Dear Doctor:
Needless to say, the hottest topic of discussion these days is the Great Blackout of ’03, a little dose of reality about how very dependent we are on our energy infrastructure. Talk about a whole society grinding to a halt! But the amazing part for me was not the difficulties, but the grace and focus with which we all seemed to confront the challenge.
Shortly after the lights went out, on a very long drive home, I heard New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg address reporters at a press conference. His message was clear and authoritative — no, this did not seem to be a terrorist act — yes, emergency services were being deployed as needed, and no serious problems at this time — yes, power would be reinstated on a priority basis, and 99% should be up within twenty-four hours — for a guy I didn’t regard as near the communicator his predecessor Giuliani was, he certainly came across upbeat and in control, a consummate leader. But the most potent part of his message is the main point of this column. He stated and restated that it was the great attitude and willingness of the good people of New York to work together that minimized the downside of this blackout.
I had to admit, I saw evidence of this all around me, from the civilians who had parked off the road to jump in and direct the snarled traffic, to noticeably courteous drivers allowing each other to pass safely and without horn-blowing, to the few open shopkeepers who resisted the impulse to gouge a desperate clientele, there seemed to be a concerted effort to get through these tough times as quickly and easily as possible, and to look out for each other perhaps a bit more than usual.
In our very own office, we saw our CFO and office manager Debbie Crawford step up to coordinate the complexities of getting our office back up and running, the computer team, the phone team, and of course our own team — our entire staff pitched in with enthusiasm and service consciousness, dealing with the obvious problems of running a telephone consulting business with no computers and limited phone usage, handling all the issues, rescheduling everyone they could, but keeping a cheery tone and a willingness to support the members no matter how inconvenient and difficult the situation. Debbie’s fine leadership and a great team effort kept the stress low and got the job done.
Something like that happened in thousands of companies and hundreds of communities in the US and Canada, where we all just decided to take this in stride and get through it the best we could. It’s a remarkable social commentary that, instead of panicking and jumping to conclusions or responding selfishly, we calmly and matter-of-factly took care of business and dealt with the task at hand.
It seems that in our post-9/11 world, we are learning the value of pulling together, we are realizing that working in harmony is the key, and we can face our destiny with more security and optimism when we sense that others will be there for us when we need them. Character isn’t developed in a crisis, it’s displayed there — and we can all be very proud of the character we displayed this time.
Dennis Perman DC, for The Masters Circle
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