Gains and consequences of the lockdown

The other day I reflected about what the gains obtained during the months of confinement (due to Covid-19) back in spring 2020.

It’s true that it could sound bias because when one is a radically positive person life brings opportunities and challenges to grow from.

Basically, it came down to 5 major gains during this unexpected time:

Slow down to speed up

After the initial frenetic days, found the right pace to balance family and professional duties without forgetting to allocate time and resources to our own personal growth.

It was a perfect moment to slow down, to enjoy a very basic and simple indoor live style, with the loved ones. To enjoy those 15 minutes at the balcony to get the vitamin D directly from the sun, or the solitaire walks with the dog in those empty streets.

I realized then that this slow-motion pace gave more mental clarity therefore many ideas and plans started to move at faster speed and somehow productivity went up, not in speed but in content.

During one webinar our friend Sonja Kresovejic, co-founder of Spinnaker Co and Seedtimecollective.com, said this phrase that can be the summary of this gain: “when you press the pause button on human beings they start” (start to reflect, to engaged, to rethink assumptions, to imagine a better future, etc.)

Access to interesting people and collectives

The global “webinar fever” of the initial weeks was an incredible opportunity to easily reach and access people doing interesting things that before were somehow difficult to reach. After the webinars the panelists and participants were more open to be contacted and interact. Somehow it seemed that the egos were left aside.

Similar situation happened with groups and collectives of mind-liked people that suddenly were more open to invite external guests and eager to expand to be more diverse and inclusive as they understood that those are key aspects in order to contribute better for the future.

we have a newer community of friends around the world that makes richer and more diverse the exchange of ideas and interaction with people looking forward to make positive impact in people, the planet and the future.

The magic of citizens initiatives to catalyze change

This is probably the most gratifying discovery, not because it is new but because it has been parallel to our radar up to now.

Citizens initiatives, in particular when they use the Innovation Labs as tool and mean to engaged citizens in finding creative, innovative and useful solutions to real problems, made the last weeks of the confinement much interesting and somehow plenty of hope.

We have seen it, when got involved first-hand, the power of citizens initiatives in handling the needs and the wave of solidarity during the lockdown. The platform @Frenalacurva is probably the best example to illustrate this whole point about citizens initiatives.

It is something so interesting and useful, that it is now part of what we preach for organizations, companies and educational centers to put the hands on. The Innovation labs have concrete transformative power for people lives, bringing real added value.

1 +1 is more than 2 or the power of CO

Another of the gains from this time it has been the opportunities arose to contribute to other people’s ideas, projects and processes while at the same time receiving inputs to our own projects and ideas.

The exercise of co-creation, co-collaboration, co-prototyping and a long list of CO are now integrated in our daily dynamic enhancing it to levels never reached before.

To exercise the CO is simple and fruitful because it requires to leave the egos out (nobody owns the idea/project) and potentialize creativity and innovation (everything is welcome to make the idea/project richer and better).

Very happy to see the direct and positive outcomes when we exposed our ideas, projects and prototypes to people out there, people thinking different, with diversified points of view, different perspectives.

Cocreation, co-collaboration and other forms of building together, it is something we are engaged deeply because very often the results are much different that the initial ideas, much interesting, more solid and potentially producing more positive impact.

Transformation for positive impact

All these elements mentioned directed us to an introspective exercise of reviewing the essence of our professional activity.

The revised branding keeps our focus centered in people but now put more emphasis in being more future oriented and radically determined to only accompany transformation processes that aim to positively contribute to people, society and planet.

We want to be involved in meaningful projects; we want to participate and contribute to shape the future; we want to do it with the contribution of people engaged in global initiatives that make the world a better place.

We firmly believe that bringing more humanity, creates better future.

Those are the major gains, what about the consequences?

Well, the main consequence was the strong need to radically be coherent with what we proposed to other people in terms of change and transformation.

The decision appeared clear: it was time to get out of the comfort zone of living on the Canary Islands and move to another place to start again from scratch. It was felt that the time has come to arrive somewhere else with fresh eyes, open mind and all the senses at their exponential levels in order to be freer to potentialize the discovery of new opportunities.

The need to push the limits beyond the known, the need to grow more, the need to explore, the need to expand the horizons were the main reasons to realize it was time to move. And once it was decided, everything worked smoothly probably because the power of positivism and because we never had an alternative plan (see earlier entry about not having Plan B).

The move to Den Haag (The Hague) at The Netherlands occurred 6 weeks after we took the decision. Guided by the intuition and the great talks with people knowing the context of this country, we chose this place rather than Amsterdam that for many should have been the first option.

It is too early to talk about this place, but the sensations after the initial days at Den Haag is that feels is the right place to have moved to start a new chapter. Moreover, the city, the surroundings and the people have exceeded our initial expectations. It seems that here we would expand, dream different and be more courageous each day to break paradigms and try new things.

I would say that the main word to described what is happening right now is serendipity and more in the terms used by Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, who says that “Serendipity will not happen to you. It will happen because of you”.

Put it simply, we are what our decisions, our choices.

To finish this entry couldn’t be different than inviting you to start your own transformation process. That one that you think and feel is necessary but haven’t been able to materialize it.

We all know that we need to close some doors in order to be able to see and open other doors. We also know that it requires decision making strengths to be courageous and follow our intuition and to be able to fight our fears in order to reach wider.

We also know that the majority of obstacles for change are created by our own mind, our own fears. Fear would be present but the key is how to handle it, how to be able to keep moving despite of its presence. The answer is simple, it is all about choices and believing in ourselves.

I think that the best quote we have found in the last months about combating fear is from Kyle Hermans, founder of Be Courageous: “courage is not the absence of fear but rather the decision that something else is more important than fear.”

Future is about transformation and reinventing ourselves, don´t let fears and insecurity stop our new adventures!!

the main consequence was the strong need to radically be coherent with what we proposed to other people in terms of change and transformation