No Kid Wants to Leave the Park

CeCe and I are having an evening glass of wine and winding down from the day as we sit on our front porch, observing all of our quarantined neighbor’s new activities to pass the time. Walking, jogging, dog walking, bicycles, scooters, golf carts, fishing, and of course, the kid’s playground, which is right in front of our house. This playground has become a center of daily activity and lately, I suspect it is also serving as a secret happy hour spot.

It’s getting close to dark and the final family is leaving the park. Screams are echoing across the street as this toddler girl is throwing a fit about having to leave. We watch and giggle as the mother picks her up, puts her on her shoulders and proceeds down the sidewalk. All we can see now are their backs and two legs flailing all around. As their voices are fading, CeCe makes one of her profound statements, “No kid wants to leave the park!” She is so right as we watch them every day, over and over, the kids are screaming and complaining about having to leave.

Today, our legacy parks in our business world have been closed. COVID-19 has accelerated digital transformation and this hard trend means we are leaving the legacy park of non-digital business. And we’re not coming back.

Whether we are ready to go or not, the world has become digital overnight. Just think about the acceleration around us — telemedicine, AI deployment, online fitness, remote learning, remote working, remote collaboration and digital ticketing. Kicking and screaming will have the same result we saw with the little girl tonight. The good news is that this transformation provides us so many new opportunities along with this swift change.

Clients are scrambling to get into the new park and to be successful playing there.

Clients are scrambling to understand new regulations and capture new recovery money incentives. We will see more regulations and more recovery money in 2020.

Clients are scrambling to provide secure remote access for their team members. They are searching for best practices on working remotely.

Clients are scrambling to recover and many are reimagining their business model and operations.

Our clients need help. How much time have we spent anticipating these changing needs? This might indicate how much time is being allocated to kicking and screaming versus developing a strong futureview for a new playground. Even hunkering down is going to be very detrimental to our future. Our clients and prospects need help now. Let’s run into the new park and enjoy the new swing!

If we continue to anticipate and collaborate with our clients on their changing needs, we will have many opportunities to make a difference in 2020. It’s a lot better than kicking and screaming down the sidewalk.