#36 The Good, Bad & Ugly of Managing Crisis (II): Organisational Trauma

THAT MOMENT WHEN YOU HEAR

• “We all found out about the mass lay-offs right after Christmas break. Many of my colleagues only got good performance reviews - so it wasn’t about performance - but we were stonewalled by HR and nobody gave us good reasons. Many of my friends are still searching for work. I survived the bloodbath, I kept my job but I’m struggling at work - and I don’t know why. I question if HR is plotting. I am suspicious of positive feedback from my new boss. I don’t dare form new friendships at work. It’s like I am preparing for the rug to get pulled out from under me too.”
• “My co-founder was on edge during the worst financial seasons and I always tip-toed around his mood. I will never forget how he YELLED at me midway in a Zoom meeting in front of 100 colleagues around the region. I was so shocked I turned my camera off. It was humiliating. Everyone - my co-founders, my employees - all acted like nothing happened. That was what made me quit everything. I lost a lot of money but I didn’t want to lose more pride. I’ll never ever partner people again.”
• “I cannot get over how HR treated me after I told them what my boss did to me. She said realistically he was more valuable to the company than me but offered to move me to another department. My other boss and colleagues hinted that maybe I am being too sensitive and this is normal for our industry. I just quietly resigned. I never told anyone else. I thought I’d forget it but till today, I don’t dare walk anywhere near my old office neighbourhood. I just cannot see any of them again.”

…you’re in the Good, Bad & Ugly of Managing Organisational Trauma From Crisis

?? THE GOOD THING is more of us are recognising that a crisis can be traumatising and that trauma is not just personal - it can also be organisational.

In the last edition of GBU, I said a crisis can be a catastrophic sucker punch to our status quo.

While not every crisis is traumatising, some crisis events do leave some of us more devastated more than we imagine.

The American Psychological Association defines trauma as

“an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape, or natural disaster. Immediately after the event, shock and denial are typical. Longer term reactions include unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, strained relationships, and even physical symptoms like headaches or nausea.”

Most of us might still think of trauma as something personal rather than something that happens on the professional or organisational front.

Crisis leaders must see that “Trauma impacts both individual employees and the organisation as a whole.” as Diana Hendel and Mark Goulston state in their book Trauma to Triumph: A Roadmap for Leading Through Disruption and Thriving on the Other Side. (2021)

Is there a difference between organisational crisis and organisational trauma?

• Organisational crises are disruptive occurrences that create momentary anxiety, uncertainty, and opportunity in the organisation
• But organisational trauma is when a crisis significantly debilitates an organisation temporarily or long term.

So if you went through a “terrible” professional or organisational event that provoked a strong initial emotional response (especially shock and denial) and suffered from any of the longer term emotional reactions above, you might have experienced some form of trauma.

Researchers Pat Vivian and Shana Hormann explain in Organizational Trauma and Healing (2013) that organisational trauma can stem from:

• a single catastrophic event (eg: a revelation of financial embezzlement, a shocking round of post-Christmas layoffs, an unexpected death of a beloved colleague, an act of workplace violence, a sudden revelation of abuse by trusted leaders or colleagues.)
• ongoing wounding from many deleterious events over time (eg: a long-drawn humiliating merger and acquisition process, a racist or misogynistic work culture with daily micro-aggressions, a systemic pattern of gross professional misconduct)
• cumulative trauma that comes from the compassionate or redemptive nature of the work (eg: public or people sector agencies who are overwhelmed by daily demoralising confrontations with extreme pain or extreme human behaviours)

Psychologist Kerry Bernes warns:

“Although employees (going through organisational change) may not meet diagnostic criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression or any other mental disorder, they may nevertheless display some generalised symptoms consistent with those who have experienced and/or perceived a traumatic event to have occurred.”

Crisis leaders must pay attention on the people level: as we manage this crisis, are these symptoms coming up in myself, my teams, my leaders and our system?

