“This is worst I have ever seen it. This traffic is the worst in my life.” These were the words of our very experienced driver as we tried to make our way across Buenos Aires to the international airport.
Janet and I were celebrating our anniversary in Argentina earlier this month. As we were having our last relaxing afternoon awaiting our ride to the airport, we heard the sounds of drums and other musical instruments from the streets. We also began to notice that traffic was getting slower, slower, and slower. During our time in the capital city we had learned that frequent social demonstrations would close the streets resulting in gridlock. So we checked in with the front desk and were told that, yes, there were four simultaneous demonstrations going on in various parts of the city. “But all you have to do is go 500 meters to get to the highway and then you’ll be fine,” we were assured by the concierge.
Our driver arrived 15 minutes early, but we immediately entered into traffic gridlock beyond belief. Cars came within inches of each other. New illegal lanes were being created. After 50 minutes, we’d gone one mile. You could still see our hotel. We should have been to the airport by then and we weren’t anywhere close.
We as missional leaders are also trying to find our way in the midst of challenging circumstances, and I picked up a few interesting leadership lessons from our very experienced and very professional driver about navigating through chaos. Stay tuned this week….