Yearnote 2020

2020. Oh where to start?

Well, let’s just say that I guess most Corporate “2020 Visions” didn’t turn out quite as they were planned in 2015 or 2017 or whenever they were cranked out.

What can we learn from this year that kept on giving?

Well, first of all that whilst it’s utterly untrue to say “nobody saw the pandemic coming”, very few people took such an event seriously.

What we are continuing to learn through these events is that maybe we should take a little less for granted, and also that when push comes to shove, established truths maybe aren’t so established or true after all. Like an organisation need everyone to sit in an office, for example.

At a macro-level, we’ve hopefully seen the closing of an utterly bizarre episode in American politics with Biden’s election to President.

At a very micro-level, I’ve regained regular contact with a group of friends who have dispersed away from London over the past two decades because back in 2019 the idea of having a catch up and a drink on Zoom would have been seen as utterly daft.

Whilst there is hope on the horizon with vaccines now entering the system, it does feel like the next few months are going to be as hard, if not harder than the 12 months preceding. The usual personal planning activities around meeting up with friends and family and holidays all feel in suspended animation. It continues to all be a bit weird.

Professionally, my honeymoon period in my new role is now over. The year ahead is one of exciting change, but predicated on my organisation having the capacity and capability to change. The biggest blocker there will be the continuing uncertainty in the world around us. What’s realistic and what’s just too aspirational will be a balancing act throughout.

I’m also hoping that WB-40 will continue to grow in the next 12 months. The community that surrounds it now is a thing of wonder, and I’m going to get braver with who we try to get along onto the show too – I’m going to ask more folk who I want to talk with but feel might be out of our league. Maybe we need to step up a league or two…

So with that, here’s to 2021. Hopefully a year that is a bit less tiring than the one we are seeing out.