For many of us this moment in our life could well be the most uncertain and fearful we have ever been. Not only is there an oil price shock destroying global markets, but much of the world is sitting it out in the their living rooms, hoping and praying they stay safe and health. I remember living through the oil price crash in 2014/2015 (my first one), and the massive impact this had on people. What we are facing is on a totally different level.

We all deal with fear and anxiety in different ways. Before I was a parent I used to be very laid back, but now I know that their is a time to panic!! (I still remember the feeling of seeing one of my kids uncontrollably vomiting due to an unknown allergic response, and when they wandered too close to a flooded river at the bottom of our garden.) Some of us are natural worriers, others more stoic. Being alone for a long time is probably not helping us to remain positive, as our fears often grow when we are alone too much. I don’t have the cure to such problems, but I do believe this crises could change us for the better, if we allow it.

This lunchtime a small group of us within Wood were praying for our company, the employees and our leadership. We shared examples from history in how God has helped in the midst of previous disasters, reminding ourselves that we are not alone. One of the team shared this insight:

“Faith and fear have one thing in common – they are both concerned with things we cannot see”

It got me wondering whether the forces that shaped our society – materialism, consumerism and individualism, that I have grown up with for four decades, could now be on the brink of crumbling? I know people are grabbing toilet roll like its going out of fashion, but underneath the legalized looting I also see communities reconnecting in ways that they haven’t done for years. I see people stepping up to serve their neighbours, and WhatsApp groups springing up so people can still touch each other digitally.

Could these seemingly invincible forces be infected with a new perspective? Is it possible that this societal shock could enable us to break from our past, to create a different future? All my life I have lived in a society where we have assumed more is better, where my choices out-trump everyone else’s needs, and only the latest phone upgrade is good enough. We have been given a chance to hit the pause button. What story will play out when we hit record?

On Friday 6th March I was at a McKinsey meeting on Climate Risk & Response in London. At that meeting the speaker said this was “the decisive decade“. (Maybe he should have said the decisive month!) As he talked about the impact on the world if we take no further action to reduce our emissions he focused on systemic thresholds where we reach points of no return and experience catastrophic failure of infrastructure, agriculture and the human body.

At one point he asked the question “what defines a crises?” Little did we realise that we would find out by the time I had logged into my computer on Monday morning

After the presentation I was reflecting on the urgent need to change our lifestyle in order to try and deal with the climate emergency we face (seems like a distant memory now!). This is what I wrote down that day as I asked myself if the world could finally be ready to make the necessary changes in our shared mindset that are required to write a new narrative:

• From being focused on the the needs of “my” people (in the wealthy west), to also considering the needs of the foreigner (in the exposed east)
• From being focused on the desire to create wealth for myself, to the desire for creating wealth for my children’s children
• From living as I want as long as I don’t hurt anyone, to living with the knowledge that every choice has unintended consequences
• From using our good intentions as a cover for sloppy choices, to every choice and decision being accessible (and Tweet-able!)
• From authenticity being a choice, to a world of digital transparency

It was Winston Churchill who said “never waste a good crises“. This is certainly a bad crises, but it still presents an opportunity for systemic change. Perhaps I am fortunate that I am used to exercising the muscle of faith. As a Christian you are used to going against the flow and believing the (seemingly) impossible.

Could this global reset be an opportunity for more of us to start believing that change is possible?

There is no vaccine for fear, but one thing I know, the only way we will ever accomplish what needs to be done is by first believing that it is possible to achieve it. For the first time in a long time I can see the powerful forces that have shaped western society for decades are crumbling. What happens next is up to all of us.

This post was published on my LinkedIn account yesterday, you can access it here.