Tornado Sirens
I was recently in Chicago with one of our wonderful client leadership teams. I was at the hotel, finishing up breakfast and getting ready to head to our meeting space, when I got an alert on my phone. Tornado Warning for your Area: Seek Shelter Now!
I was sitting next to a window, so I hurriedly took a few last bites of my breakfast, gathered my things, and moved toward the interior of the hotel.
As I did, the tornado sirens started going off.
I looked around, and everyone around me continued doing what they were doing—working on their laptops, leisurely enjoying their coffee, chatting in the lobby.
Being from the Midwest, we are no strangers to tornado sirens. However, our typical protocol growing up was always to head to the basement when they went off.
I stopped by the desk to ask, “Is there an interior area of the hotel where we should be heading to? Or, should we be going to a lower level?"
The woman at the front desk looked at me and said, “What do you mean?” I said, “with the tornado sirens going off?”
She shrugged and said, “It should be fine.”
Meanwhile, I was tracking the path of the storm via Max Velocity's Facebook Page(highly recommend for live weather coverage; thank you Kenn for the recommendation!) and watching the “box” of the impacted area heading our way.
In the end, she was right —everything was fine…for our area.
But it was not fine for others. A number of nearby communities were hit hard, and some people are still without power.
Her response, “it should be fine,” made me think about our opportunity and responsibility as leaders and the fact that “it should be fine” is not exactly a reassuring response.
A more reassuring response often involves these elements:
What we know.
What we don't know yet.
What we're doing.
What this means for you.
What we need from you.
When you'll hear from us again.
Communication during change, challenge, or crisis isn't simply information transfer; it's an act of helping people orient themselves to the moment before them.
A possible reflection for this week: how can I help others orient themselves to the moments we are facing together?
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