outlet for creativity, a space to feel safe and a place to be anchored. The beauty of it is in recognizing what we need it to be — identifying where our own tensions lie and adapting our space to resolve that need in our own way. 

After long existing as the backdrop to our lives the home is on the forefront again, reminding us of its many facets and what it has the potential to be, in lockdown and beyond.

By: Megan Pratt 

We’ve been “remote” since 2007: as a company, we were born without an office, and after a few ridiculous failures (yep, my idea of opening a training center in Bali was bad), we decided we did not need one. So we thought the 50 people who work for Innate Motion across the world probably had tips to offer to those new to the art of remote work.

This week we opened a Google doc, and collected the tricks that make Innater happy and efficient home workers. Going through the contributions though, I was a bit underwhelmed.

You judge:

Make sure your work space is comfortable and with enough daylight (Annemarie).
Do Skype meetings with image, so it’s human (me).
Set clear time and geographical boundaries between life and work (Arya)
Exercise daily, ideally outdoors (Mark).
Forbid the family/friends to spontaneously pop up or even enter your office, unless someone is bleeding or the house in on fire (Mai).
Proactively plan digital coffee breaks, to share and socialise with your colleagues, like a coffee break in an office (Aurelia)
Etc…
I mean, they are really good suggestions, and they actually help. But I wondered, do they make the difference? That’s when I realized where the magic is. It’s not about our individual habits. It’s about our collective culture.

You see, we work remote ALL THE TIME. So we know each others’ boundaries and messed-up organizations. I know Cilla might return a WhatsApp message at 11pm on a Friday. I know Femke’s kitchen with the sticker-covered fridge and I know Moniek will gladly speak with me after her early Dutch family dinner. I know the sound of the birds in Muriel’s garden, and I know Rachel’s bedroom and her kids popping on the bed that serves as an office: they’re not a stain to their professionalism, they’re a chance to put a smile into a conversation. And everybody knows that I’ll interrupt a call to kiss my wife goodbye when she leaves to work!

For most people, the office is the place where you surrender to your company from 9 to 7pm (on lucky days). Body and soul, as if nothing else existed. In exchange for that, home is your island, off limit to the firm. We’ve never built respect for these boundaries, so we built respect for people instead. In our ways of working, it’s OK to ask a colleague to call later because the homework needs to be done. To schedule work calls around yoga classes. To relocate to Bali for 3 months. To just say you can’t do something because you’re busy. It’s OK because it’s also normal to finish a piece of work at night to ensure a document is ready for the client. To step in for a friend who is sick or needs help. To ask someone for a quick chat at 9pm, as long as the kids are in bed.

The vulnerability that we show others by opening a window into our imperfect lives, we exchange for the extraordinary chance to trust that they all will put everything in place to deliver and help. By opening our homes, we embrace each other, not just as colleagues, but as human beings. We create a closeness that make us perform better, and live happier.

We’ve created a culture that’s not about working “remote”, but genuinely about working “from home”. By accepting that the boundaries between our work and personal lives and time are muddy, we’ve grown able to value each other’s full lives. And that makes us richer.

This is life at Innate Motion of course. But if the virus leaves this legacy in more companies, we’ve gained something, no?

 

Benoit Beaufils

‘The art of living is a continuous task in the shaping of Life and the Self’. Continuity is essential, and under the looming haze of COVID-19, the art of learning how to continue living is particularly important. That is what I saw and found amazing when the circumstances became rough: people searched for a way to create a life of beauty for themselves. 

Just before Chinese New Year, we knew that we would have fieldwork in Wuhan after the holidays. The simultaneous translator who had worked with us for ages warned me that “The SARS is coming back, this time in Wuhan”, and I was like, “Nah… rumour!” 

It was during my middle school years, when China was devastatingly hit by the SARS epidemic, and the boarding school I studied in was totally locked down. There was speculation and conspiracy theories everywhere, and the Internet was not even thriving back then! 

When it came to SARS, there was simply no ‘competition’, or at least that is what every Chinese thought then. Well, it turned out there is a competitor, in the heavyweight class. On 20th Jan 2020, senior Chinese government medical advisor Zhong Nanshan confirmed that this new virus can be transmitted interpersonally, thus kicking off the national battle against coronavirus. Things escalated quickly, I remember waking up in shock on the morning of 23rd, the day before Chinese New Year. Wuhan was put under lockdown, the motorways were sealed off and the public transportation system was shut down. This was unprecedented. The slogan that was shared during this time “lock a city, save a country” touched the hearts of many.

Overnight, I saw everyone pacing through the streets wearing face masks. The news, entirely dedicated to informing the public on the Covid-19 updates. Soon, like dominos, all the shops, gyms, restaurants, tourist spots got shut down with a pink seal saying “due to the coronavirus, we are closed, we will update you when the situation changes”. Only a couple of shops and supermarkets were left open to sell the essentials. Shanghai applied the most rigid precautions and measures in the county just next to Wuhan, and I experienced something that I had only read in books: a ration system… on face masks.

It came almost too quick for people to even turn their heads around. How a holiday that was supposed to be a reunion became drowned in loudspeakers saying “Everyone stay at home, minimize going out to visit your relatives”. How a buzzing city turned into a ghost town, how people that should have been on their way to their annual overseas holidays had to be locked in, and how others should have been out on the busy streets, bargaining on the last purchases for the new year dinner. The virus stole the thunder. 

