High Stakes Leadership

Very little research has been conducted on the various ways that people within organizations have or have not learned from their experiences following a crisis. It is generally agreed, however, that learning can take place both formally and informally. We just don’t know how frequently this happens or how effective it is being done. Personal reflection is an increasingly popular approach to learning from experience – and I do so as a matter of habit. But even if done exceptionally well, I believe that individual reflection can only take you so far. To truly optimize your learning from experience, you’ll want to expand your perspective – particularly when trying to extract some valuable lessons from a recent organizational disruption. What might this look like? I offer for your consideration the manner in which flight instructors at the US Navy’s TOPGUN school approach experiential learning as an illustration of an exceptional way to include multiple perspectives in the process. As a former Chief Instructor at the Navy’s premiere graduate school for its fighter pilots, I have always found the school’s approach to teaching and learning one of the best ever designed. Here is how learning from experience is done the TOPGUN way. The TOPGUN training course is essentially a ten-week program of successive, increasingly complex crises. Training flights involve simulated missions, designed to represent potential real world combat scenarios, where the opposition is expertly provided by highly-trained TOPGUN instructors. Student pilots plan for each specific scenario and then head out to the flight range to conduct their simulated – intense, and very realistic – training events. These events are designed such that if students perform flawlessly, then they have the potential to achieve what one might describe as a mission victory. Unfortunately, as a product of the sheer complexity and dynamics of each training “crisis” (that’s how these training events feel), students are unable to perform flawlessly, resulting in some exceptional lessons in terms of “what should have happened, what actually happened, and what impacted or impeded performance.” Not that mission success wouldn’t provide some great lessons, but there is even greater learning to be gained by examining that which didn’t quite go according to plan. Imagine being put through ten weeks of high-stress, high-risk training sessions like these at your organization. What might you learn about yourself, your team, and your organization? Perhaps more importantly, what would you do to optimize your learning? At TOPGUN, learning is an exhaustive and deeply reflective practice. What the staff at the school has learned over 52 years of teaching excellence is that very little quality learning takes place simply as a result of flying the training events. While experience is vitally important to the learning process, that experience, by itself, does not automatically produce learning. In fact, due to the complex nature of each event and the nearly impossible task for students of having a crystal clear picture of the events as they played out (does this sound like the environment of a typical crisis?), it is difficult for students to know what actually took place, much less to be able to identify key lessons. This is why ALL training events at TOPGUN are debriefed (i.e., examined and discussed) in teams of students and instructors for several hours after the fact. The students reflect on, present, and discuss their performance – that is, what they expected, what they believe happened, what they did well, and what could have been improved – while instructors facilitate by providing clarity about the objectives of the scenario, what actually happened, and what should (sometimes must) be improved for the students going forward. In my three years as a member of the TOPGUN instructor staff, my single most significant takeaway about the learning process following a complex experience – like a TOPGUN training event or an organizational crisis – is that learning cannot take place to a significant degree simply as a result of experience. Nor can it be fully realized through simple, personal reflection. Complex events require deep reflection, facilitated discussion, and input from as many different perspectives as possible to truly learn and improve. What does this mean to you? That learning from complex experiences should NOT be left to individuals to realize. Learning should be thought of as a team sport and it should NOT be taken for granted. It’s also important for high-stakes leaders to understand that just because an experience (like a crisis or disruption) produces lessons and insights does not necessarily translate into sustained organizational learning. Ultimately, learning matters little if the lessons aren’t translated into improved practices and behaviors that last. Once again, this is where facilitation can become an important factor in the ability of an organization to learn from its experience. Facilitated workshops and working sessions can be exceptional tools in a high-stakes leader’s toolkit to help an organization learn from experience and translate those lessons into improved performance.

