I was in a board meeting today with a client whose results are outstanding. Yes, revenue is down but profitability is way up. Productivity has increased so now it is more competitive on price. It’s winning work that has eluded it for years. They’ve learned to do more with less.

Many of us have surprised ourselves with what we’ve achieved in the COVID dislocation. We’ve been relocated out of our familiar places and forced to rethink and redesign how we do things so that we can survive. The question is how do we sustain what we’ve been forced to do?

We’ve had little choice but to detach ourselves from ideas, assumptions and beliefs that we have been deeply attached to – an emotional investment in things being the way things are meant to be.  And nothing about 2020 has been the way things are meant to be, everything has been historic and unprecedented (other than the All Blacks winning at Eden Park - thank God!).

The last time my world was upended like this was when I was 10 years old. I knew two things for absolute certain: The Beatles ruled the world of music, and the All Blacks were invincible (that team still shares the record for longest winning streak). Then in 1970, the Beatles broke up and the All Blacks lost in South Africa. My world was shattered. Years later I had the chance to talk with Colin Meads and I told him that “I never even imagined it was possible that the All Blacks could lose”.  He replied, “neither did we”.

How many of our decisions and non-decisions are driven by our unexamined attachments, our unshakeable confidence in the way things are meant to be?  We’ve recently shifted office and we’re also doing some renos at home. One the things I had to confront was my attachment to books. The reality is that I don’t refer to them once I’ve read them. Not everyone in the office (okay no one) shares the aesthetic pleasure I derive from seeing them on the bookshelves. I’ve had to face the uncomfortable truth: we’ve had a good run but it’s over. Time to let them go.

Another client has a small but profitable line of business that is very dependent on a couple of people, both of whom want to leave the business in the next couple of years. They’ve tried to provide for succession, but nothing has worked. The best thing to do is sell the business right now, because it will simply decline once the current people move out, and trying to avert that would take a lot of effort. Why hadn’t our client thought of that? Because they’d always had that line of business. It had always done moderately well. It was part of the way things were meant to be. The uncomfortable truth is that they’ve had a good run and now it’s over. Time to let it go.

The whole B2B sales process has changed because of COVID. More than three quarters of buyers and sellers say they now prefer digital self-serve and remote contact over in-person interactions. According to a McKinsey global survey, 76% of respondents believed their new remote sales model was working as well or better than the traditional approach. What opportunities does this present to a country once ruled by the tyranny of distance?

You’ll hear people say, “don’t waste a good crisis”.  This is what they mean:

• Recognise your attachments – as Shakespeare says, there is nothing either good or bad, except our thinking makes it so

• Detach yourself and face uncomfortable truths

• Create space to let higher value flow in

• Make the most of the sense of clarity that comes with shedding outdated attachments – what else is extraneous now?