As hurricanes such as Harvey and Irma continue to wreak havoc across the U.S. and other countries, the last thing most people are thinking about is the effect on businesses and work teams. And yet, those businesses will have to rebuild, those work teams will have to rise again, and those badly needed jobs and livelihoods will need to stick around. It’s something every leader and manager should be planning for right now.
When a large disaster strikes, it serves to remind us how puny our own plans and work processes are. Mostly in the world of work, people rely on policies and procedures, thinking that these can handle all eventualities. When a fault or a problem arises at work that’s embarrassing or unacceptable, a policy or procedural solution is usually the first thing people reach for. A natural disaster, though, cures us of this fallacy—showing us that there’s no liberal leave policy, no rule about flooding in the car park, no management position that can pilot a team of people or an organization through the complete destruction and all the massive, unpredictable chaos of a really big tropical storm.
What we’re forced back onto when all our finely balanced workplace rules and procedures collapse around us is our shared values. A strong roof may or may not protect your workplace or your work team in the bedlam to come, but be assured, the businesses and teams that survive Hurricane Harvey will be the ones with strong values.
As a leader, it’s only your workplace values and the team values you’ve agreed on with your managers that will help them decide what’s fair when six employees can’t come to work because their homes are flooded, another three need wage advances to pay hotel bills, and four staffers have undamaged homes but need time to help re-house their extended families. Show me a policy manual that covers all that, and I’ll show you a telephone book that’s too complicated to be useful and one nobody will ever look at anyway. Especially if it’s stored inside a computer network that’s now a foot under water.
But suppose you had a shared, pre-existing, and well-understood value that said “people first.” Now you have something managers can hang their hats on. Suddenly the acute problems of treating people equally and fairly (What’s worse? A flooded house or a giant hotel bill?) become much less acute under the lens of an idea that’s far bigger than any system or procedure. You cannot plan the fine details of a disaster, but you can always plan to have real team values in place for that inevitable day when the rulebook simply doesn’t work anymore. That’s your first and most important job as a leader.
So by all means check with your insurer, get sandbags, and make certain your staff members understand the emergency leave policy. There’s nothing wrong with following the rules. But don’t imagine for a second that these things alone will bring your leadership team back, strong and keen. For that, you have to get together with them now, today, and either decide or reaffirm what the organization’s values are. Your managers will not have time to check with you or with the rulebook when the disaster hits—if the rulebook even applies—for every small decision they make under duress. The only thing that will help them, and save you, in that situation is leaders knowing what their values are and sticking within them.
Organizations that don’t take values seriously are fragile places that can’t handle a solid jolt. When the jolt strikes, they fragment and then disintegrate. Whether it’s Enron or the revolving-door senior team dynamics in the current White House, examples abound. Many teams and organizations will never be the same after Harvey, not because of damage to things, but because of schisms and rifts and complaints and resentments that emerged during the crisis—to be reflected on at length afterward—owing to the absence of real shared team and organizational values.
Five simple values are enough. People first. Clients first. Safety first. Have fun. Do some good. Make money. Whatever. It’s nothing you can’t figure out, with a good team process.
But keep it simple, clear, and real. And sort it out before the storm.
Team Results USA CEO John Kolm is a leader in team productivity programs, a best-selling author, and a former intelligence officer. Kolm founded Team Results USA in 1996 to provide customized training and measurable results for work and leadership teams. The company works with numerous state and federal agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Labor, Commerce, the EPA, HHS, and FEMA, as well as Fortune 500 companies such as Toyota, Pfizer, IBM, Cisco, and Goldman Sachs.
