When Crisis Leads to Change
By Mark Monchek − July 29, 2009
This Memorial Day didn’t seem that different than most. The traffic was lighter, but the outlet mall off Route 80 was bustling with shoppers and the supermarket was as full as I’ve seen it on a Sunday afternoon. It’s not easy to detect that there’s a major recession going on – the worst economy since the Great Depression, most say. Not from walking the streets or inhabiting the primary institutions or life—stores, offices, schools, ballparks, houses of worship.
Last week, my cousin from Virginia came to visit, and I drove him into Manhattan through Chelsea, the meatpacking district, and Washington Square. It was the first balmy evening in ages, and the city was overflowing with celebrants. My cousin peered out the window, his eyes bulging with amazement. He had assumed that New York City would be desolate thanks to the economic tsunami that had felled Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns and AIG, among many others.
Can’t We Just Wait It Out?
The nation is hunkered down, waiting for the storm to blow over. “If we just wait long enough, we won’t have to change,” seems to be the underlying mindset. Well, the storm is not going to just blow over, and the reality is that cutting personal spending and being more conscientious at work will not be enough to keep the vast majority of people from feeling the pinch. And for businesses, cutting expenses and working harder to produce better products or services won’t cut it either. Something profound has happened to us as a nation, and our challenge now is whether we make a healthy adaptation or an unhealthy one. We can wait for the crisis to pass and go back to business as usual, or we can seize the opportunity to change the fundamental way our system works.
From Crisis Comes Opportunity
Reading this, you might think of me as real downer, a prophet of gloom and doom. Actually, I am the ultimate optimist! I believe we have opportunities that only a full-scale crisis – one that completely blows apart the old model – can offer. I look back on my own life and know that only when forced to make game-changing adjustments did I find the will to bring about lasting change. When my house burned down I had to quit my job to become an entrepreneur. When that same home was vandalized three times, my wife and I were forced to restore the home ourselves with help from our family and friends. When an employee of my company misappropriated funds, it forced me to look at our financial controls, and when our rent went through the roof, I was compelled to move our business out of the office we had been in for 23 years and create a virtual company which ultimately lowered our costs dramatically and enhanced our flexibility.
Our Response is the Key
It’s not the forces of change that will create the desired result – it’s our response to those forces. We are embarking on what could be a golden age of opportunity. We have the chance to make a real commitment to the environment and to invest in an entrepreneurial tradition that could solve many of the problems we face- cheap and sustainable energy, affordable housing, mass transportation, quality health care that is also affordable, and having more time to do what makes us happy. Now is the time for every business (and every individual) to face serious issues head-on and learn how to create opportunity in the midst of economic crisis. What can you do to see opportunity in every moment? To live more fully? To connect with people on a deeper level? What is the opportunity to create value for your business that was not there before? Here are some suggestions:
Six Steps to Transforming Fear
- Accept the Reality of the Recession
- Gain Insight and Understanding of Reality
- Recognize Opportunity
- Define an Action Plan
- Use Your Team
- Define Your Value
- Adapt to Change
