I’ve heard this a lot recently. They mean like things were before the pandemic. My standard response is “Why on earth would you want that?”

Normality has never been anything to aspire to. I wouldn’t like being called “normal.” No one who excels is called “normal”. It’s like wanting to be mediocre or average.

There isn’t going to be a “return to normal” nor a “new normal.” It’s as if we’ve learned absolutely nothing. So what are we looking at?

We’re looking at “no normal.”

This should surprise exactly no one. We need to create change in order to survive. To improve, to succeed, to grow is to change. To help others is to help them to change.

We should welcome turmoil, disruption, discontinuity, volatility, and all the other “buzzwords” that denote constant change. Not only that, we should be creating the change. We need to see volatility and disruption as effective weapons of change.

If we just wait for “normal” we’ll see increased health problems, worsening economic disparities, and greater social inequality. We face social issues, climate threats, educational deficiencies and health crises that can only be addressed and improved through deliberate and effective change. We’re still educating our children using a system that was developed 200 years ago to feed the demands of the industrial revolution.

But if you really want to “return to normal” you could always get a black and white TV, an Austin Allegro, a bottle of Blue Nun and ditch the internet. No? I thought not.

If instead you’d rather prepare for and be an important part of the future, then forget about “normal.” Create the “no normal.”

To your disruptive success.

Noel Guilford