12. Navigating the scary turbulence of the humanitarian sector

The humanitarian and development sector is going through a watershed moment with funding gaps, stop-work orders, job cuts, policy changes, technological disruptions with artificial intelligence and other technocratic takeovers, misinformation and disinformation. 

We are literally under attack. 

This episode is a pep talk and offers concrete directions on how to navigate all this uncertainty, survive the turbulence while staying true to humanitarian values and show up in a way that serves you and the sector as a whole. 

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Transcript

Hello, hello, my dear aid worker. I hope you're well. I'm sorry for disappearing for a few weeks. It's not how I want to show up for you. It's not how I want to run this podcast. I went through a lot over the past few weeks and I had to redirect my energy in other areas of my life that required my attention and my energy. Um, there's been a lot of health issues and I've been having a little bit of a roller coaster few weeks.

And in the spirit of putting my money where my mouth is and walking my own talk, I decided to take a break and to take a step back from the podcast so I could come back stronger for you. It's been an interesting time, y'all. I'm... I'm okay. I just really needed that break. And I thank you all for reaching out and for asking how I am. 

I'm okay. We'll get to talk about all this stuff, but for now, I really felt the need, the urge, the urgency to come back to you because of recent announcements panic that I am witnessing all around. I just really wanted to do an episode on these changes, these trends. I know they can feel very scary. The turbulences that this sector is going through and that a lot of you are telling me about in your coaching sessions with me or as friends or as colleagues, I wanted to offer you my perspective on how to navigate all of this. 

It's a little bit of a weird episode. It's more of a pep talk and a personal dispatch, if you will, than a self-coaching class. So here goes nothing, I hope you like it. 

I've picked up a lot of trends in the humanitarian sector. I've been reading a lot, of course. You know them all, I'm not going to teach you anything. I've decided for the purposes of this episode to classify these trends in two groups. 

One is the overall uncertainty that we are all facing in the sector, with funding, with policy, with technology, with security, with humanitarian leadership as we have a new Emergency Relief Coordinator, uncertainty with the very principles and the legal instruments that used to be our key guarantees for how we operate. There's just a lot of uncertainty all around. 

And the second trend that I have decided to create as a category is the upsurge in
violence and technology that results a little bit in a loss of humanity and a loss of sense of purpose in our sector. We know that 2024 was the deadliest year on record for humanitarians. We know that AI is taking over a lot of aspects of the way we work and so there seems to be just a loss of the human in the sector.

And so today I'm talking to you all who received stop-work orders from the US administration in the past 24 hours. 

I'm talking to every one of you who is seeing their organization shrink the organogram year after year as funding becomes more scarce and more unpredictable and fragile. 

I'm talking to you if you're in Goma and evacuating to neighbouring countries because of the upsurge in violence.

If you're in Gaza and you're enjoying for the first time in many, many months a sky without drones and without bombardments, you may fear like me that it might not last. 

If you work for UNRWA, you may have no idea what's going to happen to you by the end of January. 

If you work for UNFPA, what's going to happen to your sexual and reproductive health programmes? 

I'm talking to those of you who are watching artificial intelligence take more and more space in your craft. A friend of mine told me "my job is going to disappear soon anyway" and you may feel it's inevitable for you too. 

If you're looking for a stable job and you can't find it I'm talking to you. 

If you started a new job with more responsibilities than ever before and you feel this massive wave of imposter syndrome and overwhelm swallowing you whole multiple times a day, I'm talking to you. 

I'm also talking to you if your personal life feels shaky because of some friendships or family issues, dynamics, fights, lack of acceptance from your parents, disconnections in values. 

I feel like this has been a month of severe turbulence across the board for a lot of people that I speak to, a lot of people who work in the humanitarian and development sector in particular, and so I have a few things I want to say to you. 

So for those two trends, the one that is around uncertainty and the one that is around the loss of humanity, for each of those, I'm going to make two suggestions, two recommendations or strategies. 

So, the first thing that I want to offer in the face of uncertainty is that we need to stop fighting the notion of uncertainty as if it's a problem. The notion of turbulence as if it's a problem, as if it shouldn't be there. My invitation is for you to accept it. Turbulence is part of the deal. You wouldn't get on a plane and be surprised that sometimes it gets shaky. 

