Dust-free clouds over Iceland volcano! Summer 09 - click for a larger view

Steve Radcliffe says: Hi, we have a new contributor this week. Chris was a client at the BBC, loves FED and just wanted to write a volcano-influenced piece for the site. And please feel free to join in with either a comment on an article, or write an article yourself. If you’d like to write a short piece, just send it to Anni at anni.townend@mail.com and she’ll help get it placed. It’s a great opportunity to share your learning and help others see FED in a different light. So get writing.

Chris van Schaick

That cloud of volcanic ash has given us many gifts. For a start, it’s set up a fascinating laboratory of human endeavour – and what ingenuity people are capable of when the chips are down.

Take the Sussex coach driver booked to take a hundred grounded students back to Milan overland. How could he make use of the empty seats on the return leg? He called his local radio station and the phone was answered by a producer who was definitely in an up- to- something frame of mind. She called the British consulate in Milan and chanced on a like minded official. Within minutes of the coach driver’s original call, arrangements were being made to fill his empty return seats with those most in need on the consulate wait list. Coach driver, radio producer, consular official – three people brought together by a view of the possible and a determination to do something about it. FED in another unexpected place. I bet none of those three would think of themselves as leaders – but in ten minutes they’d fixed to get a hundred stranded people home.

I too found myself in the do-something-about- it space during the crisis. As it all kicked off, I should have been flying home from Lisbon with my wife after an anniversary trip. We couldn’t bear the thought of sitting inconclusively in a hotel for information that might take days to come. So after our anniversary dinner, we sat on the web for two hours till we’d fixed a three leg train trip from south west France back to London. That left the challenge of how to get across Portugal and Spain to the French border. All trains were full and flights were being cancelled, so we tried the car hire hall at Lisbon airport. First desk – no cars available. Second desk – £1500 for a one way hire. By normal measures, we shouldn’t have tried the third desk. But we now know why we did. Yes, they had a car that needed taking back to Spain and was available at normal rates. So began a fascinating two day overland adventure.

We met many people along the way with much more powerful tales of how they’d combined their imagination and their determination to get home. They all cared about making something happen. They were all up to something. They all had a picture of success in their mind’s eye. They were all prepared to do something about it. Funny how many leaders you can see when you start looking.

Chris van Schaick is a facilitator and communicator who has worked with Steve Radcliffe at the BBC.