• Physical: headaches, stomachaches, pains in the neck-back-chest area, lack of energy, lack of appetite, difficulties with sleep, restlessness, shaky feelings and panic attacks.
• Emotional: irritability, anger, rage, a heightened level of suspicion, losing trust in those previously trusted, anxiety, feelings of hopelessness, denial and feelings of futility for the future.
• Cognitive: blaming others; negative, magnified, catastrophic thinking; poor attention, concentration and memory; and difficulty making decisions or solving problems; ‘stuck’ in shock or denial
• Behavioral: withdrawal, avoidance, emotional outbursts, suspiciousness, increase in alcohol/drug/food consumption, pacing and immobilization. Organisational symptoms: You can ask…
• Is it compromising client work: impacting service delivery and quality?
• Is it compromising people’s ability to respond to normal daily workloads? Are there ‘balls being dropped’ constantly because of the ongoing crisis?
• Is the organisation weakened in its ability to respond to internal/external threats or opportunities?
• Is there a growing mood of cynicism infecting the organisation’s culture?
• Is there widespread mental, emotional or physical exhaustion? (Note that this may be harder to see in a high performance culture that normalises or celebrates exhaustion. Traumatised high performers may still continue being high functioning but may be pushing themselves into breakdown)
• Are broken connections between people and teams resulting in a lack of collaboration or cooperation? Are high walls of protection being built up between people and teams as a form of survival?

?? THE BAD THING is we may not appreciate that everyone in the organisation can go through “the same storm” but not everyone is in “the same boat”.

During the pandemic crisis, people reacted poorly to widespread platitudes of “We are in the same boat”.

Writer Damian Barr’s pushback below captured the sentiment and went viral around the world:

Why would the same crisis event leave some unscathed but others wrecked?

There are two big factors to consider

• our resources to handle the after effects (financial, emotional, psychological etc)
• our proximity to Ground Zero of the crisis (financial, relational, emotional, psychological etc)

Can a surprise post-Christmas series of mass lay-offs at Organisation X be traumatising? Let’s consider people’s resources:

• Aaron may be shocked and upset by his sudden unemployment but he is buoyed by his super yacht of general good health, tight social networks and decent financial reserves.
• Ben on the other hand felt shattered because he was already rowing with one oar when the news hit: health fears, a bad breakup, a double burden of paying for both his and his parents’ mortgage and a longstanding struggle with anxiety.

What about a sudden discovery that R, an admired leader at work was arrested for upskirting strangers outside of work? Might that “small” looking crisis be traumatising? Let’s consider people’s proximity:

• Cindy’s team might be shocked and upset but ultimately brush the news aside as “personal stuff that’s not our business” within a day and can get on with their work per normal. They only work with R occasionally and mostly just task-based interactions. There is little emotional, relational or psychological ties to this loss of a workplace leader.
• Dora and her team continue to struggle for months after with complex emotions. Many on the team are young women similar to the victims targeted outside by R. They had worked extensively with R. This was someone they thought they knew, trusted and even confided in. Dora, their manager, is R’s friend still. She recommended many of them to be mentored by this leader before. She still defends R loyally and the team is torn in their views about who R really is to them. There are many close, tangled ties they all have to this loss of a workplace leader.

Crisis leaders must see that there might be many more under-the-radar Bens and Team Doras than they imagine.

Those who are more vulnerable ought to be supported, resourced and cared for. One simple thing that can be done is to provide access to trauma-informed professional help.

Part of crisis management work is to also help the Aarons and Cindys be more sensitised to the pain that is happening around them.

It is the job of crisis leaders to help the more privileged members of an organisation see that just because they are doing “ok” does not mean everyone else is.

A crisis can be a great opportunity for more resourced, stabilised people in the organisation to practice ‘being there’ for those who are struggling.

At the very least, they ought not to add to the initial trauma with insensitive words and behaviours.

This brings us to The Ugly Thing.

?? THE UGLY THING is many of us may still dismiss trauma as a problem of personal suffering that people should just take care of privately. But healing from organisational trauma is not just a private undertaking, it also requires public recognition and organisational accountability.

