A couple of recent events have been prolific in the news and have captured the attention of most people in the UK and possibly the World.
The first one is our exit from the EU and the second one was the brutal murder of Jo Cox MP. (R.I.P)
Both of these stirred emotions for me, and I am sure, everyone of you had some strong feelings about these events too.
I have been confused, ever since the referendum was agreed, and I know many other people felt the same. I didn’t know who or what to believe and eventually trusted no-one! I did my postal vote and then tried to switch off from the ‘white noise’.
When I heard the news of the final outcome, I must admit, I felt sad. Suddenly feeling nervous about my children and Grandchildren’s future. I heard a sober message from Mark Carney, which helped reassure me that things would be ok – eventually. Then David Cameron handed his notice in, and, even though I haven’t really rated him, I struggled to identify anyone better to drive the ‘new future’ of our Country.
Last week I did the MM on change and the change curve. We are now seeing this in action across the whole Country – where are you? Denial was obvious, resistance will happen immediately and won’t be that helpful! The sooner we can get to acceptance we can quickly move to exploration and finallygrowth. I just hope the 2-year prediction is accurate and I think it is up to us, as a united Country, to create a better future together.
Jo Cox was murdered, by a 53 year old man, and this really shocked me that someone could be so nasty to do this, without a thought for anyone else. It’s at times like this when my heart says “Bring back hanging” but I know that’s just a knee jerk reaction!
The thing that, I think, is a positive take from both of these events, is something that Jo Cox repeatedly said which was “We have far more in common than which divides us.”
I believe that even though there will be tough times, ups and downs, highs and lows, we will make this decision work, if we have great leaders.
Great leaders who look for solutions, great leaders who engage the people, great leaders who trust others.
If we can focus on the things we have in common, and negotiate our differences, in a rational way, this will make it easier to navigate our way forward and maybe, just maybe, there will be less hate in the world.
For this week’s challenge – find the commonality, with someone else, that you don’t normally engage with or get on with, and spend time focusing on that.
It could be a family member, friend or partner and, if you focus on the commonalities, you might become more forgiving and appreciate them, a little bit more.
The UK is divided and needs to come together – let’s identify the things we have in common and work it back from there.