Toilet paper madness still reigns supreme in Australia. It is simultaneously funny and tragic. Last week I wrote about the madness in Dunny Paper, Dentists and Disease.
On a more serious note, there are lessons for leaders in the apparent about face of Aussies.
Only months ago, Australia was in the global news spotlight for very different reasons. The country was burning. Facing that wide spread tragedy, Australians showed the very best of our culture to each other and the world. We stood shoulder to shoulder and faced the flames. Countless hours and millions of dollars of tangible support flowed. It was backed up by even more emotional support. While much was lost, the fires were a reminder of the power of people aligned to a common cause. We were shocked and grieving and we were Unshakeable.
Coronavirus has revealed a different face. We are skittish and reactive. We are more likely to turn on each other to ensure our own interests, including resorting to violence. Our blindspots and biases cloud our vision, resulting in boycotts of local Chinese business and hoarding of paper (Neither of which make the slightest difference to the virus). Many of us are expressing sorrow and shock at what we are seeing here. How can it be that a culture can turn so quickly?
There are some key differences between the challenges faced, leading to very different responses. I outline a few below with recommendations for leaders in any uncertain environment.
| Fires | Covid19 | Leaders | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data | Tangible- Clear borders, area burnt, direction, number of lives affected, actionable information. | Intangible- Who, how many, how fast are hard to access. World experts are making ‘best guesses’. Many unknowns. | The more intangible we can make the challenges we face, the easier it is to have people aligned and Unshakeable |
| Visibility | Smoke, Fire fronts, loss of life and habitat destruction. Shocking but easy to map. | We see COVID. If someone sneezes, is that it or not? Where is it? How fast is it travelling? So many unknowns. | When people don’t know what is happening they create stories to fill the gaps. When what is happening is unclear, build clarity in how we respond together. Qantas is a great example of this. |
| Tangible Opponent | We can rally at a fire front, or around a devastated community. There are tasks we can practically put our hands to. It creates a common focus. | There is no obvious place to sight. Wash your hands and cough into your elbow, don’t seem meaningful enough to fight something so big. Plus it’s individual. Harder to band together. | In the absence of a tangible focus, we are likely to make the people around us the opponent. Again designing a collective response makes it easier to band together. |
| Contagious Emotion | Connection, resilience, and empathy built on each other to create more. | Panic individualism and fear create more as well. | Emotion is contagious. Model and create the emotional state you would like to see. Rourke Denver has a take on this. |
So while media and social media coverage have an impact, we are also facing dramatically different circumstances. Both the fires and COVID19 are disruptive and threatening, but they show up in very different ways.
What are you doing as a leader (whether you lead yourself, your family, a small team, an organisation, or a country) to make COVID19 tangible?
What is within your control, and how are you rallying focus and energy around that?
In the absence of answers, we will continue to see people reactivity acting in their own interests, potentially to the detriment of much that we hold dear.
Let’s be Unshakeable and hold the line.
