Chapter 10
Put Out Every Fire
Congratulations on getting to this point in the book. You now have a new approach for setting priorities. You understand how to navigate politics. You've got a grasp on the people.
Now there's just one more thing to prepare for: total disaster. An experienced crisis management person once told me that 75 percent of the planning for most crises can be done in advance, yet hardly anyone he had worked with ever took the time for it. No matter how well you plan and execute, “unknown unknowns” can emerge during or after implementation and create sparks. In IT, for example, we spend hours and hours doing stress testing to make sure a new system has enough capacity to handle heavy loads. And yet, almost without fail, when we launch, the system runs slow. Sometimes it even crashes under loads that we “proved” it could handle. I've been burned more times than I can count.
Practical problems become morale problems as teams tire and frustrations rise. These become the defining moments of your leadership. A fire is either quickly snuffed out, or it engulfs the entire initiative and you with it.
Hopefully, you've already positioned yourself for success by using the Getting Lost with Confidence Matrix to set expectations. Too many leaders try to campaign for their initiatives by giving key stakeholders—in particular, the people with the power to shut you down before you even get started—a false sense of security. Risk management is a key task in the work plan, one that will be crossed off as “complete” before the actual transformation begins. It's not surprising, then, that people expect a smooth transition. When things go wrong, time gets wasted as people point fingers and go into “CYA” mode.
In addition to using the matrix to set expectations, I recommend worst-case scenario preparation. Here you focus not on causes or issues, but on potential negative outcomes—the website going down, orders being delayed, and so on—and make plans for how you'd handle them. In IT, the most common worst-case scenario is a system crash that affects customers. Generally I have prepared for this with two safeguards that allow us to muscle through. Prior to launch, I boost the size of our front-line customer care team by 25 percent. That way, we can take orders by phone and have plenty of people to talk to customers if the system goes down. Second, I increase inventory in the field by 25 percent so that we can still fill orders if we have production or distribution problems. When bosses have balked at the expense, I simply calculate the potential volume of lost sales and customers if we were only able to process 50 to 75 percent of their orders for a two- to three-week time frame. Suddenly the cost to prepare doesn't seem so great.
Forming a Crisis Management Team
The first step of forming a crisis management team happens early in the game. You need to define which types of fires should lead immediately to you being notified. Which they are will depend on your industry. In my case, I had a list of five:
- When an employee was injured while on the job
- A situation that adversely affected the environment
- A major potential product or service quality issue
- An IT system, supply chain, or manufacturing outage that lasted more than 30 minutes and could have an adverse impact on our customers
- An adverse internal or external regulatory audit report
Once you've developed your list, make sure every single person touching the project knows it by heart. Quick, direct notification allows you to jump into action and assemble the rest of the team.
I come from the school of leadership that says you should immediately form your crisis management team once you are briefed on the situation. The size and makeup of the team depend on the situation, so not all roles can be planned in advance. There are, however, four that are almost always included. First, a human resources (HR) person to help manage the emotional and human impact of the issues at hand. Second, you need someone with domain experience in the situation. For example, if I'm dealing with a supply chain problem, I want our most experienced supply chain person on the team.
Third on the list is a communications person. This person isn't there to spin the situation, but to ensure that information is communicated promptly and accurately. When things break, everyone else on the team will be so focused on fixing the problem that they forget to communicate important information to others. As a result, negative and inaccurate news starts filling the vacuum, which can make a tense situation worse and lead to more things breaking. Without timely updates, it can seem like leadership has lost control.
Finally, your crisis management team needs a project leader. This person will make sure tasks, timing, and accountabilities are identified, understood, and executed. Having someone organize and coordinate the work at this level of detail not only keeps everyone aligned, but it also gives them confidence that the situation is under control.
Getting in the Trenches
Getting in the trenches means interacting firsthand with the crisis and the people resolving it. I've seen too many situations in which leaders either waited too long to get involved or didn't stay long enough when they did. As a result, they are dependent on second- or third-hand information, which has a very high probability of not being fully correct.
The telephone game—those times when communication passes through a chain of people before arriving in your ear—always distorts the message, and that's even more so the case in times of crisis. For example, when I was the CIO of GP, our data center once went down in the middle of the night. When it wasn't back up by 5:00 a.m., I got on a plane and flew to the site. By the time I arrived three hours later, the data center was back up. I first spoke to the site manager, who was giving me all kinds of technical jargon about what happened and why the backup power didn't kick in. It was all very complicated, and yet nothing he said fully explained what had happened.
