Disruptions Turn Chaos into Adaptive Readiness

I don’t think anyone could have predicted all that unfolded globally from March 2020 through the end of 2021. To that end, I could make a strong case in saying we’re still experiencing many of the ripple effects from all that today. And as I’ve stressed so many other times to this point, I’m certainly not suggesting that what Cindy and I experienced was any better or worse than the hand you were dealt. I’ve detailed it from our perspective with hopes of challenging you to be sure you found every possible seed from each of those adversities.

We’ll tie this all together shortly by working through a simple list of questions geared at helping you do exactly that. Before that, I’ll stress that while disruptions are never what any of us are looking for, they provide us with opportunities for turning chaos into adaptive readiness. The conversation we had with DPOR in January 2020 pushed me to find a real platform for hosting the digital lessons we had been doing through a private Facebook group. When everything on our schedule was postponed (then cancelled), we found ourselves with time to build that platform in ways we likely never would have otherwise. Even those initial steps, and the systems we created through that process, have led to so much more since; more than 1,500 pages across our entire website that’s now built on the platform (which consistently gets 150k+ visitors each month), over 200 hours of digital curriculum we can tailor for each client we serve, and what’s becoming a library of our own published books.

The decision to take on safety and human resource work in late 2020 was not something I was excited about - I thought I had stepped away from that forever earlier that same year - but some of the people we met through that process have become amazing friends and business associates who provided a case study showing the importance of values-alignment in every relationship. Let me be very clear here, making the best of global disruptions isn’t about waiting for normal to return—it’s intentional preparation that transforms unforeseeable chaos into chains of resilient, values-driven readiness that works from anywhere.

Before we work through a set of questions geared at helping you mine the disruptions you’ve lived through for the seeds you can use to hone your own consistency and pleasing personality, I’ll challenge you to consider one final thing: from each thing I’ve asked you to think through to this point, which one can you lean on right away as having had the most impact for amplifying your current leadership influence?