There is one ingredient to shifting the lives of those being disrupted and the scenes of panic buying: give them certainty in the form of an absolute.
Friday’s Elite : Six Think Tank meeting had two clear points: emotion and leadership. The two are opposites.
The panic or mass buying of non-essential items is pure emotion. Emotion is driven by uncertainty.
So much of what we hear around CORVID-19 is pure uncertainty.
Leadership provides certainty. Certainty on the next step. Where the next step is. Something to aim for. Even if you don’t know what the next step is and you are leader of your family or business, deliver something that is certain. Deliver something absolute. Something that is near tangible.
Examples:
- A date (which may change),
- A time (which may change),
- A location (which may change),
People need to know and now. Knowing and certainty creates safety. Safety diffuses emotion. Fear subsides. Rational thinking and action resumes. Life is now focussed on there being a next step
If your boat is sinking and you’re telling your passengers ‘we will be okay’ will only work if there is a lifeboat they can see – the absolute.
Deliver the absolute in your message.
Now more than ever we look back at history and recount some of the statements issued in grave depression or war time. Now is the time to use history as our teacher and deliver what worked then. It will work now.
“We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.” – Winston Churchill.
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