What Can We See Differently Now, That We Couldn't See Before?

First published on April 15, 2020

Something strange has happened to the sky over London. There are no aeroplane trails. I have only ever known the London sky as one with these trails, left by passing airplanes flying into and out of the airports in and around the city. I quite like them, especially once they have blown out, become part of the cloud formations, but visible and identifyable by their straightness.

And now they're gone. And as I sat on my balcony at the weekend, enjoying the sun and looking up at the sky, I realised something. Although I quite like them, I much prefer the sky without them.

That thought made me wish I worked in the aerospace industry, so that I could say to people: do you realise how much better the world is without these trails? What can we do about that? It won't be a simple thing to answer, but it would be a way to improve the skies above major cities across the world. It would need serious leadership from someone to prioritise that among all the other things that might make it onto the lists of executives. But it would be worth it. It would be one of those pieces of leadership which would be heroic almost because no one else would think to do it, almost because perhaps no one else would even know who had done it or why. And because once they were gone, people would forget they existed, just as I had forgotten that they were there. But the sky would be better without them. It would be small leadership on a grand scale: what is grander than the sky?

And it is interesting because without this particular point in history, without almost all the planes grounded, I would never have seen that, never have realised that although the trails aren't 'bad', absence of them is better. And maybe, out there, there is a scientist who will have had the same thought, and will start to do the work which will change those trails for the better, improving, almost imperceptibly, the lives of billions.

Things get broken in the dark times, but things get created too. When everything has changed, we can see things we simply couldn't have seen before. We have slowed down, our relationships have changed, who we spend our time with has changed, our work has changed. New perspectives are everywhere and are available to us because of this strange moment in history.

I don't work in aerospace and (probably) neither do you. But what can we see differently now, that we couldn't see before? And where can we take leadership, to change or solve something that we couldn't have changed or solved if we hadn't seen that thing?

It might be in your personal life, or in the way you manage and look after yourself.

It might be in your relationships, or your home.

It might be in your work, or how you act and behave.

It might be in your career, in how you express yourself in the world.

Change isn't easy. And leadership is simply the act of creating change, so that isn't easy either. But these small things, they make a difference. So look out for the things that you can see now that you had never seen before. Look out for the ones that you have the power to change. Then make the change. For you, and for those around you.