Futurist Brian David Johnson says Covid-19 is a “destabilizer”. A prolonged, widespread, worldwide event that will have lasting impacts for years to come, before ultimately becoming normal.
“Covid is the great accelerator. It just accelerated everything, the good things and the bad. Every destabilizing event will eventually stabilize, we will go back to some level of normal. The question now - and I think it’s the question of 2021 - is, how do we want to come back?” Johnson told Nick VinZant during an episode of the Profoundly Pointless podcast.
It’s just not opening up, we are actually on the brink of an economic boom.”
The Future of Work
Johnson believes an area where we will see the biggest changes, is in where and how we work.
“I work with a number of businesses and consult with a group of around 70 CEOs….and this isn’t a theoretical discussion because a lot of people who I do work with have fundamentally changed how they do business, so that they can never go back,” said Johnson.
While many businesses were initially forced into it, Johnson says companies have now embraced remote work. Both as a way to potentially downsize their office space and expand their hiring pool.
“I work with some manufacturing clients in the midwest. For many years they could only hire within three to four hours from their plant. Then lockdown hit. And they realized people didn’t have to come in and their hiring pool went coast to coast. And they were very excited because now where they couldn't find the appropriate talent, now they've been able to find it,” said Johnson.
This doesn’t mean, however, that people will stop going into the office.
Johnson says a number of his client’s employees stressed that they wanted to return to the office - particularly the younger employees who missed mentorship and the feeling of togetherness that comes from working with others.
“We do still want to get together, it’s maybe just not five days a week for eight to ten hours a day,” said Johnson.
The Coming Boom
This article was written on December 30, 2020. And as of right now the Covid-19 pandemic is still raging worldwide. Johnson says that while nothing will get done until it ends, companies are shifting their focus to what’s next. And what’s next could be a coming boom
“A lot of the businesses I work with are looking past Covid. There’s a lot of pent up energy, a lot of pent up demand, a lot of pent up capital. And as the economy starts to open up, it’s just not opening up, we are actually on the brink of an economic boom,” said Johnson.
What’s important to remember though, is the pandemic has shown a sharp divide between the haves and the haves not. Johnson says it will be essential for global societies to make sure everyone can participate in that boom.
“This pandemic has exposed a lot of fractures and fissures and scars. We need to deal with those. There’s some really robust conversations around that. How does everyone participate in that coming back,” said Johnson.
To listen to the full episode of our interview with Futurist Brian David Johnson, check out the link below. We talk more about the future of work, the rise of sentient tools, jetpacks and how you can shape the future.