An unthinkable compassionate revolution

The compassionate revolution has started. Clapping for carers, clapping for the NHS. This was the UK’s singing-from-the balcony moment.

Virus cases are multiplying exponentially, but so are cases of social solidarity. I too stood in solidarity, moved to tears by the cheering in my street. A few days ago a young boy, aged seven, from Southend-on-Sea was featured in an ITV news report. Using his pocket money he provided a toilet roll delivery service to elderly neighbours.

We can already see springing up on social networks people from different backgrounds. More than ever they are harnessing digital technology to share experiences, to inform, motivate and entertain. We can all become more digitally proficient and grow closer as society. This is despite or because of our physical isolation.

The term “social distancing” will become one of the most analysed and contested of this crisis. What it takes to be social will never be the same again. But this could be for the good.

It may not be reflected in salaries, pensions and dividends. But we are already witnessing a recalibration, if not reevaluation, of what is an essential service and who is a key worker. Most of us are not key workers as such. But we are changing our habits so that together we can all tackle the epidemic.

Some good will come from this crisis in helping with other major challenges. First among them is addressing the climate emergency by making us that much more aware so that together we all focus what is more essential.

We are already witnessing changes in the way we work and relate to one another. These huge changes might well outlast the spread of the Coronavirus epidemic. When we are not Skyping, we are Zooming. On some days, working with teams as I do, I have to admit I sometimes feel Zoomed out. We are rapidly becoming even more multi-tasking, whether it is to stand still, or keep ahead so we can if possible anticipate the next shock.

We are all having to redefine our roles, particularly in how we work efficiently and effectively with others. We are not just managing new and old boundaries. We are navigating and renegotiating them - to be there for others, and also for ourselves.

The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations where I have had a close association for almost 20 years, often reflects that boundaries need not be walls, but spaces to negotiate. In current circumstances, we can rethink the barriers that all these years we have used as excuses and defence mechanisms.

But then we need to act. Hence the great relevance and continued importance of the Thinking the Unthinkable work that my colleagues, Nik Gowing and Chris Langdon, have done with leaders for the past six years. Their ideas and work are no longer niche and extreme. They are mainstream.

Business leaders have an opportunity to show just how socially responsible they can be. No job is too small if it keeps us well, safe and the economy going. We rightly are being asked to stay safe, and in most cases, to stay at home. What we are also asking of ourselves is how to stay in business and to stay sane. And help others in their way to stay in business and stay sane. And exercise enough compassion and tolerance as we all find our way through the crisis.

The micro is becoming macro. Individual acts of kindness or selfishness can have a swift multiplier effect.

We might not even realise when our acts are kind or selfish, we are more aware than ever of the consequences of our actions. When they are played back to us through data analytics, they will not only transform our use of technology but how we behave. AI will then be not just Artificial Intelligence, but Added Intelligence.

Along with tens of thousands of others I have registered as an NHS volunteer. Using a King’s College app to track symptoms in the wider population, I and others are reporting every day the status of our health, good or bad. This is to ensure enough information is compiled and analysed on the spread of the epidemic. As chair of Earthwatch Europe, I lead an organisation that for years has been encouraging more ordinary people to take part as volunteers in scientific field research. We can all be citizen scientists now, mobilising our efforts to inform the work of experts.

The root of the word compassion is “suffering with”. Unlike empathy and altruism, which also involve identifying the other’s needs, compassion also means trying to relieve the other’s suffering. This compassion can involve demonstrating feelings of concern.

We are now seeing much more than that. We are not just seeing genuine expressions of feeling but a society having to act in concert to focus on the needs of those who suffer or could suffer. Scarily, that could soon be all of us in one way or another. The big difference is that we all have, or should have, a strong vested interest in being compassionate.

Yes! We could all be victims now. Even if we are not, we have to make precautions for the moment that we could be. After all, the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock are now COVID-19 positive!

This revolution is led by necessity, not by an organised movement of revolutionaries with a clearly articulated ideological programme. We need to observe and take a moment to reflect on the dire downward plummet of our economy. An increasingly terrified society is having to respond in ways and at a speed it never imagined. As a result government itself is being swept up by a revolution imposed by a looming medical catastrophe outside its control. This is regardless of how much we want or fear it taking more control over our lives.

The truth is that government is itself having to change and adapt at high speed, under huge existential national pressures. I say this not from a party political position. Whatever policy pledges were made before Coronavirus must now be reassessed. Radical rethinking is unavoidable. Reality has overtaken political principles.

Through compassion, the acute needs of people mean they have a new voice.