Mindset Matters: The Future Of Work, Disability, And Imagining What’s Next

With two potential vaccines on the horizon, we can see light at the end of this tunnel. The days of living under the shroud of the coronavirus pandemic will eventually wane and life will return to some sense of normalcy. However, the damage done to businesses will need some time to recover. Yet in these days of transition, it is critical that the global business community take a moment to reflect on the lessons learned, and the lessons that still need to be learned to find more effective ways to create a robust culture of work that meet the challenges of the digital economy for today and tomorrow.

This Mindset Matters column will be the preamble to a series of columns that explores not only key strategies for the future of work, but why companies’ recognition of the disability experience becomes even more valuable in a post-pandemic world. The great bard William Shakespeare in his play “The Tempest” wrote, “What’s past is prologue.” It is this sentiment that we must draw upon to truly grasp the key distinctions that will help define the future of work and shape corporate identity. The coronavirus pandemic provided an opening for corporate executives and business owners to recognize the challenges that people with disabilities have faced across the business ecosystem for years. Physical immobility, anxiety, fatigue, social isolation are just a few aspects that have become part of the collective consciousness across the global workforce during this pandemic. As companies were forced to adapt or reinvent themselves on the fly, there is now this potential for a greater appreciation around disability that offers key takeaways to foster new ways to think about the future of their business. It can be argued that mining the disability narrative will not only be imperative but essential for future business growth.

This week marks the United Nations celebration of International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Businesses large and small must regard the fact that leveraging the ideas and concepts that define a comprehensive disability-inclusive strategy is fundamental to the long-term growth and value proposition of a business. The coronavirus pandemic is providing a justification that disability inclusion should not strictly be about employment, but rather an expansion of ideas to glean powerful messages that can be adopted and implemented as part of a larger corporate blueprint.

As companies begin to explore the question of what’s next, they must be unencumbered to connect to their imagination and explore new ways of thinking. In the coming weeks, each new column will introduce a specific theme around disability and how it connects to the larger issues of the current climate that has redefined the world of work. The business ecosystem needs a greater acknowledgment of the disability experience on a much grander scale. We are at a moment of crisis where innovation is needed more than ever. It’s time for companies to realize that the disability experience by definition is innovation personified. Organizations have to think more broadly of what their current needs are and do a serious audit of the potential dividends that the disability experience can offer for future success.    

Some of the critical themes that will be discussed in future columns will be embedded in the idea of what can only be described through the impact of Corporate Alchemy. This concept is a blend of corporate engagement and corporate health and wellness.  This notion of organizational change management will become even more advantageous in the years ahead.  However, as the business community begins to familiarize themselves with this concept, it will be the entrance of the disability narrative that will serve to strengthen these ideas and allow a new culture of work within the digital economy to flourish. 

As we celebrate the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities it is important to acknowledge that the role of disability is going through a transformation. The part it plays in the culture of work is becoming much more profound. The disability narrative offers corporate culture a cornerstone for learning that will become an essential piece in their strategic evolution. In a post coronavirus era companies have to be keenly aware of the responsibility that disability will play in shaping the very nuances of the future of work.  Forthcoming columns will illustrate the ever-increasing effect that the disability community is having in changing the rules of the game and shaping our future in the process.