Are we learning from failures or are we just going in circles?

The COVID 19 pandemic has shown evidence of a multitude of failures that occurred that created the situation that has currently gripped the world at this point. Going through the data and reports, there are are some points where things did not go right, and as time passes, there will be more. Once it is all said and done, will we learn from this to mitigate a future pandemic?

In How Helpful Is Failure Really? Although he is discussing public speaking and failure, he has some relative points that fit here.

by Nick Morgan

He discusses two studies on failure and how people learn from them. One states that people don’t learn from mistakes that they do yet do learn from the mistakes of others. While the other states, there is a range of failure where either someone learns, is indifferent or is overwhelmed.

Up until recently, the term “Working from home” was viewed in the negative. The thought was that people working from home would be at lower productivity and will miss crucial information in a face to face setting. Some will disagree yet think back when a teammate did it, and there was a conference call. I am sure at some point someone would have said “Sure, working from home” and using air quotes. Yes, it is is all fun, yet there is some truth to it.

When working from home started to become a thing in technology, some individuals either took advantage of the situation or not prepared for how to work from home to get the work done. Taking advantage is easy to discuss. These individuals would log on, answer a few emails to show they are around and relax for the rest of the day. They were treating it like a quays day off.

While the unprepared individual is a little more challenging to work through, working remote needs a specific mindset to keep motivated in getting the work done. There needs to be a little more focus and concentration. There are so many distractions around, laundry, dishes, and the evil television with it’s streaming of shows, talk shows and blue rays. Depending on the age, that game console can be screaming for attention. There is also walking around in your pyjamas all day, cute and comfy.

The good news and we are seeing it in full effect during this pandemic, businesses learned from those failures. With current technology and changes in mindsets based on studies and documentation, a large part of society is successfully working from home. Could it carry on after the pandemic? No, I don’t think so. The current situation is a temporary fix to get past the case. There still needs to be that personal, face to face interaction to not only get work done but to help avoid issues that could come from sitting in the house day in and day out. There are plenty of studies out there that show the interaction between people has positive impacts on individuals’ mental health, so we need to have offices to get the work done.

As stated in the above article, it is obvious the failures of working from home was within the range to have the success we are currently experiencing. As for the COVID 19 pandemic, it looks like there will be a lot of lessons learned to mitigate future occurrences.