Hope is not a real strategy

April 23, 2020

By Dan Hammond, Chief Disruption Officer, LIW

Milan has announced an ambitious plan to reduce car usage after the lockdown. The smallish Northern Italian city will convert 35km of streets to be more pedestrian and cyclist friendly.

The Madonnina on the spire of the Duomo can smile proudly. Her city is achieving something that many of us will fail to do: not going back.

History is full of examples of how we have returned to the old normal after major disruptions despite optimism at the time that things could change for the better.

What does this mean for leadership?

Many of us have expressed hope that the world will be a better place after the pandemic: kinder, fairer, less environmentally damaging.

But hope is not a strategy. We need to do something concrete, something that’s hard to reverse. Even by us.

 

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