Earthquake

Yes just that an earthquake. Actually it happened a couple of weeks ago, one Sunday evening. We were sat on the balcony about 8.45 pm, unusual for us because about then is when the mosquitoes appear and the ones at that time of night are minute, nasty vicious things with a bite that reminds you it was there for a couple of days.

We had experienced our first earthquake a couple of months before, still during shielding we had been up in a neighbor’s apartment whilst we had new railings built on our the step up to our balcony (the previous railing not having been fitted by a craftsman, rather by a man on the cheap thanks to our previous managing agents, (along the lines of ‘I have a mate he’ll do it cheap’, not that it was of course). On that day I was stood on the balcony listening to the various Imams in the local area calling to prayer, literally the after noon prayer Dhuhr or Zuhr that is called when the sun passes the zenith. The balcony railing shook a little, I looked down and the man building our rail looked up at me and said, ‘earthquake, look at the water (in the pool).’  I looked. The water went from side to side and rose and fell back in, Two things: One - the Turkish man wasn’t in the least bit bothered, he listened and looked around and then went back to his work. Two – it didn’t last long. Jim who was inside and reading, ‘felt the earth move’ so to say and looked at the water cooler where he said the water moved strangely. And that was that.

Going back or forward to around two weeks ago. Our balcony vibrated strangely, literally the

Epicentre of earthquake 26th June

earth moved, Jim looked at me and I looked over his shoulder at the pool and yes the water was making the same, but larger movement than before. ‘Ah.’ I said, now in possession of my knowledge of water movement (you have to see it to understand it), it’s an earthquake. Jim was deciding if to worry or not and suddenly in the next door garden the father in the upstairs apartment shot out of the main entrance door and towards the garden gate, Where he proceeded to fumble in his pocket for a cigarette. The rest of his family, well wife and teenage son, appeared with bemused looks on their faces. We decided perhaps we should move into the garden. The older son appeared in the garden then went back upstairs to fetch a shirt. Jim meanwhile stood shirtless. The older son came across to talk to us, possibly glad to be away from his father who was clearly nervous (e found out recently what Dad’s job used to be. We think his son was possibly dismayed at Dad’s reaction to the earthquake). However I can understand being on any balcony other that the ground floor ones must be pretty terrifying especially as this ‘aftershock’ as it apparently was lasted for about 4 minutes.

I deduced it couldn’t have been that bad, as we still had access to the Internet and data and the street lighting was still on – phones were working so quick access to the lovelies on social media who were posting up to date information and/or panicking. It seems some people also have an app.

The next day we discovered we probably did the wrong thing by going outside, we should have gone inside and crouched next to something, that in case of falling masonry, would form protection over our heads and give us a pocket area in which to breathe. Plus we should be in fetal position.  Also we should have an earthquake bag containing items listed in this article on Earthquake Awareness from the Fethiye Times .  We now have most of these in an accessible place, just have to hope if there was ever a bad earthquake we and said items were near one another.

I found out later that if you are moving i.e. walking or in a moving vehicle you possibly won’t notice the earthquake. Food for thought.

Facebook was, the next day and probably the same evening (we went to bed) awash with posts. In terms of the Language and Behavior Profile® (LAB Profile), people and their reactions boil down into two very broad spectrums or patterns here. In this context earthquake (Language and Behavior Profile® is always context dependent) they will probably have a combination of patterns i.e. father who ran down out the apartment into the garden was very Proactive in leaving but he was also very much steering clear of danger i.e. Moving Away from. Interesting in this context it was his own life he thought about first. His wife came down with the 16 year old, she took a little longer to think about things (both Proactive and Reactive) like most people and to weigh the situation up and also thought about her son, as well as herself and came down with him.  And then there are those who on Facebook made it into a massive drama, it was a small aftershock that although it was still felt by some around 7 am the next morning, we survived. It was by the way an earthquake of 5.5 magnitude- 10 km S of Marmaris, Turkey – technical details

• 2020-06-28 17:43:28 (UTC)
• 36.763°N 28.262°E
• 61.2 km depth

 

Two of the LAB Profile^® Motivation Patterns that are about our ‘Level’ of activity are ‘Proactive’ and ‘Reactive’ are fundamental to how a person experiences and reacts to stress.  The way we react to life will cause us stress (or cause us to have stress) and that reaction will affect others around us.  It might be useful here to look at what Proactive and Reactive mean in the LAB Profile®.  Proactive is about initiating, getting on with things, ‘just do it’ as in the Nike slogan.  People at the extreme far end of this pattern can at times appear to others as if they are bulldozing them into getting things done.  People with the Reactive pattern will wait and analyse. At the extreme they just won’t get started (well to someone with a highly Proactive pattern that’s how it may seem.) There may also be other pattern combinations that enable them to be stuck.

When I’m training I often use the Eyeore and Winnie the Pooh characters (wild assumption that my audience knows who these are of course) to explain these patterns in people.  Tigger is full of energy and ready to go where the organisation needs to go. At times when the more Reactive employees need time to think, consider and weigh things up, perhaps using long passive voice sentences.  What can happen is that the boss can push things a little too far; they want others to jump to it.  Dependent on the boss’s other patterns they might worry they’ve upset others or they might not. Either way this pattern at the extreme can lead to stress and burn out both for the person with the extreme Proactive pattern and for the person with the Reactive pattern.  The person with the Reactive pattern does not get enough time to think or they feel rushed onto doing something that then goes wrong. Worst case scenario they do nothing but worry and stress.

Words to listen out for or to use to motivate people when they using this patterns, or to identify your own patterns are:

 

Proactive - do it, go for it, jump in, now, get it done, don’t wait

Reactive - understand, think about, analyze, consider, wait, might, could, would

 

 

Are you motivated both by what you can achieve and sometimes will achieve and are you also motivated by possibilities and options? Too many options and we do nothing - here’s an idea, there’s an idea, how about this idea?  If you are someone like that some of the time, or in certain circumstances, it can be difficult for you to make a choice. Or you never make a choice and if you work with other people, those other people can be left behind, uncertain of what they are supposed to do with all the opportunities you have given them, especially when they were working on getting something else finished. A little follow through on your behalf would be good, otherwise the others are overwhelmed, or they just give up and walk off.

 

Words to listen out for or to use to motivate people when they using this patterns, or to identify your own patterns are:

 

Towards  - attain, obtain, have, get, include, achieve, benefit

Away From - avoid, steer clear of, not have, get rid of, exclude, away from, prevent

 

Like to know more or any questions?  Please comment below or contact me here or via LinkedIn. Stay safe.