“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” Stephen Hawking

First there was the newness of the pandemic and the trauma of lockdown.

Then came reactionary band-aid solutions followed by an eerie phase of acceptance and silent reflection.

This triggered an unprecedented awakening to the realisation that we are humans, not resources; that when life as we know it is threatened, every day becomes precious; that quality of life is more important than a steady paycheque from a thankless, overbearing inflexible employer.

In our isolation, many of us thought we were acting alone, only to discover much later that not only were we not the only one to come to our senses, we were in fact part of a global phenomenon – a movement so large it has been termed “the great resignation”.

In the beginning we sat at home staring out the window at the empty streets with only one thought in our heads: what now?

We downed endless cups of coffee for something to do – or perhaps just to look busy to those around us – but eventually, slowly, ideas started percolating up from an almost forgotten corner of our mind: the place where we used to store our dreams.

And slowly, inevitably, these fleeting thoughts started to weave themselves together (almost on their own) into a plan of action so concrete that we could not resist the temptation to act on them.

Yes, there were obstacles and problems but people just started showing up virtually to help with them.

They appeared in webinars and Zoom meetings and Facebook groups. They wrote comments on LinkedIn and offered support on YouTube.

And eventually we realised we were out of excuses, there really was only one thing left to do.

Start.

And at that moment we said a silent prayer and became something new – a hybrid human.

A caring, highly-skilled sentient team player willing to collaborate locally or internationally on projects that will become key to making our home – our city, our nation, our planet – a world that works for all.

In short, “work” is no longer a place that we sit during certain hours of the day. Work is what we willingly do to make the world a better place now and for the future. And the place we choose to do it is the place where we are naturally most effective.

Work is no longer a laundry list of tasks that we agree to accomplish in exchange for money. Work is any time, any place, any where we are helping.

And our worth is not measured by your subjective assessment of us. It is determined by what we are contributing and the new values that we are instilling in others.

Elon Musk may be under the illusion that his employees are all hiding at home pretending to work and that it’s time to enforce the old rule – but he’s also under the illusion that he can control the world by buying Twitter.

Perhaps someone should point out to him (and others like him) that dinosaurs too once were the most magnificent creatures to have ever walked the Earth, but they failed to adapt to sudden change and perished en masse as a result.

We are all human after all.

Robin Trimingham is the managing director of The Olderhood Group Ltd and a business consultant, journalist, podcaster and thought leader in the fields of life transition and change management. Connect with Robin at https://bit.ly/3nSMlvc or robin@olderhood.com