I asked him to take me to where the outage started. When I spoke to the employees there, I finally got the simple, clear version of what had happened. They had installed a new server without first checking the LCD display that showed whether there was enough power to run it, which lead to a short circuit. The backup power source was regrettably on the same electrical unit (another whoopsie), so it went out, too. It was simple human error, and now that we understood it, we could make sure it never happened again. If I hadn't gone straight to the source, I never would have known the true cause of the problem or taken the steps to prevent it from recurring. Note that the leader to whom the employees at the data center reported didn't join me in the trenches. He was too tired from being up all night. (We were all up all night.)
When an initiative you're leading derails, it's your job to do everything in your power to get things back on track. Often that means getting involved in areas of the business that aren't normally your responsibility, at least not directly. That was the case once again at Medtronic after we launched the new ERP system. Overall the system worked okay, but the printers at the warehouse were having trouble. Every time they went down, personnel didn't know which items to pack and couldn't print shipping labels. Meanwhile, they were dealing with a learning curve in using the new system. These problems added up to shipments failing to be ready for FedEx, which lead to customers not getting their orders in time. Remember, Medtronic sells medical devices. Late deliveries could put lives at stake.
The warehouse manager and his staff were very good people, but they were at their wits' end. In addition, their bosses were nowhere to be found; they had moonwalked. To make things worse, the operations leader responsible for the warehouse hadn't increased inventory in the field in case we had problems. As you may have already guessed, we hadn't increased customer care staff either.
After two days of FedEx pulling away with not all of the next-day delivery orders on the trucks, I drove down to the warehouse myself, even though no one there reported to me. I noticed two things. First, adding extra workers would help us to catch up during times when the printers were working. And second, we didn't have any backup plan for when we missed the FedEx cutoff.
We solved both problems. When the warehouse got backlogged, my IT staff and I personally went down to the floor to help pack and label boxes. (Our office was less than 15 minutes from the warehouse.) When we still missed the FedEx cutoff, which happened for about a week, we chartered planes for $17,000 a pop and got the deliveries out on time. The warehouse manager did not have the authority to make spot decisions involving that amount of money, but I did. So we made them. Leaders oftentimes are the only ones who have the authority needed to marshal the needed resources. In their absence, people are hamstrung while they wait for approvals.
Thanks to the warehouse, customer care, and my IT team rolling up their sleeves and putting in extra hours, we stopped missing deliveries. And after three weeks, the printers were fixed and everyone began getting more comfortable with the new system. I immediately gave everyone involved spot bonuses that together totaled $225,000—a sum far lower than what a lost customer would have cost the company.
My involvement attracted the notice of two people. Shortly after everything had calmed down, the out-to-lunch operations leader who ran the warehouse told me to stop telling his people what to do. He was in charge. I didn't argue. Well, he wasn't in charge for long. Two months later, my boss called me into his office and added operations to my responsibilities, which meant the warehouses, customer care, and their leaders now reported directly to me.
As an aside, during the crisis, I wasn't thinking about my career. I was taking responsibility for a problem that no one else would. But this time and many others, that approach increased my influence and got me promoted. Getting into the trenches can do the same for you, too.
There's one more reason to dive in: It's an ideal time for you to develop the relationships that make you a better leader. Bonds are forged when people come together in times of crisis. You'll also learn a lot about people: who panic and moonwalk; who rise to the occasion; who stay focused; and, who get the job done. It might not surprise you that more senior people moonwalk than front-line ones.
In Crisis, Don't Ever Make It about You
I've covered the need for timeliness and accuracy in your communications. There's one more way leaders blow it when it comes to messaging during crises: making it about them. Remember the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, among the industry's worst ever? The CEO had the experience of keeping it real going wrong when he told media that no one was more focused on stopping the spill than he was—because “he'd like his life back.” His company's explosion had caused loss of life and would likely cause environmental devastation decades into the future, and where did he focus the story? On himself, as though his temporary discomfort was worth two beans to the rest of us. With just five wrong words, the entire world now doubted whether the company had the integrity to grasp the gravity of the disaster it had caused and get it fixed as fast as humanly possible.
When things go wrong, a leader doesn't get to commiserate. Anything that happens on your watch is your responsibility, and you have to deal with it. In truth, this isn't just a messaging problem. Ego, that infantile part of you that wants to make it all about you, clouds your ability to make good decisions. I think back to that time I stormed into my boss's office, screaming about wanting to sue because of an audit that wrongly called my work into question. In retrospect, it's so clear to me now that anyone, including my boss, would recognize that audit as the final struggle of someone whose ability to lead was in question. But in that moment, my rational mind was squashed under my raging ego. Screaming wasn't going to fix anything, and in fact it set me back.