So, I was ‘stuck’ at my parent’s house for two weeks, and in the end, I can say that in a weird way, the virus was a blessing. “This is the first time in 5 years that you spent 2 weeks at home”, said my mom. And it was true. I started to develop a routine of taking regular walks in the park with my parents chatting about my childhood and their younger days. This was, until the day that the whole compound we lived in was put on restrictive quarantine, as a confirmed case lived there too. Not even taking walks were allowed. So, my mom suggested we climb over the fence and go for a walk! I was astonished partly because it would be a bit of an unusual thing to do in this ‘civilized world’, and partly because I didn’t realize that I have such a rebellious mom! It’s usually children who encourage parents to do ‘unlawful’ things, but I really enjoyed this, you know, discovering life could be a journey filled with excitement. From that moment, we became the fence climbing experts in two weeks. It’s funny to think we’ve been climbing over the fences just to do something that would have been super usual on ‘normal days’ – take a walk. 

August, a colleague of ours was also locked in for a whole month! After two weeks, it was hard not to fall into depression, but then, he started to adopt new life rituals.  During the Chinese New Year Holidays while being locked in, he read the famous Japanese book Danshari (about refusal, disposal and separation) and watched a Japanese TV drama called There is nothing in my home. And all of sudden, he had an epiphany of minimalism. He took the time to throw away boxes after boxes of stuff. It turned out to be the perfect opportunity to reflect on the relationship between himself and his belongings. And this went beyond physical things, to his mobile apps, to digital assets, to the one thousand facebook friends, and eventually, to all relationships. Through decluttering and organizing, he experienced ecstasy from order and method, which he admits to being addicted to now! 

At the end of the day, it comes down to… when the situation doesn’t work, you make it work. Having a positive and hardworking attitude towards difficulties helps people make life manageable under quarantine. I hear some people referring to this moment as a brilliant opportunity to start cooking, baking cakes, making milk teas, and creating fusion dishes. They can also finally appreciate a moment to fully relax. Lying in bed all day is in a way contributing to fighting the battle. E-commerce is trying out new approaches like delivery drones to make contactless delivery possible, to ultimately minimize the risk of cross-infection, school morning exercises, work recruitment and museum visits, even doctor appointments have gone online. 

As the crisis accelerates the ‘internet cloud’ of people’s life, the thoughts around what opportunities lie beneath are also circulating fast. Some say Chinese is only language in the world that translates crisis as “Danger+Opportunity” (危机), maybe it does so with a reason.

 

By: Cathy Wang and August He

“I have never seen the sky so blue in my hometown Shanghai.”

“We stopped shaking hands and hugging in our group of friends. One feels strange about it, but it seems the best for all of us.”

“No more meetings, no more travel. Only video calls. My work became easier in a way.”

“My business suffers because import from China is impossible. There is not enough production and there are no empty containers for transport. It is all a mess.”

“It’s finally possible again to see the sun rising in Angkor Wat without thousands of tourists around.”

“I am not scared about getting ill, but I am scared that I give it to someone.”

After a few months, it is clear that COVID-19 (CoronaVirus Disease 2019) leaves a greater impact on the world as we know it than just the health consequences. COVID-19 disrupts our existence. But this disruption is not only negative. Crises are often catalysts of change. Crises impose a re-evaluation of the actions, structures and systems we have become depended on. COVID-19 seems capable of changing the behaviour of people. Let’s look at a few positive consequences of the COVID-19 crisis.

Working with reduced footprint and in less hours

To keep the spreading of the virus to a minimum, companies impose habit changes in ways of working that can also be a benefit for people and planet in the long run. Working from home, video conferencing, avoiding unnecessary travel create more time for people in terms of work/life balance. We are re-considering our priorities. In the long run this can lead to more remote working and reduced travel. With a positive impact on the climate.

Dialing up the use of Robots and AI

The move towards using more robots and AI to substitute manual labour is unstoppable, but the COVID-19 situation seems to accelerate the urge for implementation. The virus has been a wake-up call for supply chain managers and risk managers across the world. While there will be an initial negative effect on some labour segments, robots and AI increase productivity, lower production costs, and do create new jobs in the tech sector. However, the human consequences of this will ultimately ask for a fundamental revision on human resources and labour in the 21st century, that can’t be fully fathomed at the moment.

A temporarily greener world

Pollution levels across China have decreased tremendously. Two months into the COVID-19 crisis, reports started to appear in mainstream media that showed Nasa maps with falling levels of nitrogen dioxide. The decline in air pollution levels coincided with restrictions imposed on transportation and business activities. This is a positive consequence, but most probably not forever. If production picks up, the pollution will be back.

Local to local businesses thriving 

With supply chains slowing down or coming to a stop, more than ever the world’s reliance on China as “the factory of the world” is starting to be felt. A trend that will most likely follow the coronavirus outbreak will be a further acceleration of the shift towards shorter supply chains on personal, community and industry levels. Shorter supply chains are seen as key in increasing sustainability through the reduction of transportation costs and consequently of CO2 emissions.

Without downplaying the fears and with respect for everybody that currently suffers from the outbreak, the implications of COVID-19 are not only negative. And who knows… they might even offer us a push to a better, more sustainable future.

As a B Corp, we at Innate Motion are always looking towards making business a force for good and maybe this crisis will be the rise of new opportunities for businesses to reinvent itself.

 

By: Ben Bogaerts