The return of coffee mornings

 So here I am again in one of my favourite cafes.  

Sitting, typing, listening to what goes on.  Trying to fight the desire to write the right sentences or paragraphs for a new book project.  

Many people including me are now practising the language of 'coffeeing'.  We order exciting if not exotic things.  And we do it in a louder voice.  

It is inevitable not to draw comparisons between how we used to come here.  Before the world pandemic, myself I rushed to type things that were already on my notes.  I could spend hours here.  I felt there was not much outside I wanted to do.  

Today, I am longing to finish this, to walk around, to breathe, or maybe sit outside and type in a more relaxed manner.  

People are louder, things are flourishing again, and so am I.  

The inertia that we do not need

Last few weeks, many discussions about what is to be the new normal, in management education and elsewhere.

There is no final answer really, but we all take part in these discussions, maybe out of fear of not being listened to in the run to making decisions.

The inertia that we do not need is a desire to cling to certain assumptions and ways of doing things that we fear losing, all in a rush.  In management education, this includes keeping control of students and classrooms, now via sophisticated systems to monitor attendance and to ensure that whoever does not do what they are supposed to do is noticed.

Elsewhere we still want our children to attend school, to be active and part of sports or arts activities.  We cannot see any other way to keep them learning and socialising.  The inertia here is to cling to old routines, those that allowed parents to get to work and have some respite.  There is also inertia not to cross boundaries.  We all know what home schooling has meant.  Many of us do not want to go back to it again.

And we still keep some rituals that we have inherited during last year.  Some remote working, exercise, small socialising (in my case), online shopping. Better sleep, or at least better attempts.    These gives us a sense of security, much needed in the face of new and unknown uncertainties.  

In all of this, the question still remains:  What inertia do we still need?  What don't we?    

Our moral compasses are changing.  What used to be our automatic reactions about the right thing to do could become now a moral dilemma.  Should we go to work to our offices?  Should we go out?  Could we sustain online interactions as substitutes of offline ones?  For how long? 

We still need some inertia to keep things going, but it would be important to regard it as temporary.  And the same could be said about change.  

Technologies have given us possibilities to keep things going, but this does not mean that either those things are right in their own way, or that we need to change them completely.  

My take for now about inertia?  If it starts to feel too heavy, we might need to change it.