MAALISKUU 2021

Exit Corona – Corona Exit

The latest news on the pandemic have been cautiously positive, at least in Finland: the figures of new corona patients are a few less than yesterday, and the number of people who already have received the corona jab is growing steadily. Slowly but surely we are drawing closer to the day when, even in the global news, we will see the newsline ”Exit Corona.”

How long the eradication of the prevailing virus – and its variants – will take, no-one knows. One thing that is certain is that it will be a slow process. As in any crisis situation, both personal and global, the ascent from the ”pits of despair” takes usually longer than the descent to them. I would not be surprised if we saw an intricate two-steps-forward-one-step-back kind of dance in the near future, during which the progress will be steady but oh so slow!

To cope with the slow ascent to normalcy we need our own Corona Exit strategies. I don’t know yet what they will be, but I do hope we will be employing a combination of lessons learned and – our old forte – communication. In the days of isolation, solitude, and voluntary social deprivation we learned how important the every-day, trivial messages to colleagues were. I should imagine they are equally important in the days to come, when we learn the steps towards our future After Corona (AC). In communication we excel (or so I like to think), and we can set the good example in our organisations in it, even if I do admit that communication in the time of crisis also belongs among my lessons learned.

In the days to come, let us not forget the things that took us through last year: the daily walk, the comfy pants, frequent meals with the one or two family members that shared our bubbles, binge-watching the absolute favourite series etc. I expect we will still need these coping methods during the days of our slow ascent, and, to be frank, I am rather looking forward to re-watching Anne with an ”E” J

The lessons learned will range from the absolutely quickest rice recipe for a weekday to the latest tricks in virtual classroom, including the ones we will want to keep using AC. Even if these will be well remembered by their inventors, I would very much like to see a wider circulation of the experiences during the pandemic. Therefore the call for articles for the next issue of FINELC Newsletter (forthcoming in the autumn term 2021) will ask you to do exactly this: document the pandemic era. The articles can range from pedagogic innovations to a record of the feelings and experiences during the home office months, and I would also welcome that one recipe that will break the tedium of my Monday lunches.  

Martti Mäkinen

Hanken School of Economics