On a recent flight that was delayed resulting having to hustle through Narita airport. Past two airport concourse’s, 20 odd gates and one security check point we arrived at our gate and were standing in line catching our breath when we noticed another couple standing a few feet away, not really in line but in the vicinity.
Not wanting to be rude we asked if they were in line, to which they responded no, just waiting for them to call our zone.
So we took up our spot in the line thinking that was the end of the exchange. The other couple then asked the one question that is used hundreds of time a day at airports around the world, they stepped closer to us and asked “ where you folks from.”
We responded with our home town and country and asked and politely asked“how about you folks.”. they replied,
Abbotsford (a small west coast town of under 170,000 people) as they stepped in even closer I asked if they lived in the city or the outskirts, “we live just off Clearbrook road” I laughed and said my grandfather was the Deacon of the MB church there for 20 some years. We confirmed through a few other details that, they currently attended that church.
The other couple asked if we had heard the story of what happens when two People meet? It takes them less then five minutes to find out they are both Mennonite and another two minutes to learn they are related! As a person who loves a good joke I was surprised at not having heard that one before! ( full disclosure, I don’t consider myself practicing anything from a religion standpoint, but I was raised with the MB philosophy as a constant in my life and it has shaped my worldview significantly) We continued the conversation about Surnames and connections in other places in the world before our boarding call.
No this didn’t turn out like a Facebook feel good story, we didn’t end up being long lost relatives, but I did walk away questioning how this encounter could occur being 7,500 Km away from a place we both were connected to. Was it serendipity? Did resonance have something to do with this? Was it simply a matter of odds of being in the right place at the right time?
In the end it probably comes down to your world view, science would say the odds are you will have a chance encounter like this and then there are those who will call it serendipity, saying fate placed both couples in the same time & space.
Or is there something to be said for conscious and unconscious resonance? Do we attract a certain type of energy, are we guided towards those who resonate at the same energy/frequency? If this is so, what does that mean for organizational culture, what does that mean for the micro-cultures developed(ing) in your workplace.
The Social Psychology of Risk embraces these questions through metaphors like the Culture Cloud and provides tools like iCue, a visual & verbal tool to help users understand the conscious and unconscious in decision making.
Are we prepared to raise consciousness in our daily discussions, do we have the tools and understanding to ask better incident exploration questions. Do we have the psychological confidence to have more engaging daily tailgate/morning meetings?
Our worldview, how it shapes, guides, aligns and impacts how we show up in the world , decision making and the conscious- unconscious and social influences are a few of the topics we will tackle in the Houston TX session May 19 – 21 & 21 – 23 2025
Frank, some challenging questions there and worth considering. It’s amazing in life how sometimes things ‘fall in place’ and at other times the world seems to be against us. Sometimes the rhythms of life ‘rock on’ and other times all we can hear is discordance.
Being in tune with embodied living and stepping away from some of the silly structures we create can enable some amazing learning and out life, being and risk.
Thanks for this post. For reminding us that sometimes serendipity looks us in the face, yet we don’t see it. Sometimes we create way too many systems that limit perception and readiness to accept the beautiful mysteries of life.
When we learn to sharpen our perception and feel the resonances of others, we begin to understand much more about how Culture works and how Socialitie enlivens us all.
Rob Long says
Frank, some challenging questions there and worth considering. It’s amazing in life how sometimes things ‘fall in place’ and at other times the world seems to be against us. Sometimes the rhythms of life ‘rock on’ and other times all we can hear is discordance.
Being in tune with embodied living and stepping away from some of the silly structures we create can enable some amazing learning and out life, being and risk.
Thanks for this post. For reminding us that sometimes serendipity looks us in the face, yet we don’t see it. Sometimes we create way too many systems that limit perception and readiness to accept the beautiful mysteries of life.
When we learn to sharpen our perception and feel the resonances of others, we begin to understand much more about how Culture works and how Socialitie enlivens us all.