Change management, Covid and nation.

Kubler-Ross Change Curve

This Curve theory explains the process as to how people cope up with significant upheaval or life-changing or threatening situations.link

The process explains that people undergo five/six stages: the first stage is that of Shock, then going into Denial, then to Anger, moving into Depression. Up to this stage the performance of the individual or group of people will continue to deteriorate as time progresses. Once the inevitability of the Change dawns, then the people move to Acceptance and finally into Integration when the performance will again start regaining the original position or sometimes exceeding it if there are supporting enablers or incentives.

This is true for individuals as well as for a country or economy.

Since the nation received the pandemic shock in March middle, you may recount we have seen at least the first four stages. We start denying that this pandemic will affect us and once we realised that it is spreading we showed our Anger at China, TJ, and at all those epicentres. Now we are in the Depression stage slowly moving into Acceptance stage where we need to understand to live with this virus by being vigilant and exercising caution. We should not let our safety guard down .

One must also understand that when you are already in Depression stage, if there is another negative news the performance will again start sagging and another cycle /bout of Shock, Denial ,Anger and Depression will kick in .So, it is extremely important for the Govts and the people to navigate this phase without further unexpected shocks.

People are cautioned to listen to the TV news with a pinch of salt. They must look at the Covid nos as a percentage of tests made, active cases situation , infection per lac of population and death per lac.