Of course we all have egos. We need a work-around, and here's what I suggest: Keep your mind focused on the endgame. The best way to save your reputation is to fix what's broken as quickly as possible. Get it fixed and working better than it ever did before, and that will become your legacy. With that thought and integrity as your guide, you'll keep your ego at bay.
And as a final recourse, when you feel the need to make it about me, me, me, take 20 minutes to vent with your closest advisors or someone at home. Get it out with the people who know you so well that they'll see it for what it is: a minor temper tantrum that needs to be released so that you can focus on the real work ahead.
How to Elevate a Discontented Team
Change is hard work, and even the most dedicated, engaged employees get frustrated. Challenges such as longer-than-usual hours and a steep learning curve lead to exhaustion, complaints, and scapegoating, and eventually to lost productivity, mistakes, and formal resistance. As a leader, you've got to be proactive in managing morale. When people's “change muscles” start to tire and people focus more on blame than on doing the work, there are four things that I've found that consistently refocus the team.
Address the Issue Head-on
Make sure that your core team members, especially your HR and communications people, know that you want to hear about any concerns voiced by anyone on the project right away, rather than wait for a real problem to emerge. Discuss the situation with HR and communications first. This will give you the chance to vent any defensiveness so that when you talk to the team, your ego is at rest. If they're going to be frustrated with someone, better that it be you than their colleagues. You can also get their advice on how to handle the situation in a way that both addresses their concerns and keeps the project moving forward.
When you're ready, call a meeting with every single person who touches the project. You want everyone to hear you at the same time. Otherwise, your words might be “interpreted” as they're shared. You might also find that singling out individuals to meet with can lead to an impression that you're playing favorites or assigning blame. When people are already unhappy, they tend to assume the worst when people file into a room and the door closes.
The goal when you meet is to address the issues head-on, but without being confrontational. I've found that when you can, meeting in an informal venue helps. For example, when I enlisted my IT leadership team to work on the warehouse floor during the enterprise resource planning (ERP) crisis, it was not without complaint. After the first day on the floor, I could see that the mood was bitter. We all met for dinner at 10:00 p.m. that night, and after a couple of beers, people were ready to talk. They were frustrated that I was making them do work outside of their responsibilities to make up for the poor leadership at the warehouse, which wasn't their fault. They were carrying the full weight of the start-up problems on their shoulders, even though any number of things could have been done by operations to help. Meanwhile, they needed more time to troubleshoot actual bugs with the new system.
In short, they were tired, losing confidence, and looking for a scapegoat. If I didn't step in, they would become the 4-year-old who screams “that's not fair!” before melting into a tantrum. This is not unusual when things go wrong during an initiative. Here's what I said, and what you can say when you face this kind of situation: “No, it's not fair. Leadership is rarely fair: You are often uncredited for the good, and falsely blamed for the bad. But it doesn't matter, because your job is to solve the problem and save others from pain. Maybe, once you take care of the problem, you can address questions of who did what.”
Use this analogy: If we were driving down the street and saw kids lying hurt on the side of the road, our responsibility is to stop and help them, not shake our heads and wonder where their parents are. After they got the help they needed, then we would ask those questions.
You have to find a message that helps your team rise to the occasion. After that night, there was no more grumbling. Several of my VPs started going to the warehouse without me needing to ask.
Let Them Air Their Concerns, But Keep the Tone Civil
It's important that you sit and listen to the team's concerns. There might well be something actionable that you need to address before you can quiet their rumblings. But you also have to stay in control. When people are disrespectful, call them on it. If you let people vent without keeping the discussion civil, it can have long-term consequences on relationships and your leadership. The motto of these meetings should be, “We can disagree, but not be disagreeable in the process.” Keep your own emotions in check; getting angry is a quick way to lose respect in the eyes of your people.
Never Pass the Buck
There will be times when you have to make unpopular decisions regarding staffing (layoffs), organizational changes (replacing popular but disruptive leaders), and compensation. When people react badly, you may feel the urge to shift the blame upward: “It wasn't my call” or “It's policy.” Squelch that urge. Hearing that their “fearless” leader is someone's lap dog doesn't make anyone feel better, it only makes you less trustworthy. Own every decision you make, and even if people are angry, at least they'll know you're a straight shooter.
When I was an IT director at Georgia-Pacific, I became a hero to my people when I gave them a “Year 2000” bonus—and a goat when I took it away the following year. The bonus had been in response to skyrocketing IT salaries when demand increased thanks to the Y2K bug. Other companies increased salaries and then had to lay people off. We did bonuses so that no one would lose their jobs when the IT market cooled down.
