Broken or changed?

Donald Schon said that social systems resist change with an energy which is roughly proportional to the radicalness of the change that is being threatened

Last March (2019) the UK Government declared a national lockdown (Covid-19) and my workplace closed with immediate effect.  In fact from the internal announcement to the office being emptied only took a couple of hours.  There was no resistance - only a desire to get out and get home as quickly as possible.  So an extremely radical change happened (in effect) instantaneously with no resistance from the social system impacted.

Which could disprove what Donald Schon said.  But ...

• change wasn't 'threatened' so was it that the system didn't have time to react? (ie there wasn't time for a feedback loop from the 'change' to the 'system') - which would mean Schon's statement hold
• or did what happened break the social system? - which would mean Schon's statement holds

Thoughts?

Who knew the coffee machine played music?

Written Thursday 3 June 2021

Today I went into the office. After a 15 month gap it finally happened. And it felt surprisingly normal.

I don't have to go in as the guidance is still to go work at home if you can but have increasingly felt the desire to sit with colleagues, grab some post it notes and pens and co-create a solution using a white board. And the impetus came with the need to create a new business plan for my area of the business.

What felt normal:
- packing a bag to travel and heading to the train station
- being in the office
- seeing and working with colleagues

What was not expected:
- the amount of packaging round my lunch (this definitely doesn't happen in my kitchen when I make lunch from the fridge)
- motion sickness on the train travelling home
- the coffee machine playing music when it made coffee
- that it felt normal!

What was wonderful:
- meeting a colleague for breakfast
- hugging!

And I'm not the only one who was surprised it felt so normal... several colleagues commented that they had been really reluctant to come back to the office when it was proposed last summer but are now embracing the opportunity and reflecting that it feels normal