We live and work in a world that is becoming more complex, volatile, and uncertain every day. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided all of us with a tangible and, for many, frightening illustration of this reality. While countries around the world have rallied against the virus, their approaches have been varied, both in terms of strategy and outcome. Nations such as Japan and New Zealand have been lauded by international communities for their containment and management of the virus. Notably, Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister, has been widely praised for her effective leadership during the crisis. As this virus has undoubtedly had an impact on you and your family, you have likely paid a great deal of attention to how those around you have been—or have not been—demonstrating leadership. What have you learned? Almost certainly, you have come to the conclusion that rarely has the need for exceptional leadership been so clear or so important. What should you expect from leaders in a crisis? As a crisis leader, what should your stakeholders—your families, your businesses, your employees, your communities, etc.—expect from you? A growing body of research offers some answers to these questions. In my thirty-five plus years of leading organizations through crises, I’ve learned three simple principles that apply in every case. First, during a crisis, everyone involved will look to organizational leaders for tangible evidence of leadership. Who is in charge? What actions are they taking? How serious is the trouble we’re in? Second, when these people look for leadership, they want and need leaders that they can believe in. Will everything be ok? Will the company survive? Will I still get the product or service or value that I expected?  Will I still have a job?  And third, as crisis leadership is ultimately about addressing these concerns—these fears—it is critical to truly understand and appreciate the perspectives of those most threatened by the situation. It is not sufficient to view crises from your own perspective. You must be able to see a crisis through the eyes of others and to offer them clear, compelling, and tangible evidence of leadership. What do those looking for leadership want to see in a crisis leader? A framework that has been used by the United States Army for decades known as BE, KNOW, DO provides a practical structure for describing the expectations stakeholders have of their leaders during a crisis. BE. If you were asked to describe what a crisis leader should be during a crisis, in other words, if you had to describe the characteristics that you would like that leader to demonstrate in the midst of a crisis, what would you say? Think about that for a moment. From your COVID-19 experience, what should a leader be to instill confidence and deserve the trust of stakeholders? From research conducted at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, the most effective crisis leaders are: Visible. Stakeholders want to see them, in front of their teams, leading the response. Caring. The most effective crisis leaders are able to demonstrate a great sense of care and concern for all stakeholders. Empathetic. Not only must crisis leaders care for their stakeholders, they must appreciate that some have lost or will lose a great deal as a result of the catastrophe and that their loss deserves acknowledgment and empathy. Calm. Stress and fear produce anxiety in stakeholders. The most effective crisis leaders are able to remain calm, think clearly, and through their composure can help reduce stress and fear in others. Assertive. Not only do stakeholders want to be able to see their crisis leaders, but they want to see them doing something, to be asserting themselves, and working toward a solution. In Asia Pacific, despite the economic fallout, some businesses and organizations have made commitments to reassure their employees – for example, banks in Singapore have pledged to avoid any staff job cuts due to the pandemic. KNOW. What do you want your crisis leaders to clearly understand – to know – in order to support your organization and its stakeholders during a crisis? In our research at Michigan Ross, we consistently hear that stakeholders want their crisis leaders to have a crystal clear understanding of three things: Organizational Vision. To be truly effective, crisis leaders should know, be able to articulate, and be able to align their crisis leadership efforts to the organization’s mission and vision. A portion of every stakeholder’s value proposition is attached to their belief in what an organization is trying to accomplish. Incorporating the organization’s vision and mission into a crisis response will resonate with stakeholders. Organizational Values. If an organization’s vision describes what it is trying to accomplish, then its values describe the way it plans to get there. A great deal of research has been done on the extent to which employees aspire to work for a company that shares their values. New research indicates that other stakeholder groups—particularly customers—want values alignment as well. In a crisis, stakeholders will be looking for an organization to “walk the talk”. This is best demonstrated through values-driven leadership. Guiding Principles. Crisis leaders will be required to make an incredible number of decisions with limited information. Many of these decisions will prove to be less than perfect over time as new information becomes available. This is not typically a product of poor decision-making, but rather, a function of the crisis environment. What can be done to improve this seemingly impossible situation from crisis leaders? We can help stakeholders understand how and why decisions are being made. The most effective crisis leaders create and share a set of guiding principles that can be used in the decision-making process. Examples of guiding principles include: We will value, protect, and support our people. We will deliver on the vision and mission of our organization. We will communicate effectively and thoughtfully with all of our stakeholders throughout this crisis. Principles such as these can help stakeholders understand how decisions will be made … Read more