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The Lockdown Diaries: what has 68 days in isolation changed?

By Ian Clatworthy posted 05-29-2020 02:03

  


I have been in lockdown here in the UK since the 23rd of March and as of today our Prime Minister has announced we can spend some socially distanced time with people from another household. Don’t get me wrong, social isolation is well within my wheelhouse (fortunately I quite like myself), working as part of a global team means I spend most evenings working late being locked in my home office. This has been my normal for many years.

Which is why I have always found this notion of being “in the office” or presenting to customers “face to face” as being a human experience rather than a productive one. The breadth of capability and productivity that my colleagues manage as a global team is taken as a given.

VIDEO : Building your digital workplace

So why has it taken a global pandemic to drive change? It is rather simple – its habit! A habit that is transforming.

What has to be celebrated is the change the customers I speak and engage with have had to embrace and deliver. They have been so busy helping their companies transform into fully functioning 100% remote working organisations that in some cases will have saved their entire organisation. This is not going unnoticed by C-suite executives, so much so it’s the CIO who is now tasked with delivering the 10-year strategy for a company. Be that as basic as moving from an internal service provider to delivering automated workflows using new technology.

As an example, all of our shopping habits have changed over the past 60days, I now know that when I do step out of my house, I want a real experience with great customer service. Below is a great video below on how LIDAR can shape this new experience in a safe way.

VIDEO : Hitachi LIDAR for Retail

This is one of the reasons why I wanted to work for Hitachi in the first place, for over a century our mission has been to “contribute to society through the development of superior, original technology and products”. We have always been focused on change and unpredictable challenges. Which pops us in a totally different position to just being an IT vendor.

VIDEO : Hitachi Powering Good through Social Innovation.

What about me? What has my epiphany been after 68 days at home? Well, it’s my downtime! My downtime is more important to me than ever before, it’s so much more relaxed, no pressure to go anywhere or do anything, spending more time playing games with the family, building dens for the children and discovering new passions (my new V60 pour over coffee addiction can testify to that). I don’t want to lose that as we open up to the new normal, when go out I want an experience!

Thanks, Ian


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