If you’ve ever received any coaching for a sport that involved hitting (or kicking) a ball, you’ve undoubtedly been told to “hit through the ball.”

While the explanations vary in terms of why this is valuable advice, the most commonly cited benefit is increasing the likelihood that the ball will get where you want it to go. Put differently, simply hitting the ball isn’t the objective. And I feel this advice is appropriate for many of us today as we’re still sorting out how best to just survive the current economic uncertainty.

There is no doubt that we are indeed living in “interesting times”- with 90%+ of the US population under a stay-at-home order; but there is also no doubt that there will be a point (hopefully in the near future) where this order is partially or fully lifted, and we enter into a “new normal.” And, tomorrow’s winners are already planning and preparing and for this.

In order to increase the odds of your organization being one of tomorrow’s winners, you need to do a few things right now (if you haven’t done so already):

1) Understand all of the ways your customers, employees and suppliers (needs, expectations, behaviors, mindset) might be different in the future

• Awareness of, and expectations for Hygiene / Cleanliness / Sanitary Conditions
• Increased “burden of proof” requirements for the above
• Expectation for Social Distance / ‘Safe’ Spacing
• Prioritization and rationalization of “needs” vs. “wants” or “essential” vs “non-essential”
• etc.

2) Assess all the ways these might impact your current business operations (or entire business model)

• Accommodating the increased expectations for Hygiene / Cleanliness / Sanitary Conditions
• Less “efficient” use of space (less people density at offices, social gatherings, restaurants, retail stores, sporting events, airplanes, etc.)
• Fewer one-on-one or face-to-face / in-person meetings
• Increased use of safety barriers (gloves, masks, shields, etc.)
• etc.

3) Envision and create your new normal

• I’ll let you fill in the bullet points here

“The future ain’t what it used to be.” – Yogi Berra

Look, I think we can all agree that our view of the future has changed. And for some of us, that view might still be pretty murky. But my advice to you is this; figure out where you want the ball (your business) to go, hit through it (develop and implement a plan) and increase the likelihood of it getting there.

“The future depends on what you do today” – Gandhi