Learning about leadership in Crisis from a Retired Foreign Service Officer who was placed in China and Japan Part 2

Learning about leadership in Crisis from a Retired Foreign Service Officer who was placed in China and Japan Part 2

-The Biggest Question, Correct Mindset, and Tips to Make Good Decisions-

What is the biggest question that people have during crisis?

What mindset will help people to survive the crisis?

How can we make a better decision during crisis?


Are you curious about the answers to any of those questions?

You came to the right place!

Continuation from Part 1, I will summarizing the teaching of Mr. Robert S. Luke, a former Foreign Service Officer.

3. The Biggest Question During Crisis and How to Prepare for an Answer.

Answer: "What is going on (happening)?" and have a system or team to get the necessary information.
As you may have guessed correctly the no.1 question that people entering crisis asks is a question asking for clarity of the situation.  In many process, key to resolving problem is clarity of the condition.  Who, what, when, where, why, how?  These question must be clarified.  The issue is like in the case of Mr. Luke experiencing a major earthquake in Tokyo, Japan, the information may not be available.

The response to lack of clarity is usually, confusion, nervousness, anxiety, and then panic.  However, Mr. Luke stated that they were able to feel somewhat at ease because they had a "team" specifically in case of crisis their job was to collect information and take care of the situation.  Although, the "team" couldn't get enough clarity related to the earthquake (crisis) due to the restriction on the information by the Japanese government, the importance was that there was "someone" who was going to take care of that job.  As a result, others can focus on their actual job, not wasting their brain power on trying to answer the question, "what is going on?"

Lesson 3:

• Everyone's brain seek for clarity, have the answer ready or
• Have someone to do the work of collecting the information, or else you will go through a emotional storm and waste energy on things which may not matter.

4. Mindset that Helps During Crisis.

Answer: Be active, flexible, open, and cool/calm.

Mr. Luke's story capture the devastation and destruction of the crisis, but moreover he captured the professionalism, flexibility and the ability to enjoy at times during the crisis.   He referred to the U.S. military, especially the U.S. Marines, TEPCO "on site" workers, his team members, and the Japanese staff as "heroes."  Which I agree.  These were individuals, in spite of fear and the danger of their own lives, they lived for what they believed to be correct.

Each had a specific clear goals to achieve and these seemed to help the members.  For Mr. Luke it was to get the U.S. citizen out of the danger, and then to the next task.  Although, he stated he worried about his family, after getting the basic safety for his family he began acting on his mission.

One thing that stood out was that in spite of the horrible circumstances, those who were "professionals" found ways to have fun or to change their mindset, like the jokes of Wang Qishan. And Mr. Luke did not mention but from his story what was obvious was that everyone had a hope or positive outlook to the condition.  There seemed to be some faith and no doubt that things will turn-out fine if they do their best.

Which reminds me of another friend who worked for a finance company during the Lehman Shock.  His department had a deal where when they loses certain amount of money on stock, they needed to give a push-up.  As everyone was frantically picking up phones and responding to their customers or working on the computer, he comes in with a great smile, saying "guys we will have very soar arms" and began push ups.  Result?  He got a promotion soon after the crisis.

Lesson 4:

• Can you respond to the crisis with faith, calmness, openness, and be flexible, and not react with fear, anxiety, terror and be in panic. 
• Can you find a way to smile and laugh when it seems impossible?

5.Tips for Making Decisions During Crisis.

Answer: Ask for help, ask for clarity, get as much information as possible, collect information to be presentable to others, ask intelligently, and when everything fails, follow your heart/principle.

Following Mr. Luke's timeline during the crisis, he and his team mates and other world leaders follow the principles above.  The concept is simple yet people have difficulty doing the right thing.  The problem lies on lack of emotional control and being in "terror."  The danger of terror is that under such condition people's decision becomes relied on whoever that leads the crowd. YES, "WHOEVER", our brain stops thinking by itself to make decision and follow the leader regardless of how good they are (read more about Terror Management Theory: http://www.tmt.missouri.edu/ index.html).  Thus, lesson 4 of managing your emotion and making it positive becomes essential for correct decision making.

Another, interesting thing in from Mr. Luke's story is that we were able to listen to bad decisions of the leaders in crisis.  For example, he stated that U.S. Marines were slow at responding to the crisis and it was due to disorganization caused by lack of information.  In another instance, when the U.S. asked what help that Japan wanted one of the request was 6 million water bottles, which Mr. Luke stated that there must be a better place to get it and  not them.  This scenario relates to the Japanese Government side not asking the correct request to the correct people.  There are things that only the U.S. Department can do and they were not clear to what they wanted.

Another delay in decision for Japan was caused by department of economics and the department of defense were in conflict between who will be going to take care of Fukushima Nuclear Reactor.  This is caused by not having a prior plan and moreover the team is not working as a whole in this scenario.  The cost in crisis for delayed response is not just money, its people's life, houses, and trust.

Finally, I asked to Mr. Luke, how he made decision when information was not enough and he did not have enough time.  He replied that he followed his instinct of "what's right", such as although the radiation level was unknown in Tokyo (toxic or not), he ordered the expected mother staffs to leave the city.  The key is to return to what is most important to you, what the principle, morals, and ethics of yours.  End of the day, the radiation of Tokyo was not as toxic and over ordered iodine capsules at the U.S. embassy went waste.  However, it seemed that Mr. Luke had no regrets on his and his teams' decisions.

Lesson 5:

• Have the correct emotion in order to make the write decision. 
• Make sure you have information to make the decision.  
• Make sure what you want. 
• And when everything fails, or not enough, make a decision that you will not regret, which is based on your principle (what you believe).  
• Thus, make sure you know your own principle, morals, and ethics.

Final Thoughts

First of all I would like to thank Mr. Robert S. Luke for his talk and his time to share his experience, as not many people will ever experience being in a position to organize and make decision during a major crises.  There are probably more lessons that can be learned from his stories but these were what I was able to learn from his speech.

To Summarize:

Lesson 1: Respond correctly, make correct decision during crisis, you may or may not have a second chance.

Lesson 2: Do what seems out of norm to change the negative pattern in crisis.

Lesson 3: Put your effort on what needs to be done. Sometimes you will never know the truth.

Lesson 4: Be in a positive emotion in order for your fear not to hijack you.

Lesson 5: Be familiar with your own principles, morals, and ethics and follow those to make decision.

Thank you for reading, I'll see you again on the next post!