Page 123 - Harvard Business Review (November-December, 2017)

“HISTORY TEACHES
WHO I’M FOLLOWING… US THAT THERE WHAT I’M WATCHING…

I’m interested in technology, politics, and the ARE ALWAYS My wife and I loved the first season of Billions,
intersection of the two, so I look to smart pundits such on Showtime, but now we’re hooked on Amazon’s
as Anil Dash, the blogger; Nicholas Thompson, the HEADWINDS Mozart in the Jungle, which
editor of Wired; David Fahrenthold, of the Washington Foursquare’s CFO recommended.
Post; Amy Davidson Sorkin, of the New Yorker; and WHEN YOU’RE It perfectly depicts what it’s
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google. I enjoy Malcolm TRYING TO CREATE like to be at the start of your
Gladwell’s podcast Revisionist History. I remember an career and fighting your way
episode about the song “Hallelujah.” It took Leonard SOMETHING up alongside a lot of other
Cohen nearly 10 years to get it right. That’s true of THAT LASTS.” talented people with whom
so many works of art and start-ups: You tweak and you need to mesh well.
tweak, suddenly magic arrives, and you take off.

ever seen,” Haggerty says that of the latter.) Actually leading figures some of the characteristics “[THESE LEADERS]
blame lies not just with then- in a crisis, he argues, requires Johnson prescribes: a cool
CEO Tony Hayward but with the avoiding these impulses and deliberateness and a willingness LEARNED HOW
entire leadership team’s lack of instead figuring out what’s really to be patient even under pressure. TO STEP BACK
preparedness to communicate happening, thinking hard about Lincoln, for instance, “discovered
should an oil spill—an obvious stakeholders’ needs, and creating the power of mastering his FROM A SPECIFIC
risk for the company—occur: a purposeful mission to guide the emotions in a specific situation INSTANT, ASSESS
“The fault, as I see it, lies not in response. “Resist the urge to do carefully enough to take no
the weak, fumbling messages that anything immediately,” he writes. immediate action or, in some THE LARGER
BP put out in the initial phases… Ignore the adrenaline, work with instances, to do nothing at all,”
but rather the lack of an adequate, a high-performing team, get the she writes. “In our own white-hot LANDSCAPE, TAKE
executable plan that led directly to facts, ask questions, and listen; moment, when so much of our THE MEASURE
those fumbled responses.” then make a plan. time and attention is focused on
Tim Johnson, a London-based Counterintuitively, Johnson instantaneous reaction, it seems OF THEIR OWN
crisis consultant and the author points to President George W. almost inconceivable that nothing EMOTIONS, AND
of Crisis Leadership, argues for Bush’s reaction on 9/11—when might be the best something we
a slightly different approach. he continued sitting with Florida can offer.” Yet history suggests ONLY THEN MAKE
Drawing on academic research, schoolchildren even after being that in some crises, it is. A DECISION
he focuses less on the need for alerted that New York City was As should be clear, these are
flowcharts and checklists and under attack—as exemplary. “By three very different books. It’s ABOUT WHAT, IF
more on developing a “crisis- not outwardly reacting, [Bush] hard to imagine a CEO asking, ANYTHING, THEY
ready culture” and leaders who bought himself space to think and “What would Lincoln do?” when
are steady enough to make time to react,” he writes. his company’s stock is tanking WANTED TO DO.”
deliberate, wise decisions even Nancy Koehn, a historian because of a viral video. Still, the Nancy Koehn,
as the world speeds up—which at Harvard Business School, recommendations offered aren’t Forged in Crisis
is essentially what happens examines a different kind of mutually exclusive. It’s probably
during a crisis. crisis: one that drags on, putting smart for a CEO to delegate
Johnson describes two kinds a leader in a vise of unending tactical crisis management to a
of bias that arise from a fight-or- decisions. In Forged in Crisis, she deputy, preappoint a team, and
flight response and lead to bad draws profiles of five leaders who have some version of a playbook
choices: “intervention bias,” or experienced such stress: Ernest (laminated or not) at the ready.
the urge to overreach and take on Shackleton, Abraham Lincoln, But that same leader should also
tasks for which an organization Frederick Douglass, Dietrich aim to stay calm and above the
is ill equipped; and “abdication Bonhoeffer (an anti-Nazi German fray, to keep an eye on the long
bias,” which causes one to eschew clergyman), and the 1960s game, and to understand that in DANIEL MCGINN is a senior
responsibility or blame others. environmentalist Rachel Carson. many situations “Let’s wait and editor at Harvard
(Lawyers are particularly fond Koehn sees in these historical see” is the wisest response. Business Review.

Crisis Leadership:
How to Lead in Times Forged in Crisis: The Power
of Crisis, Emergency of Courageous Leadership
and Uncertainty in Turbulent Times
Tim Johnson Nancy Koehn
Bloomsbury Business, 2017 Scribner, 2017

NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2017 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW 165