Seeking Solutions Over Scapegoats

A few weeks ago, Anchorage was hit by a major earthquake. Power was knocked out across the city. Major roads and highways were destroyed when the ground heaved, shifted and sank, leaving depressions large enough to bury a three story house. Four weeks later, we are still feeling significant aftershocks.

But amidst all the destruction, I was amazed how our city came together. It can take a week for city plows to get to your street after a large snowfall. Fixing a pothole might take months. But when large chunks of highway disappeared into the earth, crews were out immediately and had roads, bridges and on-ramps repaired and completely functional in mere days. Some major thoroughfares were fixed in just 48 hours.

It wasn’t just road crews either. A windstorm can knock down a few trees, taking powerlines down with them, and a few isolated neighborhoods might be without power for up to a few days. When the ‘quake hit, it shut off power all over the city. The whole town went dark, except for the strange glow coming from transformers exploding. Yet, much of the power was restored city-wide in less than three hours. Some areas were restored almost immediately and I didn’t hear of anyone experiencing the blackout into the following day.

Why the efficient and effective response? While there were certainly many reasons, one seems to stand out: there was no one to blame. Democrats didn’t blame Republicans. Students didn’t blame teachers. Conservatives didn’t blame liberals. Dog lovers didn’t blame cat owners. Everyone just came together and got stuff done. It was no one’s fault and no energy was wasted on blaming anyone and pointing fingers, they just got to work.

Too often, when bad things happen, our first reaction is to look for a scapegoat rather than a solution. We seek someone to blame instead of searching for someone to help rebuild. Don’t waste effort determining fault when you could be discovering the fix. It’s much easier to move forward when you’re looking at the possibilities ahead instead of dwelling on the failures behind you.

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