There is hope!
The barrage of COVID-19 news pours down on us and we struggle to rise above it. Additional quarantine and the isolation it brings. Missed dinner dates. Birthdays celebrated alone. Business closures, more market drops, more layoffs and more loss.
For most of us, we’re not even into the actual suffering. That will come when our paychecks stop, our savings run out, our bills pile up. It will come when we start to get sick, or when a close friend or loved one tests positive and we watch their illness from a distance. It will impact us the most when we lose a friend or loved one.
It’s so easy to despair, to feel the clouds gathering, the storm coming and the loss growing nearer. As the old joke goes, it there light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel, or is it a train’s headlight?
This post is more personal than most of mine; it has to be. Our emotions and outlooks are always based on our personal experiences. I have experienced searing pain and challenge in my life. I’ve lost a job, lost loved ones, lost reputation and security. I’ve been sick, poor, helpless and hopeless. And I’m not alone; many of us have been impressed into our own cavalcade of crisis.
I’ve learned much about grace, mercy, love and forgiveness. My future has been returned to me through improbable grace. I’ve come to realize that I’m not in control of my life and that the One who is has far more mercy and power than I do.
What does this have to do with communications? Everything. At the core, why communicate if you don’t have hope? Why try to rebuild a reputation, regain trust or effect positive changes in someone’s outlook or actions? Response communication runs on hope. The entire response does; responders don’t stop, don’t give up; they believe things will get better.
It’s time for us to have, keep and share hope. No matter how bad things get, there is an end to this season just as there is an end to winter. Ice melts, ground thaws, flowers grow and blossom. Infection rates drop, hospital admissions fall as people heal and society stirs into action.
Here’s a list of some of what I believe will come, a list of hope.
Effective communications will be more appreciated
The evolution of COVID-19 pandemic communication has proven many of the precepts of PIOs: Accurate, effective and prevalent communication is critical to public acceptance of response actions and directives. Countless corporations have shared clearly with their customers and employees. Government institutions have communicated tenaciously. And gradually, society has begun to accept the diagnosis and apply the medicine. As communicators, we’ve always averred that shelter-in-place, self-quarantine or self-isolation will only work with effective communication. As our society accepts and adheres to drastic directives, the mob is proving our point.
Communication will finally be seen as a virtual activity
In actuality it always has been predominantly virtual, but only recently has technology supported it. Consider the Joint Information Center (JIC): The only people in the JIC that must be in the presence of other people are the information gatherers – and their job could be virtual as well, via access to command software. Stakeholders who never see a PIO or a reporter are already receiving all the information they need, or access to it.
The proof of this concept will be when we see fully virtual news briefings. We’ll know it has been embraced when we don’t see groups of reporters, or groups of advisors gathered in the same room. Think of the latest President’s press conference on COVID-19: How many people in the room? Divide that by 327 million people. No matter what you start with, the sum rounds to zero: Virtual.
Preparation will be taken seriously
How many crisis communication plans already had a section for pandemic response? How many response plans already had robust connections with communicators for notification, information sharing, decision making?
In the run up to the H1N1 epidemic of 2009, many areas of the country DID prepare for a pandemic. During the planning process, communicators in my community began to discuss where news conferences should be held, only to be stopped by the editor of the local newspaper (we still had local editors then), who asked incredulously; ‘What makes you think that we would walk into a room with all of you?’. End of discussion, and virtual press conferences were built into preparation plans. And yet today, physical press conferences continue. Where’s the preparation when common-sense solutions haven’t been implemented 11 years later? This will change.
Beyond Communication
Communicators have great opportunity in this crisis, and there is reason to hope right along with the bad news. As with Y2K, we will discover that civilization will not end. Economic growth will resume. There will be a tomorrow.
Great crises bring great opportunities. Here I get crazy speculative, beyond communicators’ dreams. This is only my list of what big changes might occur. Feel free to add to it, so we all can feel better!
Politics will gain perspective
We will make it through this pandemic by working together. Warring political parties will learn to make better decisions for others. If nothing else, a crisis unites us. Maybe we will remember, and keep our perspectives straight. Maybe we can work ‘across the aisle’ more. Maybe we will find shared priorities. Winston Churchill may disagree, but one can hope.
People will care for one another
This is already happening. The stories are inspiring. The sacrificial service of many is humbling. Maybe a trust-starved population will realize that we all look the same to a virus, and that we truly are called to be our brother’s keeper.
We will learn to steward our resources
The chorus for financial relief is rising for a reason. Many people are not prepared for a loss of regular income. The US savings rate has dropped for decades, settling in at 7.6% in 2019. We’ve bowed to the consumerism drumbeat to the point where many people live day-to-day. 80% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Maybe this crisis will teach most of us the lessons the Greatest Generation learned: live within our means, save some money.
We will learn to trust
As the COVID-19 messaging coalesces from many sources, we will learn that much of the time, we can trust those in authority over us. We may disagree with their politics, their morals or their hair color, but we will discover that they are keeping to their initial charge: to faithfully execute their oath of office, to lead well.
Leading well involves transparency, honesty, cooperation and compromise. We will discover that even elected officials are not the pernicious ‘them’ we love to vilify; we will learn that they are ‘us’ looking for great wisdom to match their great responsibilities.
We will learn to forgive
Nobody is perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. The challenge isn’t to attain perfection, it’s to accept imperfection. We will better as a society when we learn to forgive. When we recognize our common frailty and our common responsibility to care for one another, maybe we will be able to accept one another and build a future together.
And you?
How many of you have learned to hope? What do you hope in? How have you got there?
Add your comments below !