Fear activates primal motivations. It generates a focus and actions, however, that if not careful create the illusion that we’re doing the right thing.
A team, or any group of people, may indeed be in dire straits. Compounding the issue for most of us: We function in organizations where massive pressures are exerted upon us daily – generating the belief that at any moment our world is going to collapse.
So we race on . . . all the while, missing the sign hanging over the front door. It reads, ‘Needed: Your Best Ideas.’
Fear doesn’t generate new ideas; it activates reflexes. The consequence is that we don’t build anything new, we don’t improve. Fear is not an agent of a brilliant future. It never has been.
So, let’s nod at those who have fallen into despair. (We can acknowledge their pain.) Let’s listen to those who are angry. (We can be empathetic.) Then, let’s be certain to deny their invitation to join them in their fear mongering . . . and provide further evidence that there are indeed brighter days ahead.
What ideas do you have? Act. We are bigger than the fear.