Solidarity in Action: The Story of Peter Baines

A note to young leaders.

26 December 2004. Boxing Day tsunami. Over 250,000 people dead.

Among those sent in the aftermath was Peter Baines OAM – a NSW police forensic specialist, sent to Thailand to help identify 5,395 bodies, many of them tourists.

Supporting Peter’s team are soldiers from the Thai Army. Their job is to transport the corpses from refrigerated shipping containers, where they are stored, to the mortuary. It’s unpleasant work in forty-degree heat, with no end date, living in tents far away from their families.

Months in, the soldiers are spent. Peter has no budget to better their conditions or offer incentives. What he does have though is the habit of watching.

Each morning at 8.00am, the soldiers assembled beneath the Thai flag and sang their national anthem. For those few minutes, their posture changed – backs straightened, shoulders lifted, pride returned. Then the song ended, and so did their energy and morale.

Most managers would have commissioned a survey. Peter instead turned to a colleague and asked him for the words to the Thai national anthem. Over the following days, on the 90-minute drive to and from the site, the Australians learnt to sing it – in Thai.

Then one morning, the Australians lined up behind the soldiers (not in front of them). And as the Thais began to sing, the Australians joined in. In Peter’s words: “Every soldier swung around in amazement, with eyes as big as saucers and grins as wide as anyone will ever see.”

Did the Australians sing it well? “No,” Peter admits. Did that matter? “Not one bit.”

From that morning onward, the soldiers once again walked with a spring in their step. They had been seen and honoured – not as extras, but as people whose loyalties and sacrifices mattered.

There are three great learnings here.

First – if you can’t change the conditions, you can still change the connection. And the latter is more powerful and longer lasting.

Second – leadership has a notorious habit of wandering towards centre stage. Stand behind your team, not in front of them.

Third – solidarity is a message you send with your feet. Words are cheap and everyone knows the exchange rate.

The motivation industry is worth billions, but the best ways to motivate are free.