From Chile with love

The following is a guest post from Kenneth Richardson, one of our senior mentors. Thanks for your contribution Kenneth!

As the story of our brave Chilean heroes fades into our history books, I felt that as leaders, teammates and individuals we should take a look at a few of the gifts they gave us.

First off, I bet we were all impressed with how a quickly and carefully thought of solution was the response to the situation. In dealing with the problems that come our way on a daily basis, do we allow inactiveness and bureaucracy to take the better of us, or we get a good plan of action like it was done in Mina San Jose?

The gift of partnership and teamwork: This gift was demonstrated by a state-of-the-art rescue operation which included a drill rig coming from Schramm in the US, video equipment from Japan, a few South African helping hands and also fellow Chilean locals. Another big example of this gift comes from the miners themselves. Mario Sepulveda told this to a reporter:

'We found water coming off a rock shelf and used a cup, two at a time to wash each other'

We all need to complement each other’s efforts and realise that we are in teams everywhere: at home with our families, at school and at work with our colleagues, and in the country as citizens.

Determination: We know what it’s like to quit a bad habit or perhaps help someone quit a bad habit: we make up our minds on a decision and commit to it. In other survival stories, one of such determined is Steven Callahan, who survived 76 days adrift in a life raft on the Atlantic Ocean. More often than not, hope is what results from determination-the kind of hope that rose from the bowels of the earth to Camp Hope on the surface of the earth.

The gift of thanksgiving: Thank you is the one thing we learn as kids but the same thing we do not always sustain throughout our lives. One thing every single miner did was to show their appreciation and give a deeper meaning to thanksgiving. Let us allow this value to always be a part of us.

"In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Lastly, many of us may not be as lucky as Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister David Cameron to receive mine rocks as gifts, but I believe these other gifts would go a long way in developing us one way or another the same way the handling of this rescue operation would go a long way to promote the management credentials of Chile as a nation.

Still many more gifts for us but I will just stop here. Yours are welcome!