Preparing for the new abnormal

When the time comes that we look back on COVID-19, we will remember the hardships many people experienced, the loved ones who were lost, and the huge economic toll it has taken on individuals, businesses and countries across the globe.

In searching for a silver lining, I have come to believe that we will never be as unprepared for a global crisis as we were this time, and the lessons learned will serve us in the future.

This pandemic has brought around lasting change, with more people working from home and managing a productive work-life balance, and it has fast-tracked innovation in technology to improve the way we conduct business, which is often better for both the business and the customer.

Now, don’t get me wrong — this pandemic has been a disaster on many levels and an experience that I hope I’ll never see again in my lifetime. But it did show there were some hidden strengths we didn’t know existed in business, in our elected leadership, and in our neighbours.

In mid-march, when

COVID-19 was suddenly upon us and people had to change from working in offices to working from home, we saw an immediate evacuation, perhaps the quickest in the history of Canada. People proved they could work quickly and efficiently.

When governments of all stripes saw that financial support was required to sustain individuals and businesses, they reacted quickly and efficiently and proved they could deliver programs that were 95 per cent productive, without layers of red tape.

Most importantly, our medical system proved to all of us that it could deliver emergency care and treat patients infected with a virus no one really understood. I must give full credit to our medical heroes, to our governments who worked at the speed of business, and to our businesses across the country who stood tall, worked fast and delivered results for themselves and for their communities.

So, where do we go now?

I think we can win this battle medically speaking, and with time we can recover economically, as well.

I am not naive enough to set aside the very real fiscal challenges many business owners have felt and will continue to feel for some time. As the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce, we will work to make sure that we help businesspeople as their journey continues and we will use the lessons learned to better serve the businesses of tomorrow.

Maybe it’s because I’m an optimist at heart that I feel this way, or maybe it’s because I’ve just come through 100 days of focusing on almost nothing but reacting to this invasion.

What is most interesting is how people are often looking toward the ‘new normal,’ and my response is that there will never be a normal again. Our world has changed forever, so abnormal is our new reality. Change will be constant; the risk of large disruptions will remain and all we can do is prepare and learn to embrace change.

Our best defence is resilience. We can and should learn from what has happened, think about what we could do differently, and make ourselves stronger and more prepared. This kind of preparation will serve us well in the future.

Many businesses, organizations and individuals have had to make very tough decisions over the past months, and as Chris Lees, president of Agribition, said when postponing their event for this year, “Sometimes the hardest decisions become the best decisions.”

Saskatchewan has made hard decisions, and because of that, we will survive and prosper.

Steve Mclellan is the CEO of the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce.