(For any of you who know our network partner Chuck Lofy, you will recognize that these three questions are the ones he asks people to talk through when they work inside organizations experiencing chaos.) And, listening to the individual reactions of my partners, I have no doubt that our company was a microcosm of a nation in the midst of chaos. Each of us wondering, envisioning what the new world may be like on the other side.
What did we talk about?
Fear
How do we keep our children safe? How do we start traveling again? We voiced our worst fears: "Hate isn't going to prove stronger than love, is it?" and "Should I move to some obscure part of Guatemala?"
Symbols of Hope
A rainbow seen in Colorado that shone brightly in the East. New life, rebirth in the areas of Florida that had suffered destructive forest fires only weeks before. That fifty-five years ago, to imagine Germany and Japan as our great allies would have been impossible.
Values
We talked about how to hold true to our personal and company values. How do we get through our own ignorance and hate? How do we live our values of trust, compassion, reflection and understanding in these times?
Courage
We talked about how proud we were of the public servants and response systems that once again demonstrated their greatness. We admired the courage of many of all ages, races, and creeds. The courage to lay down one's life for others. The courage of the thousands who flocked to New York and DC to offer assistance-from making sandwiches to carpentry. The courage of some who do not simply seek retribution, but the use of this time for self-reflection as a country, the pursuit of real justice, and the eradication of the underlying causes of terrorism.
Which world next?
We wondered what kind of world was in our future. We surmised how our governing systems and the principles they are founded on might come into question. We believe that no one's job is the same as on the day before September 11th. But, we, as individual members of PSG, believe that reform and creation will be our country's response to destruction. Our democratic systems and institutions will come out even stronger.
I am sharing the kinds of things we talked about, but what I want to emphasize is that we talked. Feel free to use these same three questions to facilitate employee discussions. Encourage the flow of cares, information, and ideas within your own organizations. Ask what September 11th meant for each of your employees, for your customers, for your organization, for our government. Our New World depends on it.