It's the same for the humanitarian sector. I'm so sorry for stating the obvious. It comes with a territory. It's perfectly expected and normal because by definition, this is a sector of disaster and it's a sector of response. So we are constantly shifting, constantly monitoring what's happening and having to reevaluate, reassess and re-observe what's happening. 

And these days feel shakier than usual. Yes. But it's totally normal. I've been coaching several people who are really, really resistant to this idea of it being normal that the times are turbulent. And so I want you to pause the podcast and tell yourself things shouldn't be shaky, things shouldn't be turbulent. Things should be certain. This is not how it should be. And I want you to feel what that creates for you. Does it create a state of mind in which you can think clearly, in which you are open to finding solutions, in which you can address the situation in a calm and deliberate manner? It can't happen. You cannot argue with reality. It's a losing proposition, 100% of the time. 

The truth of the matter is, things are shaky sometimes. Things are shaky sometimes. It's perfectly normal. And if you close your eyes and you tell yourself, "things sometimes are shaky, sometimes we go through turbulences, it's perfectly normal", I want you to feel the change of energy that that can create for you and realize that that puts you in a much more well-equipped position to address and respond and decide and be deliberate about how you want to show up in this context. 

The second thing that I want to offer in response to this general atmosphere of uncertainty is that the absence of certainty is not the certainty of absence. I'm really sorry once again. I really hate common places. But just because you don't have certainty that things will happen the way you want them to doesn't mean that they can't happen the way you want them to. 

So there's this concept called the Black Swan theory. I don't know if you've heard of it, but basically for the longest time humanity operated on the principle that swans were white. And that was just part of the terms of reference of a swan. A swan is white. There are no black swans. There are no gray swans. There are no yellow swans, except one day people ran into a black swan. And that completely shifted the entire thinking around swans. So that is a theory that is basically the idea that certain events can happen, even when you don't, you cannot imagine that they can. 

Something that can undo an entire system of thought. It's enough for something that you didn't see happen to happen to completely dismantle an entire system of thought. So if you, for example, think that you cannot possibly get a job in this organization, in this role, whatever, there's always a black swan possibility. If you think that you will never be able to be with this person that you love, there's always a black swan possibility. If you think that this project will never see the light of day, there's always a black swan possibility. 

That's how I operate in pretty much every aspect of my life. If there's an outcome that I am attached to, I don't really care how low the odds are. I don't care how small the chances of it happening are. I don't care how much work and perseverance and new attempts and subtle shifts, rethinking, movements it's going to require. 

It can be a 0.00000001% chance of happening, I'm going to try my best for it anyway, if it's an outcome that I want. Just in the off chance that things could turn out the way I want them to. 

Because I know that things can happen. I know that things change. People change, circumstances change, contexts change, knowledge changes, feelings change, there's so much I don't know, so much I can't predict, so much I can't control, so I use my faith in the Black Swan theory to my advantage to keep moving forward, to keep moving towards what I think I want amid uncertainty, even amid tremendously low odds, and then, I let life give me the answers one step at a time.

So again, I don't know what you're facing, what kind of uncertainty you're facing, what kind of absence of certainty you're facing. If you've had a nasty fight with your mom, if you're going through a breakup, if you just got fired, if you're afraid of losing your job or you think you'll never find one, but I'm inviting you today to not use uncertainty against you, use it for you. 

If we don't know that it'll happen, we also don't know that it won't. Black swans exist. Go find your black swan fight for it. 

Regarding the second trend that I was bringing up, which is this upsurge in violence and technology, AI, all of that, that kind of makes it feel like the entire sector is kind of losing its humanity... this is really for those of you who feel like the sector has become a little bit of a ticking box exercise where you have lost your sense of purpose. You feel like there's a lot of nasty competition amongst agencies. Aid worker on aid worker violence, that AI is here to drive you out of a job, that Member States are just stepping all over everything we believe in. 

I want to redirect you to the only question that matters and it's: who do you want to be in the face of this upsurge of violence and technocratic takeover. 

Humanity is our main principle. Remember that. Hold on to it for dear life.