It was psychiatrist Judith Herman (a pioneering researcher in trauma studies) who emphasised that trauma is not just a problem of personal suffering, it is also about public recognition.

The suffering want to be seen, heard, understood and, most importantly, validated by others around them. They need validation that what happened to them was wrong, their experience is hard and things need to be made right. That is why true healing from trauma (organisational or otherwise) cannot be a private undertaking by a survivor alone.

This is particularly true if the suffering in the organisation’s crisis involves

• some form of human cruelty, abusive or predatory behaviours.
• some form of institutional betrayal

It is traumatising to push for quick forgiveness or minimise offences if the crisis involves human cruelty, abusive or predatory behaviours.

In her newest book “Truth and Repair”, Herman argues that that neither the traditional model of retributive justice (emphasising punishment) or its alternative model of restorative justice (emphasising forgiveness) truly prioritises the survivors’ healing.

Herman’s argument is that it is the enablers and apologists (people who profit and benefit from maintaining ties with those who caused trauma) and onlookers (people who choose not to know the truth, help or ‘get involved’) who add a second layer of trauma to the initial crisis.

She argues that “survivors will feel the bitterness of these betrayals more deeply even than the direct harms inflicted by perpetrators.” Herman adds that trauma estranges a victim from “all who doubt her veracity, who blame her rather than the perpetrator, or who choose to turn a blind eye”.

Herman warns that well-meaning efforts to reconcile offenders and victims via a restorative justice process are “tailor-made for manipulation” by abusive people who will likely re-offend because they discover how easily people ignore abuses.

The controversial fall of Harvey Weinstein is not often thought of as a traumatising organisational crisis but it is. The Weinstein Company fired their CEO only when everyone found out he was a serial sexual predator in 2017. Not when they first found out 3 decades ago in 1990 and discovered again and again as they signed multiple non-disclosure agreements. According to the testimonies of 16 separate former and current executives, his behaviour was widely known, and enabled both at Miramax and the Weinstein Company.

In this article “Why did nobody speak up about Harvey Weinstein?”, the journalist describes how bystanders’ public ignoring or public minimising of wrong-doing adds more trauma:

“One woman described this situation: she was in a circle of colleagues at a work Christmas party, and her boss reached across the circle and grabbed her breast. The thing that she focused on the most was not that, but the fact that everyone in the circle laughed. And the impact that had on her, of realising: ‘These are my colleagues, that was their response, how could I possibly report it?’ was greater than [that of] the act itself.”

When organisations do not acknowledge their role and responsibility in a crisis (particularly in crisis involving human cruelty, abusive or predatory behaviours), people experience institutional betrayal.

The most prominent researcher in this field is Jennifer J. Freyd who defines instiututional betrayal as "a wrong perpetrated by an institution upon an individual dependent on that institution” This can look like:

• Negligence: Organisational failure to prevent abuse, take proper safeguards or respond adequately to stop harm from happening to individuals in their care. For instance, a university’s repeated failure at addressing sexual harassment on campus.
• Punishing victims and?whistleblowers: the organisation retaliates, fires or punishes insiders who come forward to report wrongdoing or abuse. This perpetuate a culture of silence and fear within the?institution.?
• Cover-ups: the organisation covers up wrongdoing or protects their reputation at the expense of victims by suppressing evidence, silencing victims through non-disclosure agreements or failing to report incidents to authorities.
• Failure to respond?adequately: When an organisation ignores complaints, skips investigations, gives victims minimal assistance or creates unwieldy or insensitive reporting procedures.
• Normalising abusive?context: the organisation downplays, minimises or ignores abusive behaviour and toxic practices, treating them as acceptable or routine. Harmful actions are considered normal or expected so no change or accountability is needed.

Basically if the source of the organisation’s crisis is internal and some of the organisations’ insiders or associates act like enablers, apologists and bystanders who whitewash wrongdoing, then others within the organisation are going to experience a secondary layer of trauma caused by institutional betrayal.

If you are a crisis leader wanting to help your organisation to heal, push back against any from of institutional betrayal - and choose to do the opposite as far as possible.

