Ok, if two years ago you were responsible in some way for a colossal tragedy. Since then, you have tried to be better at prevention and preparedness. And you have made huge strides on so many levels. The situation arises again and you try to show everyone that, this time, you are ready. You have learned how to be better and now is the time to prove it. The thing is if you do not take care of the crucible of trust, no matter how small, you have no chance to get the trust you seek. This is happening in real time here in Northern California to PG&E.
The weather conditions are the same as those existed when the massive fires started exactly two years ago yesterday. PG&E has been held responsible for starting that fire and has worked since to improve its disaster prevention protocols. As the world knows, they shut down power to 800,000 customers in an attempt to minimize the risk of fire. The readiness plan has been extensively vetted and discussed. So the one thing that HAS to work as you plan on shutting power off to more than a million people is for those people to know if, how and when they are going to be affected. And in today’s world, that means the website HAS to be able to handle the demand. It did not. Now, no matter the work, the actions, the purposefulness of the decisions, it is all blown because the website cannot handle the demand. Crazy. Did I mention that we are in Northern California? In the center of technology, the idea that you could not have a site capable of handling a massive hit at the moment of uncertainty is an utter non-starter.
The lesson for your creative business is profound. You must identify the crucible of trust always. Whether you are trying to recover from a misstep or simply trying to improve your process, the crucible of trust will be the determining factor as to whether your efforts will be deemed credible. This is where you have to over invest in the solution and make sure there are no hiccups because there is no there there if you fall down here. You can have the grandest mission statement, most purposeful story but if you need to be respectful and respond to those who earnestly seek your attention, ghosting them makes it all go away.
Your task then: what is your crucible of trust? How are you making sure it acts as the defender of what you are seeking to accomplish? What will you do if you fail again? PG&E by the way has a tweet (!) that says that they know about the problem but are working around the clock to fix it. Not exactly going to inspire trust since the tweet has been up for 15 hours. Seth Godin wrote a post recently about choosing automation vs. humanity. Is there a script for everything or can we just relate to each other with empathy, humility and kindness — each an opportunity to earn trust? You can only win the race to the top with trust. Forsake trust at your own peril.
When you know what matters you can build a failsafe that can say you can rely on “x” to carry you through. Sometimes it does mean you just have to over invest. PG&E did expect more traffic to its site, just not what it got. This is the seed, the place everyone can rely on to say, “see, this is who they are in the midst of calamity (or change).” The crucible of trust is the very definition of the DNA of your art and your creative business. It simply has to be there for you to move forward.
Last, the reason PG&E is such an amazing example for creative business is because of the emotionality of it. We are talking about upending people’s lives, a created emergency and the wounds of a tragedy that are still healing. Rationality goes away when that happens and creative businesses ALL live in a world of irrationality. Nobody needs what you do and there is a huge component of uncertainty, fear and, yes, heightened emotionality, that comes with every project. You are called on to be human and inhuman at the very same time. Human in your ability to transform those around you with your talent, wisdom and experience; inhumanity in that, in certain areas, you just cannot miss if you are to be considered a professional.
So learn what PG&E has not. Over prepare for the moment where you know you will be defined no matter how small (or large). The moment, your crucible of trust, is your self-described litmus test from which all things will stem. It is the one place in your creative business where failure is not an option.