In every one of your interactions, in every one of your efforts, when you talk to your relatives, when you talk to your partner, your colleagues, your boss, the people affected by crisis, more than ever we need to reintroduce and scale up the human in humanitarian. 

I see a lot of bad, tasteless, impactless advocacy and comms work done by AI. As a hiring manager, I have read a lot of boring, insipid cover letters written by AI. Only the thinking part of the human can be replaced by a computer. Nothing can replace the feeling part of the human. Nothing can replace humanity. Our hearts are irreplaceable. 

Love for other people, the desire to make their lives a little bit better, is the biggest source of energy in the world. It can move mountains of unimaginable proportions. 

So my invitation is: be kind all around. Be hard-driven first and foremost. Don't let anger and frustration and conflict and lack of acceptance win ever. Don't be a hater. Don't be someone who doesn't give the benefit of the doubt. Don't contribute to interagency gossip and undermining. 

We are under attack, literally. Misinformation and disinformation are all over. We are witnessing underfunding for aid while witnessing overfunding for war. 

It can all be very disheartening. And in this disheartening atmosphere, my invitation to you is to re-hearten the sector, re-center it on the human, the human that you are, the humans you serve, the humans that you work with, the humans that you love, the reason you came to be a humanitarian to begin with. 

All of us in this sector have a desire to see the world become a better place. And some days it feels like we're losing that battle to unspeakable violence and also box-ticking exercises. 

Someone I love very much recently asked me, what would you do if there's no such thing as a humanitarian sector anymore? I was so not prepared for that question.

I have no idea where we're headed, but I do have one certainty. If this sector, as we know it, is to go down, then I will be among the last humanitarians standing. Who will you be? What is your deliberate added value and how will you deliver it? That is the only thing that matters. 

One other thing that I want to offer in response to violence and heartless technology seemingly taking over our sector is: speak up. Denounce behaviors in the workplace. Denounce shady behaviors with people affected by crisis. 

Be true to your values. Be brave. The cost of staying quiet is very high. It's high in guilt. It's high in suffering. 

The benefit of speaking up according to your values, however painful and scary it could feel at the time of speaking, can be amazing in ways you cannot even begin to imagine. And you never know how far your little words can go. 

I was recently in a war zone. And I spoke a lot and very loudly from that war zone. I was scared, of course, and I did it. Scared, but I did it. And I never imagined the reach my words would have. 

It didn't stop the war, of course, but millions of people did hear my words. And my words, by some weird twist of fate, were picked up by a UN Member State for their briefing at the UN Security Council, which, with all of its imperfections, is still, sadly, the only organ the UN has to make strong decisions on peace and security.

My words didn't stop the war, but my words echoed. And if everyone were to speak up as loudly, as frequently as possible against injustice, any injustice, macro, micro, you name it, who knows what could happen and how the world could change for the better. So in the face of this violence and overall loss of sense of purpose and technological takeover, don't forget you have a voice and let it be heard.

That's what I have for you today as you face the uncertainties of underfunding, stop-work orders, evacuations due to insecurity, violence against aid workers, value systems collapsing, AI. 

One: accept the turbulence as part of the process, you'll be better equipped to face it if you accept it then if you tell yourself over and over again that it shouldn't be happening that's a total waste of energy. 

Second: the absence of certainty is not the certainty of absence. Black swans exist. That outcome you want and that you don't dare to believe could be possible may have only a tiny teeny chance of happening, but that tiny teeny chance is worth fighting for if it's the outcome you want. Don't go down without a fight. 

Three, as a humanitarian, it's time to double down on our humanity, our key principle. As tech, as violence seem to be taking over, respond with your heart. Let's re-hearten, let's re-humanize the sector across the board. That is where meaning and purpose are found. 

And four, speak up. Use your voice, be brave, say what you have to say. You never know what positive impact, what ripple effect speaking your truth can have. 

I wanna send you all my courage and all my love as you navigate whatever crap life is throwing at you. 

We'll resume normal programming with coaching tools on this space. I'm moving to the Middle East in the next few weeks to take on a new role with a new organization, so I'll be speaking to you from there. 

Until then, you know what I'm about to say. Go take excellent care of yourself.