“Struggle is ordinary; Acceptance is eXtraOrdinary.” – Naveen Lakkur

When there’s an unexpected change, the struggle becomes a way of life. It is often the result of the rejection of the way things are happening around them. Not accepting the changes around them result in stress, heartbreak, and dejection. Accepting the changes will lessen the stress, a precursor to lifestyle diseases. It will make people struggle a lot less and get ready for the next stage of life.

As per the philosophy called the “The Kübler–Ross model”, everyone goes through five stages during any natural disaster, pandemic, patient with a terminal illness or an accident.

They are:

1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargain
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

Essentially they are the stages one goes through during the struggle phase. People who pass through the first four stages struggle a lot and it will be too late for them to prepare for the next stage. They become mentally ill and need a lot of help to make them accept their predicament.

In fact, the ‘Change Acceptance Model™’ of the Institute of Inspiring Innovation proposes people to be a Little Extra™. When there is an influence of sudden change, people can fast-track the phase of struggle to reach the stage of ‘Acceptance’. Those who accept what’s happening to them or around them, they will have a less stressful time dealing with situations and get ready for the next phase.

‘Change Acceptance Model™’ defines the next phase with five stages:

1. Acceptance
2. Analysis
3. Possibilities
4. Innovation
5. New-Normal

Story 1 – Getting Ready for the New Normal

The recent coronavirus pandemic forced governments all over the world to make their citizens follow strict measures to prevent the spread of the virus. People faced an unseen force. The only way to defeat this force was to stay at home and maintain social distancing. Looking at The Kübler–Ross model, let us track what led to either people’s struggle.

Stage 1 – Denial: Some people denied that the coronavirus will never affect them in any way, and life will be normal. When they saw other countries’ citizens dying of the virus, even then they said that it will never activate in their own country. Some people in hot countries doubted that the virus will not flourish in hot climates like in their country.

Stage 2 – Anger: When the government of their country enforced a lockdown, people got angry. They got angry over the loss of their income, loss of livelihood, and how that disrupts normal life.

Stage 3 – Bargain: In this stage, people started bargaining. They negotiated the effect the virus will have on people who were fit. They wanted to hear that there was curable treatment while still believing that it would never attack fit people like them.

Stage 4 – Depression: They reach a stage where they find themselves in depression. Some feel low due to the changes and all the disruption of the normal life they experienced.

Stage 5 – Acceptance: This is the last stage. People who are depressed finally reach the stage of acceptance of their fate. Those who stay depressed, they go off to the deep end needing professional help.

This model not only applies to the coronavirus crisis but any other problems the sudden change brings, be it a financial struggle, personal struggle, or professional struggle.

Acceptance is definitely eXtraOrdinary. In fact, the Institute of Inspiring Innovation’s ‘Change Acceptance Model™’ enables people to cope with sudden change. It helps to shift the focus to create opportunities. It defines the next phase with the above-mentioned five stages. Let us analyze the five stages with examples.

Stage 1 – Acceptance: In the context of a lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, people must accept that there is a spread and a better understanding shows that social distancing is the best way to contain the spread. That came out of the acceptance. You also think about what to do next. Why did it happen and what can we do? It gives rise to an opportunity for analysis.

Stage 2 – Analysis: During the lockdown, everything was divided into essentials and non-essentials. At this time, there may be things that people would need. Manufacturers could come to an understanding that they can manufacture essentials. The slowdown would last for eight months to one year, or even longer.

Stage 3 – Possibilities: If so, then what are the possibilities after going through the stage of analysis and understanding. How can we and what can we reimagine? This is where you must look at finding opportunities or possibilities. How do you spend the time and make it meaningful? If you are a business, utilize the time to clear some of the backlogs that you have, or learn new skills that could be of use in the future, or repurpose your business to make it relevant to the current situation.

Stage 4 – Innovation: The thought of repurposing your business or finding opportunities will lead to possibilities of innovation. Innovation is not complex. In simple terms, it is making something better, doing something different, or creating something new to make your business relevant during the crisis times. You will then get the required permissions to work and be functional.

Stage 5 – New-normal: In this stage, the businesses that found a way to be relevant during the pandemic found a new normal. Some products they manufacture may be still deemed relevant post the lockdown. The 9/11 attacks, right from the attack on the first tower to the collapse of both the towers lasted 102 minutes. The change brought a new-normal to the aviation industry. Screenings increased, security was beefed up in the airports, and there were a lot of changes to the emigration and immigration rules of most countries around the world.

So many new products came up and product innovation happened useful for security professionals. The same is going to happen here. After this stage, it is the new normal, or the new baseline is created.

