Episode 4: The Courage to be Helped
Welcome to the That Took Courage Podcast where we slow clap for courage, provide commentary and offer recommendations around communication challenges.
I am recording this on Thursday, August 13th in Spokane, WA where we have weathered truly devastating urban fires – some of which we now understand were the result of arson. Sixty-Five Thousand people were evacuated and hundreds have lost their homes and livelihoods. As I talk to you today, I want to emphasize an important detail from Spokane: despite the utter devastation we are experiencing, there has been no loss of human life reported thus far. In an emergency situation that has impacted as many people as this has, that is a stunning glimmer of good news.
There is a reason I can tell you that as of today, we have not lost human lives to this fire and that is this: the helpers AND a public that listened to them.
During an emergency situation, communicators create a bridge between the public and emergency personnel - creating understanding around the situation and clear direction regarding what needs to happen to keep everyone safe.
I will talk more in future episodes about our excellent emergency communicators but today, I want to talk about the other side of the communication equation: the courage to be “helped.”
There is a very human thing that happens during an emergency, we look to leaders who can tell us what is happening and what we need to do about it. In the early hours of an emergency situation, fear, adrenaline and clear evidence all around us motivates us to seek the helpers and to listen to experts.
I remember often the famous quote from Mr. Rogers who said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'”
I appreciate this sentiment. It is beautiful and true and reminds us that humans are mostly good at being good.
And…humans are also good at losing faith in each other…of going it on our own…of losing patience in the common good. That is what I want to talk about today.
As much courage as it takes to be a helper in this kind of emergency situation, it also takes courage to be HELPED.
In Spokane, we are almost at the two-week point. There was an interesting thing that I observed about a week into this: many people who had not lost their homes were being asked by emergency personnel to maintain the evacuation zone as the fire was still raging. And people were beginning to grumble. They were beginning to question.
We are at the point in this emergency when people are making an important decision: do I continue to let myself be HELPED OR do I object and ignore emergency orders. It comes down to this: if you believe, as Mr. Rogers did, in our helpers, you will be required to suspend some of your own self interest for the good of the whole community. To put faith in helpers requires this:
You must trust the goodness and expertise of the helpers.
You must decide to let yourself be HELPED by humans who sometimes make mistakes and, over the course of any emergency may make decisions you don’t agree with.
You must suspend (even temporarily) self interest in lieu of the common good.
You must prepare yourself to continue listening longer than imminent danger requires - this is where we often lose focus.
To my community members: the majority of you are continuing to look to and listen to our helpers. I want each of you to know that I find your courage to be greatly inspiring. It is a special brand of bravery and it will see us through this situation and to the other side. Keep the faith. Try to stay open to the help that is being given…and to the requests from our helpers. As time stretches on, each of us will need to decide to rise to the occasion or not. Each of us will need to decide the measure of courage we will take during this emergency situation. I wish each of you safety and health and an extra dose of strength as we navigate this together.
We often focus on the bravery of our helpers, as we should and we’ll talk about that more in future episodes, but I want to acknowledge that it takes a very special kind of courage to accept help.
For those looking for information and resources, I will leave you with a simple guide. Look for the helpers, they are here in Spokane!
If you have a communications related question or a scenario you want broken down, get in touch by visiting thattookcourage.com
