The Urgency Reflex: When the Moment Demands More

At 26 years old, John Collins found himself working inside one of the biggest criminal investigations in the world. The 1996 Atlanta Olympics had just been bombed. John was a young forensic scientist with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation when evidence from Centennial Olympic Park began arriving at his lab. One envelope contained a nail removed from the body of Alice Hawthorne, the woman killed in the bombing. Thirty years later, John still remembers the moment he opened it. But this episode isn't just about one of the most infamous investigations in American history. John spent decades in forensic science, fired somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 guns as a firearms examiner, worked for the ATF, eventually led Michigan's entire forensic science system and had a front row seat to what happens when incredibly talented people are placed under extraordinary pressure. He saw people rise to the moment. He also saw ego, hierarchy and turf wars get in the way of the mission, including during the investigation into the Olympic bombing. And that's where this conversation goes somewhere much bigger. We talk about: -Why authority doesn't make you superior -Why you don't get to declare yourself a leader -What happens when organizations start protecting their kingdoms -Why trusting people can cause them to rise beyond -What they thought they were capable of -And why the biggest moments of our lives reveal what we've been preparing for all along. John calls it the urgency reflex: that realization that this moment is bigger than me. Because when the stakes get high, the question isn't: How can this moment serve me? It's: What does this moment require from me? This is one hell of a conversation. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/coffee-grit--5708348/support.