We all want the turmoil to end. Unfortunately, there’s a whole lot which we don’t control right now.

A whole lot that NOBODY controls.

We’re searching for the “return to normal,” or perhaps the “new normal.” Which is fine, but it can be a bit of an illusion.

Here’s a better way of thinking about it: In a world which is highly variable, what is it that you can declare as stable?

The temptation, of course, is to say that nothing can be stable if you don’t even know if you can be open week to week. Or your CUSTOMERS don’t know if they’ll be open.

Look deeper. In fact, there are things which you can declare stable if you want:

  • We will always strive to treat our employees fairly and be honest with them.
  • We will always delight our customers by under-promising and over-delivering.
  • We will focus on creativity and being different than all our competition.

See what I did there? I assumed that you WILL continue to be in business, but this is all about WHO you want to be and HOW you will behave.

These are the foundational values of what you’re building. Yes, you might have to radically redesign your business model. But you’re still working with those values you declared.

That builds employee engagement. It builds customer loyalty.

So maybe the new normal isn’t going to be so much about stability in the market. It’ll be about stability of values. Which is always needed.