I awoke early this morning to the sound of gentle rain falling and found myself immediately praying for more.  This prayer came automatically during one of the most tragic weeks in Victoria’s history with the tragedy of the bush fires in many parts of our state.

As a Victorian I have found myself upping my prayer quotient for rain for some time now, not just for the bush fires but for the many people whose lives are affected by the drought here and elsewhere.  In addition to my prayers, like many families, my family and I have been doing our best to save water and change the size of our carbon foot print.  Yet at times like this one can’t help but feel somewhat helpless and useless.  All I felt I could do under the circumstances was to pray and give money.  And the irony of Australia is that our Queensland cousins have been praying for the rain to stop.  I hope both our prayers come true.

As I lay there that morning thinking about the feelings of helplessness many are feeling in the midst of nature’s power over our collective destiny, it got me thinking about what we can control and what we can’t control and the importance of hope, purposeful action and good news.

It got me thinking about what people do in a time of crisis and how they fight to take back some control and regain their balance, albeit a new balance in many cases.  Witnessing the collective strength, courage, tenacity, compassion and determination of the people directly facing and dealing with the consequences of the fire and floods shows us what we are really made of.   It shows us that despite the grief and suffering we are experiencing we are resilient and determined to begin again.   It shows that people are able to take control and attend to their fellow human beings with kindness, compassion, support and purposeful effort.   It gives many of us hope that we have a shared future, albeit a future that is fundamentally changed forever. It is said that a crisis brings people together and highlights the most amazing qualities in people.

The fire and these human qualities were the key topic at a business leaders forum I am a member of  and attended the other day.  We discussed people’s resilience, determination, courage, creativity and ingenuity to work together and find a new way forward.  We also discussed the importance of giving people hope, clear information, positive news and strong, clear leadership in a time of crisis.

We discussed the fires and the impact on our collective psyche.  This then lead us to discuss more broadly how many people are feeling helpless and somewhat hopeless in the midst of the global financial crisis we find ourselves in now.  The global financial crisis was likened to a fire storm with the bad news still coming.   This association was not meant to detract from or trivialise the bush fires and the terrible consequences for all those directly involved in anyway, however the metaphor of fire and smoke was used to help us think more broadly about the consequences of our actions at all levels during these unprecedented times.

It was stated, among  other things, that the smoke of a fire is usually the most deadly, and many more people die of smoke inhalation rather than from the fire itself.  The ‘smoke,’ in relation to the global financial crisis, was the doom and gloom being spread about the world.  The group felt that the haze of fear and uncertainty which is affecting many in relation to  job losses, financial loss, business closure, family and community breakdowns, etc. is not being properly offset against the creative and positive opportunities for change and learning that also exist in these challenging times.

It was reported that the group had seen some people so distressed they are paralysed by fear and feel unable to see a way forward and take decisive action.  We expressed our concern that this may lead some people doing things that may lead to further grief and turmoil because the ‘smoke’ of fear was choking them.

The media (rightly or wrongly) was singled out by this group as a major culprit for taking a particularly negative stance on offering up a diet of bad news and for not providing a more balanced approach and insight in reporting on constructive, positive, hopeful news stories coming out of these challenging times.  We felt the media could do a lot better in this instance given their influence on our psyche.

Many in the group said they were refusing to watch or read the news now and decided to take a more proactive stand despite the media.  This wasn’t avoidant behavior, they were choosing to clear the smoke and gain a fresh perspective and look at the real evidence at hand.

We discussed that the positives coming out of this financial storm and how this has allowed many people to rethink what they want to do, how they want to really live their lives and run their businesses.  It was commented on that after any fire comes new growth and new opportunity.

We all felt that this financial crisis, as challenging as it is, gives us all the opportunity to create a ‘new’ normal.

We talked about people, businesses and communities, who despite the haze of gloom and doom are not taking this major crisis lying down.  They are looking for signs of growth, for collaboration, for a ‘new normal.  They are bucking the trend of despair and fighting back, dealing with adversity and seeing the world a new.  It is what we as humans do to give us hope.

Our group said we wanted to see more of these constructive, positive stories about what people are actually doing to make the most of their situations represented more in the media.   We want to hear and have broadcasted how people are creating their ‘new’ normal, their ‘new’ ways of doing business and how they are working collaboratively together instead of in competition.  One of the leaders who attended the meeting, mentioned that instead of attacking his competitor in these tough times, he intends to meet with them to discuss how they can work together to survive and begin to thrive again in business.

Other people I am speaking to within the business world are sharing similar stories of opportunity and the creating the ‘new’ normal.

Ironically, the very same media who have been reporting on the financial gloom and doom are looking for good news stories from the fires to give us hope.

What this leadership group wants is for the media to up the reporting on good news business, environmental and community stories where people are creating jobs, looking at ways to secure their future and so on not to just feel good but because they are actually happening and are real.

I must say I was heartened by this discussion, unlike another major business leaders event I attended two weeks ago that seemed to dwell on the negative and was trying get us back to ‘old normal’.

Whether the media responds to our request or not I encourage  everyone in business to go out and meet with your clients, suppliers and partners. I encourage you to meet with your friends and communities.  I encourage us all to listen to and understand each other like we never have before.  Find out how what we each value and what our priorities are and how we can work together to create a more sustainable future and make this best of it despite the prevailing circumstances.  I encourage us to share stories of new opportunities and different types of growth models that don’t just rely on growing bigger and consuming more non renewable resources by selling stuff for stuff sake.

We all agreed that we need to draw upon our resilience, determination, creativity and ingenuity to work together and find a ‘new’ way forward.  Just like we are witnessing at the moment in this time of tragedy.

At this meeting our chairman quoted from Charles Dickens ‘A tale of two cities’ which seemed quite apt in relation to our times and the choices we have to make:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way.”

Despite the difficulties we all face we can still pray and act with clear purpose and make the most of what we have and what will become.

And I’ll keep praying for rain here in Victoria and for all those people affected by the fires and floods, for our environment and our communities and keep doing my best to change my ways for a better more sustainable future.

PS Let us know your good news stories and maybe we could start here our good news push here.