At the Mandt System we had our last ‘All Company’ meeting the week of Thanksgiving and our theme for that meeting was ‘Looking Back with Thanks and Forward with Hope’. We were, and are, thankful that we had kept our heads above water as a business and were able to pivot our services to continue to offer our customers and partners ongoing options. Our Hope comes from the emergence of a vaccine and the opportunity that the pandemic that has so disrupted this past year can be tackled with a lessening loss of life which has devastated so many around the globe.
What we have learnt over the past 10 months is that there is no returning to the old ‘normal’. Things happened in 2020 that cannot be undone and require new thinking from us in creating pathways forward. I have heard it said that from a ‘Learning & Development’ perspective we have moved 5 years in 5 months between April and August 2020. Part of this has come from the switch to online learning and part from the answers to questions we asked of our users regarding the ‘virtual’ aspects of learning delivery they received from us during lockdowns and restricted gatherings. One example being how many of them would prefer to continue to access a virtual dimension to their recertification beyond the Covid-19 necessity. A whopping 65% of respondents said that they would like to retain this option.
This and many other considerations, require us to rethink and consider what and how we offer our support and services to individuals and organizations in the coming year and beyond. We are already slated to be delivering an updated and improved curriculum from January 2022. What we will be doing from January 2021 is starting to explore though consultation and collaboration some really leading-edge ideas on when and how we deliver learning and support for this next decade.
All of us within the Global ‘Mandt System’ family of companies are immensely excited and enthused regarding the months and years ahead of us. We look forward in coming days and weeks to beginning to share with you, our friends and partners, some of the ‘New Thinking’ and concepts that have been a byproduct of the most challenging year in our history.
Happy New Year!
Simon Kemp – CEO
