The Great Reset - a POV on Qual Research?!
Have you read COVID-19: The Great Reset?
Published in June 2020, the title is suggestive of something monumental and has attracted considerable attention mixed with concern.
Written jointly by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret, it links the COVID-19 crisis to the need for a more sustainable and fairer world. The new normal can't be the old normal. You can download it here - https://amzn.to/36gLIV0
Anything touching on likely change in a post-COVID world has to be worth reading for market researchers - it's part of our brief. There are a few particular aspects in the book that concerns our profession.
Before I touch on that, here's a brief summary.
The book has three main sections, looking at the societal and economic impact the 2020 pandemic is having at a i) Macro, ii) Micro and then iii) individual level.
It's not based on new research, and isn't particularly original or provocative in its observations, more a familiar cri de coeur for a better world. So: greater and broader stakeholder involvement, fairer outcomes, more even distribution of wealth, a greener planet and more. Hyper-capitalism has outlived its sell-by date - one of the book's assumptions - the extreme interconnectivity of the globalised economy requires co-ordinated responses, stronger global governance.
So: what's the link to Market Research?
Well, we get no explicit mention - surprisingly given the section dedicated to individual COVID responses.
But one of the main digital qual tools - Zoom - comes in for a methodological bashing.
Screen-to-screen: a blunt instrument?
In the third section on individual outcomes the authors reflect - often anecdotally - about changes in individual's behaviours and attitudes, including social interactions. Social distancing has brought with it a huge switch to online interactions, Zoom is in boom mode. A massive social experiment in their words.
The authors highlight a negative link to mental health, suggesting endless online meetings and mental well-being are poor bed-fellows.
Without footnotes, they suggest that the brain is severely challenged - by the sheer number of people in a zoom-style meeting, also constantly searching for non-verbal cues - which are absent. The result: doing too much zoom style work results in being drained of energy and left with a sense of profound dissatisfaction. This negatively affects our sense of well-being.
Ah. The criticism of zoom-interactions is specific:
- absence of body-language cues makes interpretation challenging - subtletly is lost.
- prolonged eye contact can become intimidating, or even threatening
- this is heightened if a hierarchical relationship exists
Digital Qual - missing a trick?
Why should this matter?
Firstly, it's very critical of many digital qual practices. I'm sure many of us disagree - even strongly.
Klaus Schwab is also the founder of the World Economic Forum, the annual meeting hitherto in Davos of the leading global companies, heads of state and more. It's hugely influential.
The book will likely be read widely.
So - to those of you who have and are engaging in Zoom for your research - what's your take on the Zoom critique above?
Curious, as ever, as to others' views.