7.
FLUIDITY
“To go along with nature effortlessly, as does a fish or a master artisan, is to swim with the current, to let one’s knife slip along with the grain. When nature is taken as a guide, a friend, living becomes almost effortless, tranquil, joyous even.”
DIANA: Melbourne, 14 January 2014. It’s 44°C (111°F) outside, the last of four days over 40°C. I am reminded of a day, almost five years ago, that is imprinted in the minds of many Australians, known as Black Saturday. The date 7 February 2009 marks the most devastating fire in Australia’s history, with 173 people killed, 414 people injured, 2,100 homes destroyed, and 7,562 people displaced.108
On Black Saturday, temperatures reached 46°C with winds in excess of 100km per hour. Approximately 400 bush fires started that day, many fed by winds in excess of 120km per hour, burning a total of 1,100,000 acres in the state of Victoria. The worst affected area was in the wooded hills northeast of Melbourne, known as the Kilmore East – Murrindindi area. There, some fires were reported to have travelled up to 600m per 30 seconds, the radiant heat capable of killing people 400m away. The fire was so fierce that trees combusted 200m ahead, and burning ember “bombs” could be shot up to 2km from the fire, starting other fires. Scientists estimate that the energy released by the bush fires was the equivalent of 1,500 Hiroshima atomic bombs.109
Stella Avramopolous had been in her job as the CEO of Kildonan UnitingCare, one of Australia’s oldest community organizations dating back to 1881, less than five months when she found out about the catastrophic fires northeast of Melbourne on 7 February 2009. Her husband, a police officer, had heard the news on the police radio and had called her straight away. She dropped everything and headed to Kildonan’s office in Whittlesea, on the outskirts of Melbourne, at the foot of the hills. There she gathered the team and set out for Kinglake, the epicentre of the disaster.
“At a time where there is something this big, clearly a crisis, you need to respond straight away. I had to see it firsthand because nobody had seen anything like this before. It was not normal business. I jumped in the car and went to assess the situation.”
In the days after the fire had passed, services started to come into the area and community hubs were set up to provide emergency relief to the victims. When Stella arrived at Kinglake it was as if she’d landed in a war zone. People were running around, in panic mode. Everyone was coming to the community hub, the only community facility set up as an evacuation site.
“It was chaos, and I saw some crazy stuff. Clowns, people handing out bibles, Buddhists handing out money, radio stations setting up vans, banks setting up tents, Council members arguing with State government officials about who was running the centre. Community members were coming into the centre and were informed in front of everyone that their family had died.”
Stella was there with Kildonan’s grief and loss counsellor, Bernadette. She found a table and got two chairs and a manilla folder from the car. “I wrote ‘Counselling Support’ on the folder and stuck it to the table. All of a sudden 50 people lined up. We took their name, number, any details they could give us, so we could start a database and talk to them.”
There and then they developed an intake and assessment system and slowed things down. “When something that chaotic happens, you go back to basics – food, shelter, water, where are your family members... People wanted to be fed, clothed, have showers, talk about their family members who were missing... You just had to listen to what they needed, it was very concrete and immediate.”
At night Stella came down from the mountain and went back to the office. She sat down at a desk and formulated a strategic response on one sheet of paper, with objectives and time-lines. There were three core things that she knew Kildonan had core capability in, which the organization could deliver: case management, financial counselling, and grief and loss counselling. The rest she left open. “I left many question marks in there, as there were so many unknowns. We didn’t know what was needed, and what would be needed going forward. We were living hour by hour, day by day. So we would have to adapt to the situation as it was changing.”
An added complication was the government’s new “Bushfire Case Management Response,” which Kildonan, like other agencies, had to put in place within weeks of the tragedy. Nobody knew what that meant or what shape it would take. In the three months that it took for the government to develop a manual, Kildonan had to develop its own response.
Stella knew that she couldn’t throw the whole organization into the bush fire recovery response. Most services were delivered according to strict contracts with government departments. So she contacted the funders to see how she could use the funding creatively and flexibly. By day two she knew what she could adjust and what she couldn’t.
Stella employed 20 new case managers, all recruited for a flexible attitude, open to dealing with a situation that nobody had encountered before. She also created a flat organizational structure to manage the new situation. Everyone from CEO downwards worked at the grass roots level, as the traditional hierarchy was no longer suitable. The flat structure and feedback loop meant the organizational response could be immediate. “If one of my staff members had a meltdown at 11am, by lunchtime they would be back in the office. There was a worker there from another organization who was doing inappropriate things, and it took that organization three weeks to remove them. In a crisis, that response time is too long.”
New, devolved decision-making protocols enabled everyone in the organization, from the people sitting at the table in the community hub in Kinglake to the main office, to make decisions when confronted with unknown situations. This cut through the red tape, and freed up staff at the coalface to get the resources they needed.
Every action and every decision would refer back to the organization’s shared approach:
• Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures
• The situation is new for everyone, so our response needs to reflect this
• Maintain strong partnership attitude, both internally and externally
• Maintain flexibility and respect for local community, maintain professionalism.
Something new would happen every day, the situation sometimes changing overnight, so communication was crucial to keep everyone up to date. For the first three weeks Kildonan had two briefings, one at the start of the day and one in the afternoon. Stella kept the board members informed daily. They were naturally nervous about the new situation, so one day she took five members in the car with her to Kinglake, so they could witness the situation in person. Only by seeing it firsthand could they understand the sheer magnitude of the disaster, and Kildonan’s approach. By then, 65% of the agency was involved in the crisis, with a 43% increase in staffing over a two-month period.
For the first three months Stella was very hands-on. She would often visit Kinglake daily, working side by side with her team.
“I had to care for the community and for my staff, from a close monitoring position. As we put processes in place I could gradually step back.” Looking back over this period of time, she reflects: “It was like being thrown off a plane without a parachute. It was so scary... I would arrive in Kinglake and have heart palpitations... it was overwhelming. But in the flight, you adapt by learning how to free-fall amongst the rush and the chaos... Actually, when you do that, it becomes very quiet and very organized and very clear. I quickly came to realize that I had to psychologically get myself in this space where I had embrace the chaos, and accept that I wouldn’t and couldn’t know what will happen. This freed me up to be present and respond to what was happening in the moment. Ultimately I had faith in the capabilities of the organization.”
Amidst the chaos and confusion, Stella led Kildonan through a reflexive, adaptive and holistic approach. Rather than fight against what was happening, or try to control the unpredictable and complex, the organization stayed nimble to the changing circumstances, providing crucial support and services to many families affected by the fires.