Behind the dark side of a recession is a darker side.
It is important to prepare by being aware.
As an opportunity presenter I teach how people react to sudden change:
They are afraid. Most people see any change as a negative, afraid they cannot deal with it well.
They get angry. Fear is uncomfortable; anger is more satisfying as then you can move to number 3
Blame someone for what is happening. This blame can rapidly deteriorate to “them”.
People revert to the behavior and values of a golden time, when the world was perfect.
When was the world perfect? Logic is not part of the 4 steps.
I am fond of 4b. I call it God lives in the ceiling. When people tell me all would be well if we could go back to the —- insert your era, They often talk to the ceiling as they spout the virtues of their golden time.
The Glass Half Empty – How will this affect your life?
In the last recession many men lost their jobs but the women kept theirs. They remained employed because they earned less and as the only paycheck they had to accapt any demands the employers made. Many male spouses who had been caring, sharing partners reverted to the “head of the household” from a bygone era. They raged that the wife was working, sat at home all day doing nothing and demanded dinner when the women came home at 6p.m., 7p.m. or 9p.m. It often lead to physical abuse.
In the small business world colleagues of many years cheated their network. It was justified by a “its survival of the fittest” attitude. Banks called women’s business loans even though women paid their loans more reliably than men. As mentioned before I had entrepreneurs I had never met walk into my office and yell at me. Their pain loudly echoed in the glass that was half empty.
The Glass Half Full
Three friends and I founded a charity just before the recession hit in our area. It was to give business help to non profits and charities. The mandate shifted quickly as a wave of homelessness startled the city. So many people so fast, what could be done? We decided to provide sleeping bags as a bandaid solution while permanent answers were being developed. As we sought the opinions of friends, neighbours and colleagues their response was not encouraging.
“No body cares!”, “Its a dog eat dog world”, “What are you getting out of it?”
Naturally, as entrepreneurs, we ignored the advice and just got started. We asked for corporate help and got a massive positive response; stores to collect the sleeping bags, trucks to deliver the preowned sleeping bags to the free dry cleaning art work and ads by a top advertising firm. Police officers carried the bags in their cruisers to give out to the homeless on cold nights. All media gave us coverage whenever the temperature dropped.
Still we got negativity. We were accused of killing people with the dry cleaning chemicals (chemicals not used in 2 decades!) and one politician claimed that we caused homelessness by giving out sleeping bags. Sigh!
Then a distributor said we could buy a huge number of bags from a cancelled order for a bargian price if we could buy them in 10 days or they would be sent back to the factory. We had no money collection systems like credit cards as we had just collected used bags from families. How would we get $35.000.00 in 10 days? The media gave our plight great coverage but then– a postal strike!
We asked people to call us, pledge and send us the money when the strike ended.
The glass half empty people lectured us on destroying the charity- no one will send the money, they will forget———-
The glass half full people called us 24/7 and pledged money. We worked the phones in 12 hour shifts, all 4 of us! They drove to our office and dropped off cash and checks. One elderly woman who could no longer see well enough to fill out a check had her friend assist her.
On that rainy mean Thanksgiving Day
I found a paper bag on my porch full of money and a note.
Two families who always celebrated together had a meeting and decided (children and adults) to do without their meal to give us the money they would have spent.
Did we get the money? Yes! The strike ended and the envelopes flowed in. They flowed and flowed until we had $80,000.00. It paid for sleeping bags for that year and the next.
The Glass is Recycleable – The Truth About Darwin
Half empty loves to quote Darwin but incorrectly. What he actually said was:
evolution belongs to the most adaptable
The fear, anger and blame response will not stop change but it will probably guarantee that you will not find opportunity in the change. If you believe the glass is half empty you will read and listen to media that reinforce your belief. It will be easy to find friends to support your dispair world. If you feel the glass is half full you must look for media and people who share your optimism. You will also be creating your own world. A world where new opportunity is possible and you can make it happen.
It is also important to vote for people who can find opportunity in change.
If Change Skill University existed its motto might be:
Forget the way it should be, prepare for the way it could be as it probably already is.
