Surviving the Rain
My last post dealt with our hopes and fears as we face the uncertainties of pandemic, confinement, and the great unknown ahead of us. It generated a fair amount of feedback. I was happy to hear that, by and large, you’re finding your way across unfamiliar terrain. Filmmaker Aristea Linakis summed up our collective hopes and fears in this short anecdote she shared with me:
"When I worked as a tour director, I was once on a bus full of American students headed to Pompeii. It started pouring so hard it felt absolutely apocalyptic. We were speeding down the highway, but we couldn't see the road because of the sheets of rain. The front window of the bus steamed up. The driver gripped the wheel with one hand and, with the other, he kept clearing a small circle on the pane so he could see the next meter ahead of him. I put on a reassuring front for my group, tried to convey a message of, "No big deal, the driver is used to weather like this." but in my head I was thinking, "We’re going to die!" After what felt like an eternity, and with the storm still raging, we arrived in Pompeii. All of a sudden, the rain stopped, the skies cleared, and by the time we got out of the bus the sun was shining.”
Besides illustrating how dangerous lack of visibility can be, Aristea’s story struck me for another reason: Instead of letting panic get the better of her, she responded with hope. By voicing confidence in the driver’s expertise to focus on the road, she played a role in helping everyone breathe and stay calm.
What an excellent metaphor for leadership in the face of the unknown!
Storytelling is rooted in our human experience—and every dimension of storytelling is based on the pulls of hope and fear. Like any protagonist, each of us has ambitions, dreams, and desires, and we run into obstacles, frustrations, and failures. The beauty of Aristea’s story isn’t about the absence of fear, but of her heroic decision to remain focused and constructive in the face of fear.
Andrew Shaffer is the co-founder of the Tokyo-based corporate development company Hummingbyrd Inc. Over the past six months, Andrew and I have been exploring ways to help clients become more alert to the dynamics of hope and fear—that is, to the dynamics of the stories we tell ourselves as we meet the challenges of stormy weather and low visibility.
We recently ran a pilot for a two-part workshop on staying positive and agile in the face of the unknown. The invitation-only pilot audience consisted of other coaches and trainers, and we used their invaluable feedback to hone the content. We’ll be running more pilots over the next several weeks. I’m extending a special invitation to members of this list. We’re taking volunteers on a first-come, first-served basis. If you’d like to participate, or if this sound like something you’d like to bring to your organization once we're out of the pilot phase, please get in touch here: