There Won't Be A "New Normal"

By Sarah Nicastro, Field Service Evangelist, IFS

While participating recently in a livestream discussion put on by Field Service News on how businesses are preparing for recovery from COVID-19, one of the panelists mentioned that he’d heard brought up recently the idea that there won’t be a “New Normal,” but rather a “Next Normal.” Upon investigation, it seems this is a concept that has been presented by the likes of McKinsey, Forbes, and CNBC – I just hadn’t heard it until this discussion.

This concept really resonated with me, for a few reasons. First, there’s no way that after such a significant time of strain and change and growth we could just recover into one new “norm” – there will have to be an evolution of healing that leads us from one “next” to another. Second, for service organizations that are in such a season of radical change I think the idea of a “New Normal” gives the impression that the radical change will end when, in reality it will not. While the pace of change may slow at some point, we can’t be tricked into a sense of complacency as recovery ramps by thinking we’ve reached the “new.” We need to accept and prepare for a continuation of change as a result of this crisis for likely years to come.