One of the biggest dangers in any disaster is a premature plan for normalcy. As vaccine programs roll out worldwide, organizations and governments are preparing for economic recovery, a return to offices, corporate travel, and a resumption of business as usual. We all need a little optimism, but nostalgia can be as dangerous as disruption. Some doors are one-way only. What if the pandemic was not a crisis but rather a chrysalis?

The difference is a subtle but important one. A crisis is something you recover from, whereas a chrysalis is a bridge from one state to another. The difficulty is knowing whether the changes you are experiencing are merely temporary or part of a more permanent redefinition. 

COVID-19 may have started as a crisis, but it quickly became a forcing function that unleashed digital transformation on every aspect of our lives - whether it be how we work or how we buy things, run our factories or deliver healthcare. What is likely to make these changes permanent is not just gains in efficiency but also the unexpected ways these forces are now interacting with each other. 

More becomes different. More data, more computation, more automation, and more transactions - don’t just add up to more speed or resilience - they can reverberate throughout your organization until you become something else entirely. In any complex adaptive system - whether it be a supply chain, a workplace, or a biological ecosystem - small changes amplified by reinforcing feedback loops can hit critical mass and trigger radical reinvention. Water becomes ice; tremors become an earthquake; a viral video can make you a global star. 

From this perspective, what if the end of the pandemic is not a pendulum swinging back to normality; but rather a portal from the world we knew to a radical new future that we are yet to fully understand? If you change enough of the infrastructure that runs what you do, at some point, you also change who you are. Likewise, if you change enough of the forces that run the world, you will inevitably change that as well. 

I’ve spent the last year thinking about what all the small changes in our lives add up to. The list of pandemic era adaptations is long and constantly growing: working from home, social distancing, automated service delivery, augmented reality training, mRNA technologies, drones and robotics, process automation, telehealth services, retail live-streaming, AI-powered drug discovery, and the growing influence of data in the way we run our organizations. 

I firmly believe that the sum of all of these innovations not only exceeds what we have seen before but also that their combination and interaction are the foundations of something new: a new world that runs on new rules. 

I am in the process of researching the terrain of that new world and compiling what those new rules might be. They are the basis of my latest keynote presentation. Potentially, they may also be the basis of a new book. More on that later. For now, here are my first ten rules to get you thinking: 

Rule #1: Digital disruption is now just digital delivery

Forget digital disruption. We are all disruptors now. Being digital is nothing special, it is just the price of staying in business. The real challenge is this: what is possible in an age of AI that was not possible before? 

Rule #2: There is no remote work, only work

Remote work is just the beginning of a much bigger transformation that is set to transform the nature of work itself. The true future of work will be shaped by five forces: mobility, autonomy, memory, objectivity and velocity.

Rule #3: Robots are not coming for our jobs, they are here to change them

AI will not destroy jobs, but it will change them. A new world needs new kinds of capabilities - and that means that humans need to evolve and adapt, just as our machines do. 

Rule #4: Experiences matter more than transactions

What did we learn about the future of retail, when the world’s stores had to close? Whether it be an app or a showroom, reinventing retail for peak experiences rather than pure transactions is what now really counts. 

Rule #5: The best way to lead is to be data led

Being a leader in the Algorithmic Age requires a very different approach. We all like to claim to being ‘data-driven’, but in truth, what we really need to be is ‘data-led’.

Rule #6: There is no new normal

What if the new normal, is not normal at all? Thanks to COVID-19, we are now living in a radically different reality - robotics, VR, automation, protests, surveillance, fake news. The first step to survival is acknowledging that there is no going back from this. 

Rule #7: XR is the new reality

XR or virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality are all on the brink of becoming mainstream technologies that will transform our how we live and work. Now is the time to reimagine the way we interact with our customers and create radically new experiences not possible before. 

Rule #8: Social distancing is here to stay

Social distancing is more than a pandemic response, it is a preview of an AI-powered world in which we deliver products and services using automation and machines with minimal or no human contact. 

Rule #9: The future of AI is personal 

We are fast accelerating to a future in which we will interact with applications with our voices rather than screens, but before we get there, we need a new, more personal approach to AI - virtual assistants that are a digital extension of ourselves. 

Rule #10: The future favors the bold

This is no time to settle for survival as a second prize to success.  After the chaos of 2020, we need bigger dreams than just recovery. What matters now is reinvention, nothing less.