Teachable Moments #2 Hidden Value of Losses

If you are fortunate, you’ll live long enough to experience a disability. Perhaps that sounds like bad luck to you, but a loss can actually add value.

The truth is, unless we meet an untimely end, all of us will have to compensate for the loss of our physical and mental abilities. There are also many other types of loss waiting to cross our path: loss of wealth, property, status, friendships, loved ones, and even our values. Some we will relinquish deliberately, while others will be taken from us.

Loss is part of the human experience. Just as it is a part of our personal lives, it is also a part of our organisational lives.

In our organisations, we lose contracts and grants, customers and clients, investors and donors, leaders, employees, and team members. Hopefully, wise leaders and committed staff have built a resilient organisation. Perhaps they have practised scenario planning to create contingencies for the future. Maybe there is a mentoring system in place to address the succession of leadership.

Unfortunately, even the best plans can encounter a profound and sudden dead end. When a friend of mine moved to an assisted living facility due to an unexpected health issue, I asked him what it was like to make that transition. He replied, "Sometimes you have to face reality." Conversely, I know of an elder aged 91 who lives in a two-storey walk-up and cannot conceive that one day those stairs may make him a prisoner in his own home.

Again, there is a parallel in organisations. Sometimes we are alert to the changing environment of our profession and can make transitions gracefully. At other times, we become so comfortable doing what we’ve always done that we don’t notice our stagnation until it’s too late.

Enduring a loss can be debilitating, but the right mindset can help us thrive. That is the hidden value of loss.

Do we see loss as an opportunity for learning and growth? Certainly, there is an initial period of grief when we cannot see anything positive in a loss. However, those who eventually move beyond that point often identify new strengths, insights, skills, and opportunities. It depends on how they engage with the experience, the narrative they construct to explain the loss, and whether they expect to learn something as a result.

In reality, all we can do is work with the abilities and disabilities we currently possess. You may wish you had 20/20 vision, but you’ve become legally blind. Work with it. You may wish your team was more cohesive, but egos clash and tempers flare. It’s still the team you have to carry out your project.

For better or worse, it is our gifts and our losses that make us who we are: one-of-a-kind humans. The same is true for teams. Work with the team you have: identify and focus on what’s important, maximise the positives, make improvements as you are able, and make the best use of each individual.