Cuomo Says No Going “Back to Normal” — Fortunately, “Normal” Is Fictional

On April 1st, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gave a speech in which he said, “I don’t think we get back to normal [after this pandemic]. I think we get to a new normal.” But according to the laws of nature, as beautifully articulated by Buzz Hollings’ Adaptive Cycle, “normal” has never existed.

With COVID-19 having profoundly disrupted the day to day lives of almost all people, globally, a message like Cuomo’s makes sense. Essentially, he’s encouraging people to focus on adaptation. We couldn’t agree more with the need for thinking and acting adaptively, and letting go of the illusion that we can all soon be back to business as usual.

But it occurs to us…maybe this message could be articulated with less grimness if we all took a step back and remembered how the world actually works. Which is to say: normal has always been an illusion. Constant change — sometimes jarring and disruptive, sometimes barely perceptible — is the truth. And it’s actually how our systems remain healthy.

So, could a quick tour through the renowned ecologist Buzz Holling’s concept of the Adaptive Cycle be comforting in these times? It certainly is for us. Hence, we’re sharing a short passage from our book Disrupted: Strategy for Exponential Change, in which we discuss this illuminating theory…