When I heard from my HR leader that a group of employees were planning to protest their case to the CEO, I called a town hall meeting. First I summarized their concerns, and then I told them that I had made the decision. I could have fobbed off responsibility to the CIO, who in fact had made the call organization-wide. But the fact was, I supported the decision and would have made it myself. It was the right call. I laid out the logic, which was based on three different salary studies. Then I let people know that we'd be watching the market; if it picked back up, I would make sure we stayed competitive.
After that meeting, the noise died down. People still didn't like the decision, but they had accepted it as fair. The fact was they trusted me. If they had heard the same message from the more-removed CIO, or if I had passed the buck, they might have continued to protest or started searching actively for other offers. Both would have been bad for the company and for me. And ultimately, it would have been bad for them, because our compensation was competitive, and I gave them ample opportunities to grow their careers within GP.
Deal with Malcontents One-on-One
Many times your efforts will succeed with all but a handful of people. Sometimes those folks just won't quit, and they can stir people back up once you've settled them down. That's what happened with the bonus issue. A single employee kept up her campaign, and her behavior grew increasingly toxic. She was spending her work hours sowing discontent instead of doing work. She was the type of person who talked to everybody, usually to gossip, and therefore she had a certain amount of social influence.
In such cases, don't waste the group's time on a second meeting. At this point it's a personal problem, not an organizational one. I called this woman to my office and let her know that I was aware of her behavior. I repeated the reasoning behind our decision, and I let her know that appeals to the rest of the executive team would meet deaf ears—we were all aligned. I also let her know that I could see she had real influence. And here she was wasting an opportunity to show the organization that she could lead.
Dealing with me one-on-one, she quickly backpedalled and tried to implicate others as the troublemakers. After that meeting, I never heard another word. When it comes to true malcontents, divide and conquer. They rarely have the truth or integrity on their side, and they back down easily when asked to take responsibility for their actions.
Step into Your Power
When disasters happen, you may have moments where you feel that keeping things under control is hopeless. Even the best planning, leadership, and people can't stop problems from happening. In fact, those aren't crazy thoughts: You're seeing the world as it is. You can't control everything. So be it. Push aside your despair, because in those times when things are out of control you have to remember what you do have: The power of true and trusted leadership to move hearts and minds. It's not insignificant, and it can rescue you from even the worst disasters.
I didn't fully realize the extent of that power until I faced something I hope none of you ever have to: a death on site. At the time, I was the vice president of GP's Distribution Division's mid-Atlantic and southeast regions. I got a call around 2:00 p.m. that a warehouseman in North Carolina had been fatally hit by one of our 18-wheeler trucks right outside the entrance to the property.
Following the advice of my HR colleague, we both immediately got on a plane. His role would be to work with the person's family, organize grief counseling for his colleagues, and prepare me for what I should expect on site. As for me, I wasn't totally sure what I was going to do; I just felt deeply that being there in person mattered.
I didn't know how right I was. When we arrived at the warehouse at the end of the workday, it was completely full of employees. Everyone from the first shift, when the accident had happened, had stayed, and all of the second shift employees had joined them. The grief in the room was overwhelming. Heads were hanging and many people were crying. When we arrived, all eyes turned to me, searching for something.
I looked around at the room, taking it all in, and then spoke from the heart. I told them that while I didn't know the man personally, I wished I did because it was clear from the grief in everyone's faces that this had been a very special man who went out of his way to help others. When I saw people's heads nodding, I knew what to do next. I asked if anyone wanted to share with the group how the man had helped him or her.
As people spoke, the crushing sense of grief started to dissipate. People were still sad, but they were moving beyond the state of shock and helplessness that we found them in. I closed by letting them know we were going next to his family, to take care of them. We also let them know that grief counselors were available to all. When I closed my remarks, more than one person came up to hug me and say thank you. Later that week we attended his funeral services, among the most touching I have ever participated in.
It wasn't until that day on the floor that I understood how desperately people need leaders in times of crisis. I had never seen myself as someone whose mere presence could provide emotional support and start to renew people's sense of safety, significance, and control. Now I recognized that while VP was just a title, there was incredible power in the leadership opportunity it presented if I stepped up to it both in crisis and in moments of celebration as well.
Crisis mints leaders, forcing them to stand up and stand out. Learn all you can from the challenges. You may as well, because you can be sure they'll keep coming.
Coaching Moments
All “no” answers need to be addressed.
| Question | Answer (Yes or No) |
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