Crisis and Human Adaptability

Words attributed to Einstein on Crisis

Whether they are or are not Einstein’s words, the message is relevant to the opportunity offered by life’s interruptions. Corporate decision-makers who called for a return to ‘normal’ during the crisis, missed the opportunity to innovate, not tweak, their workplaces and philosophical approach to a crisis.

Food for thought.

Let’s not pretend that things will change if we keep doing the same things. A crisis can be a real blessing to any person, to any nation. For all crises bring progress.

Creativity is born from anguish, just like the day is born from the dark night. It’s in crisis that invention is born, as well as discoveries, and big strategies. Who overcomes crisis, overcomes himself, without getting overcome. Who blames his failure to a crisis neglects his own talent, and is more respectful to problems than to solutions. Incompetence is the true crisis.

The greatest inconvenience of people and nations is the laziness with which they attempt to find the solutions to their problems. There’s no challenge without a crisis. Without challenges, life becomes a routine, a slow agony. There’s no merit without crisis. It’s in the crisis where we can show the very best in us. Without a crisis, any wind becomes a tender touch. To speak about a crisis is to promote it. Not to speak about it is to exalt conformism. Let us work hard instead.

Let us stop, once and for all, the menacing crisis that represents the tragedy of not being willing to overcome it. — Translated from Spanish. Courtesy Ernesto Mendez.

A shift in consciousness is underway. The senior cadre of business decision-makers face an opportunity to take the files out of the woo-woo department, take a fresh look and explore a deeper version of leadership not reliant on status but on profound care for life, for knowing your place in the world, and for courageously stepping up to learn from diverse minds. The riches awaiting to be discovered in the world are sourced in an insatiable curiosity about what is possible, what is next, and how can each person constructively contribute to realizing how humanity can survive without destroying life.

Is it time to move actions from destruction to mastering the more delicate, sophisticated and humble art of regenerating and co-creating with nature and planetary life-support systems?