Made Out of the Box is a good example of a company that went through the five stages of change acceptance model. The corrugated box that can be used for parcels was repurposed to make a sanitizer stand with a pedal press.

After the COVID-19 pandemic is over, it can still be used by placing it outside the washroom to help employees wash their hands. If you do not need it anymore, you may dispose of it sustainably also as it is degradable. What’s unique is the utility value this product promises. Users are not touching the sanitizer bottle and hence ‘no-touch.’ It is easy to make and it is eco-friendly too. The manufacturers have also filed for a patent.

When they used a corrugated box to create a sanitizer dispenser stand, a new market opened for them. The manufacturers too went through the five stages. Firstly they accepted the situation that COVID19 created. They analyzed what they have at hand. They knew there would be a need for social distancing and hygiene. The vaccine for COVID-19 is still not around. So they started looking for possibilities and innovated with product design of something which could dispense sanitizer. This equips them to play a role in the new-normal and ride the wave of opportunities.

Every company can put it into use for the new normal. The new normal is that people going to work will find a sanitizer, which now has people part of the daily chore. In this example, the Little Extra is the innovation they brought. Watch the video.

Story 2 – A Complicated Tourist Attraction

We admit that it is tough living even within five miles from an international border, what about those living in enclaves. India and Bangladesh have the strangest enclave-exclave problems in the world. Recently, the leaders of the two countries met with each other and partially solved that problem. People now know where they live, and the enclave or the exclave they are living in belongs to which country. It is a struggle to manage but surely the acceptance of the situation and new policies will make it easier to manage and live.

The Netherlands and Belgium also have a weird border. In hindsight, enclaves pose a problem for people who need a trip to the other side to collect groceries or to buy furniture. Unlike the Dahala Khagrabari, an Indian enclave within Bangladesh which is within Indian territory inside Bangladesh, Baarle-Hertog is a tourist attraction and a moneymaker.

Baarle-Hertog is a Belgian municipality within Baarle-Nassau of Netherlands, all within Dutch sovereignty. It has a population of 2,300. This town has 24 non-contiguous parcels of land, three of them on the border to Belgium, which is easy. The other 21 are surrounded by the Netherlands. The border is so complicated that some houses are divided between two countries.

Buildings pay taxes depending on which country their front door is located. Those doors that are right on the border can choose which county they want to belong to. Instead of the two countries coming to a deal, it has made their citizens’ life easier by giving them the choice. Restaurants and bars that have the border running between them simply change their tables to the Belgian side so that they do not have to close early as per Dutch rules.

The problem arose because of the complex medieval treaties, agreements, land swaps, and sales. Though it was a struggle at the beginning, modern Belgians and Dutch people did not let medieval problems dictate how much they had to struggle. The two countries went a Little Extra and the borders were finalized in 1995 between the two nations.

The citizens of the two countries need not get special permission to cross over each other’s borders to get to work or to go shopping. The policymakers fast-tracked Acceptance and helped people embrace the new normal. This is an example of a process and policy innovation. The people of the ‘twin towns’ have accepted the way life is instead of struggling. They made people’s life eXtraOrdinary. Watch the video.

Story 3 – Keeping Motorists’ Head Cool

Big Indian cities are getting crowded. The economic opportunity has attracted millions of people from small towns and villages. With all the crowd, the number of two-wheelers, the bike riders have increased. The dust and heat have made commuting a nightmare. With helmets a must for riders for safety reasons, the heat becomes unbearable for most people during the summers. It’s a struggle to ride bikes during the summer season.

Most people bear it and struggle through their commute. Roadrages are also common. While some people saw it as a struggle, P.K. Sundar Rajan wanted to change it. He accepted that there was a problem and he had to make something to change it. Being aware of the hassles involved in negotiating traffic, he decided to come up with ways to attach portable cooling solutions and bring car-like comfort to two-wheeler riders.

After some analysis, he decided to make an air-conditioner that can fit into the helmet. He along with a group of designers designed a prototype of a product that can lower the temperature inside the helmet by 6 to 15 degrees. This revolutionary innovation provides a 360-degree cooling coverage inside the helmet. When people agree that there is a problem and work on finding a solution to fix it, it will be a meaningful innovation and sets a new trend to become a new normal.

P.K. Sundar Rajan said it took one year to come with the first prototype. Today, there are two generations of the product. The third one evolved into a smart one. It has BlueTooth that is integrated with a voice-assistant with a dedicated mobile app for both Android and iOS. With this product, he founded BluArmor where he sells different models of the divide through an e-commerce helmet.

The company and the team understand the struggles that bike riders go through and have accepted the challenge to be a Little Extra and demonstrate their innovation capabilities, creating some cool products. Watch the video.