TIDING OVER ADVERSITIES: CATCHING HEADWIND

It was late in the afternoon and the day was pretty tough on me. As head of the logistics organisation handling a complex down-stream supply chain at the line of control, I had enough and more to handle. Very short on human resources and consequent exhausting and extended work schedules, every man on the team was stretched and stressed. Adverse effects of high altitude and extreme weather were writ large on every human face. The day was particularly bad, as “clearance” of unexploded explosives had gone awry. Though the mishap did not claim any lives, it shook us up. With morale in our boots, I ordered my men back to the barracks for the day. While they boarded the trucks, I decided to walk to my room. I send my driver off. Catharsis is best, when alone.

Cross country walk, in the high-altitude is all about “ups and downs”. Weather can be unpredictable and winds can be nasty. With temperatures below freezing, cross country walk in snow is testing. Little into my climb the winds started to whistle. The winds were picking up and I realised that I am up against a headwind that could blow me into the canyon below. Turning back on steep slopes, downwind is invitation to disaster because one can’t predict where one would finally end up.  Survival would only be a distant probability. The only “way out” in such situations is to “hold on” or “move ahead”. With great difficulty, I gathered my regulation “Parkha” around me, made myself a smaller object and crouched down. It was final proof, everything was conspiring against me that day.

As I gazed up, I saw a raven circling above skillfully utilising the headwind to climb without flapping his wings even once. Deciding to “rest out” the wind, I stretched myself on the ground facing the sky to watch the craven fly. It was a beautifully choreographed piece of solitary ballet. It took me a while to realise that every time the raven faced the headwind, it allowed itself to be blown higher by skillfully maneuvering its wings to catch the wind. I also realised that it returned to face the winds to reach higher. By logic, the bird lighter and winged, should have been blown away. Tipping the scales beyond 80, I should have fared better against the winds. But the ground situation defied “my” logic. While I was struggling to take even one step forward against strong headwinds, the bird was transforming adversity to advantage. While I was being pinned down by an adversity, the same adverse conditions were being utilised by another to rise up.

I collected myself, buttoned up my “Parkha” tight around me lest the flapping coat drag me down and slowly started climbing the hill, walking side-wise. Though difficult to walk up a hill sideways, I had found “some” way out of the predicament I was faced with. I made very little progress. But progress I did. A little later the winds subsided and I could resume my climb.

Adversities and failures are temporary or momentary. They are significant lessons in life. In the midst of an adversity one does feel let down and lonely. A team leader or CEO, irrespective of the size of the organisation, would be faced with many such situations. Some may even turn out to be existential ones. Such situations might not have been outcome of one’s own actions, but that does happen. It is then one has to dig deep within to find the resilience and reserves to come out.

There are a number of managerial lessons to be learned from this incident.

The first and foremost is to find the flow of adversity so that the best can be milked out of the situation. It will be foolish to bang one’s head against the wall of adversity without an action plan. Adversity entail penalties of time, efforts, resources, milestones, bottom-lines and profits. It is in the ingenuity of the contestant to make the best out of adversity. But, in the organisational context, it unmasks fair weather loyalists. Adversity also exposes the frail and lights up the resilient amongst teammates. Often those regarded as “high performers” wilt and wither in adversity, giving leaders the opportunity to identify the true worth of the team.

Adversity normally forces managements to evaluate existing processes and procedures and motivates it to re-engineer the entire organisational process. This can provide opportunities to limit losses and maximise gains. Like the raven, who without moving its wings, conserved, persevered and exploited the “pushback” to climb up, adversity can be used by organisations to become lean, mean, efficient and close-knit entities.

My act of holding the Parkha close around me, illustrates the need to gather all resources at command including skill sets to tide over the adversity. Moving sideways up the hill, though inefficient helped me keep emotional and physical momentum. Thus, even small steps forward in adversity represents major progress made by the organisation.

Adversities  will pass and the persistent will emerge victorious.