Yet Another Long Tail

Back in late winter 2020, as the COVID pandemic was spinning seemingly out of control, we advised clients that it would have a “long tail” of effects that might take years or decades to fully play out. An illustration of this tail’s presence is that hardly a day goes by now, in late winter 2026, when we don’t hear a school leader somewhere reference the pandemic as a contributing factor to something happening in their institution at that moment. Now, as Gary Burnison of Korn Ferry describes in his March 22, 2026, Special Edition missive, “When Reality Meets Hope,” here we are again.

Burnison’s point is that the chaotically colliding events of the present moment—extreme political polarization, war, conquest, and economic uncertainty for more and more humans—will be like the pandemic in impact. While not the result of a single cause like the pandemic, this moment too will create its own long tail.