The Great Reset and the Emergence of Generation RE

A great reset is upon us. No one yet knows what lies on the other side of this crisis, but a new generation was emerging prior to the Coronavirus and it is now gathering force.

This generation is not defined by age and it won’t be shaped solely by the Coronavirus. It will be characterized by a person’s willingness to reimagine, reexamine, restore, and renew one’s self and the world in a healthier, more holistic, and interconnected manner.

We call it Generation RE and unlike the “Greatest Generation” which saved the world from totalitarianism, this generation will save us from a far more potent enemy--ourselves and our limited sense of what’s possible.

This “generation” was operating on the fringe of society before Coronavirus, but it is rapidly moving into the mainstream. 

Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnec in their book, The Future We Choose, had reimagined a future where the air of 2050 would be cleaner than that which existed before the Industrial Revolution. Prior to the Coronavirus such an idea seemed far-fetched. Now that millions of Chinese citizens have seen with their own eyes the smog dissipate above their cities and felt the fresher air course through their lungs, many will demand that their government not return to the old ways. If the government doesn’t respond, many members of Generation RE will work to recreate such an environment even if it requires revolution.

Expect the voices of Greta Thunberg and other climate activists to also be re-amplified. Their once esoteric argument that climate change was a “trainwreck in slow motion” is now easier to grasp since the world has painfully experienced a different type of “trainwreck in slow-motion” with the Coronavirus. This new appreciation of humankind’s vulnerability to the natural world will optimistically reorient many people toward action because they have now personally witnessed the speed and force a society can marshal when confronted by an epic crisis. 

Countless other citizens who, during the protracted “shelter-in-place” period, have heard the sounds of birds returning to their neighborhoods will join forces with the army of volunteers who were already restoring rivers and reforesting woodlands prior to the outbreak. As the former are reconnected with nature, they will be more prone to re-engage with not-for-profit organizations, political institutions, and businesses to sustain the many other positive environmental aspects that have occurred as a result of this great reset.

Before the pandemic, Yvon Chouinard, the CEO of Patagonia, had already realigned the purpose of his company to meet this new reality by publicly stating “We are in the business of saving the planet.” As breweries have shifted to producing hand sanitizer and businesses large and small have reinvented themselves to produce face masks and ventilators, a myriad of other CEO’s, entrepreneurs and business leaders will also reframe their business operations to reflect a deeper appreciation of their interconnectedness to the planet and their employees. 

To this latter point, Andrew Yang gained a modest but enthusiastic following prior to the outbreak because he was willing to reexamine assumptions about the nature of work and the modern economy. His ideas were dismissed as utopian as recently as February. Now, Mitt Romney, the president, and many other Republicans have adopted a modified version of the Universal Basic Income as part of the $2 trillion stimulus package. 

Regardless of the length of the current crisis, many others will now be willing to reexamine long-held beliefs and assumptions about the merits of a market-based economy, especially as it pertains to wages, sick leave, and health insurance. Expect wages to be recalibrated to more equitably compensate nurses, home health aides, truckers, and grocery clerks for the real value they provide to society.

On an even deeper level, scores of innovative entrepreneurs were already quietly rewriting the rules of business before the pandemic. For example, Emily Hunt Turner, a former civil rights attorney but now the founder of All Square, a modest for-profit restaurant specializing in grilled cheese sandwiches, is providing meaningful work to formerly incarcerated individuals in an effort to reintegrate them back into society. 

In the wake of Coronavirus other businesspeople will be drawn to “conscious capitalism,” B Corps, and initiatives such as the OBO Movement--a project started by Dev Tandon, a former McKinsey consultant and the founder and CEO of a business analytics software company, that seeks to reinvent business by changing its focus from money to the broader goals of employee fulfilment and working on behalf of the common good. 

Arundhati Roy once said, “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her.” If you listen closely during this intense period of separation and quiet, you will hear a new world on her way. Call it a renaissance, a revolution, a renewal or a reset, it is being led by the heart beats of an ageless new generation--Generation RE--and their numbers are growing by the day.

Jack Uldrich and Camille Kolles are co-authors of the forthcoming book on “The Great Reset” and “Generation RE.” (GreenLeaf Book Group 2020).