From Corona Crisis to Opportunity with Optimism

Meet Louise Opprud Jakobsen, futurist specialised in new technology, digitalization, NeuroScience and innovation explain our endless and wonderful capabilities to adapt to changes and adjust to the future.

When we push the pause button in a machine, it stops. But for human beings, we actually start to rethink, become inspired and crave for learning. Like now, when the economy has frozen, the machine has completely stopped. But for us humans, we have to take this time as an opportunity to think and use it in a very constructive way.

Working with technology, Louise shares ways to be relevant. To her, extreme flexibility is a core strength that we all need to muster. Disruptions within technology are always there, and that’s why we need to develop the ability to adapt and adopt new ways. We have to be radically creative.

Crises are opportunities to find new strengths. Louise remembers mentors saying, never waste a crisis. So how can we not waste this crisis? What can we learn from it? How can we gear ourselves to stay relevant amid this?

As humans, we are more flexible than we realize. But we won’t until we’re forced. History and the more recent events in the past months have shown us that we are capable of digitizing and rebooting our economies and societies.

Our brains may not be wired for lots of change; most of the time, they are happy with habits and everything familiar. So taking an entire curriculum from analog to digital real quick is huge, seeming to be next to impossible. But we’ve done it in the last two months! This demonstrates our ability waiting to be tapped. And Louise encourages us to embrace this opportunity.

Who may have a difficult time adapting?  Those that haven’t got that core balance and strength, use your resources to take the pivot and refit to the current situation. Build optimism in your core. The question should be: ‘How can we make it?’; not ‘Can we make it?’. There are always new ways if we just keep looking.

As Louise worked in Neuroscience, she discovered that creativity is all about optimism. If we are happy, we are 300% more innovative and therefore, resilient. And we can shift our brains to being happy–by igniting thoughts of gratitude, hope and thankfulness. And this is the exact same mindset that we need in facing this crisis and opportunity.

Connect with Louise here.