Calming time: crisis management

I have been thinking a lot about time recently and I figured that there is some relevancy here at the moment as people seem to be struggling to the butterflies released into the environment. I don't think anyone expected them to beat their wings so hard.

Using time always comes with a cost, even when doing nothing as there is the opportunity cost of what else one could be doing at the same time. What this means is that time is an investment opportunity that we can tweak to make more, save some, spend or waste. Wasted time is time where there is no return and is always written off as a loss but what one considers a waste, another might find of utmost importance making the discussion around value of activity a difficult one.

At times like these on Steem where there is uncertainty, my process is to first turn to people I know have some ideas about what might be going on or have the ability to work it out. To begin with, I stay out of the community discords and chats because they tend to be filled with a lot of fears that are potentially unfounded. They are reactionary places that group people together with limited and conflicting information and then amplify the noise in a type of riot mentality.

In the early stages of such uncertainty, these places are a waste of my time as I am not immune to being would up with the crowds and then I will spend time emotionally unbalanced, less capable and more likely to make rash and therefore poor decisions. A panicked, fearful mind worried about loss (real or perceived) is going to make knee-jerk actions which rarely are in its best interest in the immediate needs and even rarer aligned with long-term goals.

On that note, people who are supporting witnesses who partook in panicked behaviour rather than actively working to quietly understand and solve issues should consider who they support. Knee-jerk witnessing shouldn't be encouraged as it leads to fast thinking decisions that do not consider the bigger picture. There is an order of business when it comes to problem solving on the fly and complaining or inflaming the the crowds is rarely productive or helpful.

In such situations, key people especially but all people should consider a personal process of crisis management and think about developing and drilling their plans before these kinds of things happen. I personally have a thought process for development I call psychological pyromania and find it a useful tool. Preparation is a key factor in using time effectively when it matters, which is why emergency services like fire and rescue spend so much of their downtime on improvement and maintenance habits beacuse they do not have the luxury to complain and investigate when need really arises.

Most people believe that thy are pretty decent at dealing with Stress but when under the gun, most fail time and time again. Failure is then attributed to extreme circumstance and volume without taking a look around and noticing that there are other people who did manage, aren't stressed and actively working to take care of what is necessary. Are they superhuman? No, they are better prepared, better equipped.

When it comes to mental strength, stress, panic, calm and other traits that affect decision making, there is always room for improvement even though the starting individual baselines can vary. While some people are kicking and screaming and encouraging the herd into rebellion, others are working out what to do in the situation they are presented. If a witness the other day, calm and action was necessary, they should all be eyes with the storm. If there are witnesses who are incapable of emotionally dealing effectively under pressure, they should consider alternate paths.

For others though who had no possibility to affect outcomes, calm is also necessary and being caught up in the whirlwind of mass hysteria that sweeps through a population under pressure rarely is one that leads to a positive personal outcome. Often, just like a fight with a partner, words can be said that can't be taken back, even if they were not meant and were just carelessly delivered in the heat of the moment.

For the discord groups and communities whose very existence feels put under immediate threat, panic is never the best course of action, hearsay is not the only information and acting on imagined assumptions without clear base is more likely to erode the community more than the threat itself. Communities in a decentralized environment have to be like individuals here, they need to take responsibility for themselves and learn how to adapt.

A community is only as strong as the trust between members and reactionary, panicky, explosive members are unreliable in decision making. If you really want to look at the likely history of this it is because of most people's programmed need for an authority to save them. An individual can be their own authority to calm the turmoil within, the strength of the community itself can act the same part to calm the turmoil across members.

This isn't an easy process for many to think about, approach and develop but if one wants freedom, one has to take the responsibility of reaction and the consequences associated with each move, positive or negative. On this journey or if one doesn't want to take this journey, it is wise to surround oneself with people who are good under pressure who can not only steady the ship and offer direction, but demonstrate the traits of a free thinker willing to take the responsibility.

No matter how one looks at it, freedom always comes with responsibility making it a type of oxymoron as one can't exist with the other. Forget your romantic views of being free and instead see freedom as *taking responsibility for action, result and cost of experience. As said, there is a cost to how we spend our time and taking responsibility means understanding the consequences of using it poorly.

Personally, I have a group of people who I can rely on (trust) that depending on circumstances they are able to adjust themselves with the changing environment and more often than not and no matter the situation, can always find the time to have a laugh while doing it. It is my own distributed network of crisis management actors who I turn to at various points to steady my own ship. Some of them may turn to me also. It is an emotional reference group.

I will go into this later but our emotion brains are very easy to hack. No matter how happy you might have been just a moment before, entering into a group of mourners is going to temper your mood, no matter how depressed a smiling face from a child will lift spirits and, if fearing personal loss, a room full of panicked and fearful similars will ramp up emotional intensity. Where was your freedom to be happy at the funeral? It is not that these are hard and fast rules, there is a spectrum and a probability at play but on average, we are all easily influenced, hacked.

Developing this group takes time, development takes time, understanding takes time, practice takes time, mastering takes time, solutions take time, finding balance takes time, building strength takes time... you get the picture; any movement takes times. How we spend our time comes with costs in opportunity and, opportunities lost as well as gained.

I talked about patience yesterday. Patience is an intentional act to spend one's time not rushing. It doesn't mean doing nothing, it doesn't mean being passive, it doesn't mean not caring. It is a chance to slow down,assess and then choose how best to spend ones time. Save the uncontrolled rage for another time, always.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]