Financial Times

Tsunami - crisis to greatness
By Ranjan L G De Silva
The events of December 26 saw hearts opening up and dividing walls collapsing within people, not only in Sri Lanka but all over the world. People even unrelated to the victims, individually and in organizations, rushed in with immediate relief to a point where there was an overflow of love and generosity in that aspect. With the realisation for the need for soul food, there are numerous groups and individuals organizing themselves to provide social-psycho support. Other groups are working on re-building, getting people back their livelihood and improving the economy as a result.

Calamities are numerous, be it man-made calamities as seen/known by us in the past in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, South Africa, Vietnam, New York, Madrid, Beslan, Darfur, Baghdad, Mosul etc. or natural calamities in Los Angeles, Kobe, Florida, Iran and now in the countries surrounding the Indian Ocean. We have heard over and over again that crises have helped countries like Japan and Vietnam, cities like Los Angeles and Kobe,companies such as Fuji Heavy Industries and Tokyo Jidosha and people like Viktor Frankl and Stan Lech to transform into greatness. Whilst crisis has helped transformation to greatness in certain instances, you will see that it has not happened all the time if you go through the list of calamities above.

Sri Lankans are excited about this prospect of reaching greatness. Yes, whilst dreams are needed and it is the first step in any transformation, we need to convert these dreams into strategies and strategies into concrete action before the impact of 26/12 wears out.

If not we could be one of the countries who allowed the opportunity which comes once in a lifetime (with lots of grief, sadness and destruction) to slip away. Whilst planning, policy and direction at a national and organizational level is essential the real change happens at the individual level.

As such the national and organizational efforts need to ensure that individual motivation is nurtured and channelled towards the rebuilding effort. In this article I will attempt to provide some practical steps for the organization and the individual in becoming a value-adding part of Sri Lankas journey to greatness.

The positives of the calamity include the world-wide awareness of Sri Lanka as a beautiful tourist destination, flow of funds, debt relief, re-building pledges, recognition of Sri Lankans as friendly and nice people, breaking up of various cultural, religious, political and ethnic barriers and the realization of our capacity to perform.

To elaborate on the last point, we saw the road up to Galle repaired in a few days, the railway track up to Kalutara restored within days, medical aid despatched by government organisations, with people working round the clock, over 100 aircraft loads of relief aid cleared within 4 days and people from relief camps going back to re-build their livelihood within days of the calamity. There are numerous other examples of this nature. Who says the public sector is inefficient?

The performance improvement in people including the public sector, which is generally associated with lethargy and inefficiency, happened due to the motivation to work. What motivated them was the opening of their hearts and minds due to the calamity- the realization that their personal talent will be wasted if not used in such situations - the realization that we have been given the talents and capacity to help humanity grow, and to waste it at a moment like this is to contribute to entropy. This realization needs to be converted into results. We need to learn to create corporate environments, create inspiring visions, display authentic leadership and provide the required resources to ensure this passion is continued to be seen in our journey to greatness.

Now what is important is to convert this passion into long lasting results. Passion is defined as the capacity to suffer. Like in the Ghandian philosophy, suffering and sacrifice is needed to achieve results and greatness. There were many who naturally or by the team effect, displayed these qualities. This calamity helped ignite the passion in these people.

It opened up the leadership possibilities in them. It allowed the creative juices to flow. It opened up their minds to endless possibilities. The hunger for learning got intensified. It created all the right ingredients needed for leaders who can guide us to greatness and people who can make it happen.

As organizations in and outside the affected areas, it is important to recognise those who were emotionally moved by the calamity, those who rushed in to join relief teams, those who toiled day and night to get to those affected and help them in various ways, those who worked to restore businesses and those who continued to keep the organizations running (while others were on relief duty).

These people grew during this process. These people would form the core of future leaders in re-building your organizations. They need to be made heroes and recognized. They need to be given leadership roles and opportunities to develop into leaders.

They should be put on the fast track to career advancement. They should be included in WOW teams. This is one way of ensuring that the flame does not die off with the reduction of impact that happens after any incident of great impact.

Those who were directly affected by the Tsunami have two choices now. One is to continue to despair over the losses and ruin their lives too or to complete the process of grieving and start “living life as an exclamation” so that they can show the departed loved ones, what they are really made of.

It will enable them to show those departed loved ones that their sacrifice which ignited the passion was not wasted. Mr Milton Galapathi of the Miltons group, who lost his wife (who he described as two of the four wheels of his vehicle of life) and all his property, was strong enough to appear on the Illakkya programme on Rupavahini, one week after the disaster.

He had lost everything and was even wearing borrowed clothes. I happened to be in the panel on this TV programme and was moved when Milton shed tears for the loss of his wife on the programme. I was also proud to have a fellow Sri Lankan who said he is now going to start the re-building process and make her proud. On my visit to a camp I also spoke to many such people who were ready to get back and build the business.

A young lady who was running a yoghurt manufacturing and selling establishment had lost everything. When I counselled her, she was already brimming with ideas and hope on re-starting the business in a small way and using the opportunity to guide it to greatness. We hope more and more surviving victims would think in this manner.

Organizations should be bold to hire such people as this will help you convert their passion into hope and determination. You would be acquiring a solid asset for your organization. These people could become some of the best leaders and most loyal and committed team members for you with the right nurturing and guidance.

A final word to individuals whether directly affected or not. Let’s use this opportunity to learn that none of us have a motivation problem, lack of self-drive or capacity to perform.

What we lacked was a big enough reason to do it. The big “why?” Some of us have found that reason and are already successful and continuing to grow. However there is no end to growth. We need to use this opportunity to find our personal mission, write a personal purpose statement which will be inspiring and value adding to our lives, our families, organizations, societies and our country.

Once you are clear about your personal purpose, you would start seeing the opportunities to grow in some of the areas you were/are involved in or in new areas of opportunities which are now opening up, as a partner in the nation building effort.

This approach by organizations and individuals will help us transform our motherland from Crisis to Greatness.

(The writer is a former Chairman of the CIM Sri Lanka Branch and now Managing Director of Sensei Lanka and a senior management consultant of Sensei International.)

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