Nearly forty years ago, I was a high school history teacher. Because of these roots, I often recall the Spanish-born, American author George Santanyana’s famous quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
As I reflect on all that has taken place in the last six months, namely a global pandemic, an economic collapse, the rise of massive social unrest, and add to it the derecho, an island hurricane that moved through Iowa with winds over 100 mph, I know that we are living in times that will be discussed for generations. And at some point in the future, these events will become “remembered history” rather than recently lived through experiences. They will become part of the social memory of these times and this generation.
Our biggest challenge as leaders and managers right now is that we walk every day into the unknown, wondering what next will go wrong. We have become so accustomed to this daily experience of no predictability, order or control in our lives. This has resulted in a persistent tendency toward hopelessness or pessimism. No matter how hard we try, we can not find meaning or purpose to the events around us. In short, each day we struggle, and the results are rarely positive.
In the landscape of social memory, history is very important. Our memory of specific events creates our individual and collective identity. Over time, they will tell us who we are, what we believe in, and where we are going. And this is where the intersection of the world of leadership and current events has the potential to make a major difference.
We know that the best leaders clearly articulate who we are and where we are going as a team, a company and as a community. Some of these leaders will even explain how we are going to get there. These leaders understand that when a person finds clarity and inspires others to do likewise, the outcome is powerful on a multitude of levels.
In many recent executive coaching sessions, I have explained that COVID has sucked all of the oxygen out of the room. Initially, in the spring, everything focused on crisis management and keeping day to day operations functional. In late May and early June, more and more leaders and companies switched out of the emergency management stage and into the adaptive management stage. Here, they focused on more than just keeping operations running and began again to ask important questions about strategy, sustainability and resilience. But the upshot of such a deep and profound level of trauma caused by the initial crisis of COVID-19 is that many leaders forgot to do two very important things.
First, now is the time to begin talking again about who we are as a people. Too much of our identity as individuals, teams and organizations is being defined and consumed by COVID related details. Instead, we need to reclaim the core purpose of our work and to put it front and center. We will continue talking about virus management, yet in the scope of our history it is not the only thing that is happening at this time period. Therefore, we must explore how we are responding to these times, and what we believe in that transcends this moment in time. When we do this, it has the potential to become a line of continuity through these current and possible future challenges.
Second, now is the time to begin talking again about where we are going as a people and as organizations. Again. too much of our future is being defined by COVID. Instead, we need to reclaim our individual, organizational and community visions for the future. The danger of this moment in time is that our identity is being defined by our fears rather than our hopes.
We will continue to move forward through this global pandemic, economic collapse, social unrest, and our local recovery process. One day it will all be history, shared and remembered. Yet now is the time to engage in restorative actions which strengthen our resolve to continue to move forward with hope. One element of this journey forward is that we are going to need to restore our connections with others and to build new and even better connections with others that are not based on social injustice, economic privilege, or systematic racism.
Furthermore, we can no longer tolerate broken relationships or broken systems which perpetuate these unhealthy dynamics. We need to rebuild our relationships, our work places and our communities so we can all feel safe, healthy and respected. Healing at this level will require us to be compassionate, forgiving, and to recognize our inter-connectedness. If COVID has taught us anything, it is that is your health influences my health and my health influences your health.
This fall, I challenge all of us to remember our history at the individual, team, company and community levels. We have been through difficult trails and tribulations before, and we are doing it again now. By sharing our stories and experiences, we can keep alive the memories of those who have gone on before us and help those younger who are following in our foot steps. Through all that is taking place right now, we can and we will rise together, survive together and be stronger together. Our actions this fall will impact generations. We just need to remember this and act accordingly.
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