Respond adequately, protect victims and whistleblowers, be transparent about key information with key stakeholders - and never ever normalise abusive behaviours.

?? THE BEAUTIFUL THING is post-traumatic healing can happen. It can be nurtured by a community of fellow survivors, skilled professionals and loved ones who can validate your experiences and affirm you are not alone.

In the afterword of her classic Trauma & Healing, Herman wrote

“Healing from the impact of human cruelty requires a relational context of human devotion and kindness. No new technique or drug is likely to change these fundamental principles.”

When I went through my own internal organisational crisis, a peer shared this quote with me that felt strangely reassuring:

You still haven’t met all of the people who are going to love you.

A crisis is a terrible thing to go through.

A traumatising crisis is the absolute worst.

But one thing it does is it opens your world into a world of people who are surprisingly tender, who surprisingly show up, who surprisingly show love in unexpected ways.

Some of them will be strangers who survived similar trenches.

Some of them are skilled professionals - therapists, consultants, peers.

Some of them are your friends, family and loved ones.

You’ll need - and want and treasure - all of them.

You will understand and appreciate kindness more. Even the tiny inconsequential looking drops of kindness matter.

You also feel a deep conviction and desire to extend back the same devotion and kindness you have been shown to even strangers you’ve never met - but are going through something similar to what you went through.

At least, that’s what happened for me.

Going through a traumatising crisis has left me with empathy for any crisis leader burdened to navigate their people and system through the mess.

It has also given me conviction to make space in my life to support others going through terrible things.

If you’re suffering through an organisational crisis that feels overwhelming and horrible - you are most definitely not alone.

There are those of us out there who have been there, done that - and feel for you.

Send me a message.

I am happy to be one of the many ones you haven’t met yet - but are lined up along your marathon route out of crisis who want to just offer up some small sign of support, love and kindness.

As was done for me, so I want to do for you.

PRACTICE THIS

How can I help my people and organisation recover from a traumatising crisis?

MODEL: Adapt Judith Herman’s 3 Stage Recovery Process

Judith Herman’s 3 stage recovery process for individuals has become a therapeutic template in the field of psychiatry.

As individuals get their personal therapeutic support, crisis leaders can also team up with external organisational develoment and other change management consultants to adapt their own parallel process for their organisation’s healing.

STRATEGY:

1: SAFETY & STABILISATION: First, focus on helping the surviving team and organisation regulate and salvage a basic sense of safety.

• Create safe, judgment-free spaces for surviving team to express their real thoughts, feelings and questions to team members or leaders they feel safe with.
• Ask what information, actions or changes the surviving team need immediately to feel more safe or stable in the organisation. Communicate respectfully, kindly and regularly about what is possible, what is in process etc.

2: REMEMBRANCE & MOURNING: Next, re-member the traumatic crisis and reintegrate it into the “neural network” of the organisation.

• You must only do this after the surviving team has some stability, resources and skill to manage the physical and emotional after effects of the crisis.
• Create space for surviving teams to consolidate their memories of what happened in an adaptive way. You want to help each other begin to own it as part of the team/organisation’s narrative of themselves vs. a haphazard, dismembered, fragmented or maladaptive story that is tucked away or hidden.
• Allow teams to mourn for all their losses. Do not minimise the grief or judge what losses deserve to be mourned. The loss of a desired team future, the loss of faith in the old organisation, the loss of an old work team dynamic are examples of valid invisible losses for people to name. Never “silver-line” losses with toxic positive phrases like “Everything happens for a reason” and “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger”

3: RECONNECTION & INTEGRATION: Lastly, resume some version of ordinary organisational life and restore a new sense of team/organisation.

• Only after the first two stages will people feel less disconnected and desire more interconnectedness with others.
• Communicate, validate and celebrate any new sense of meaning or new signs of resilience shown by the team or organisation.
• Create new narratives, artwork, rituals or any other symbolic representation that allows the team and organisation to transition from their in-crisis season to a new team/organisation season.
• If there are new team members entering in at this stage, provide them “good enough” understanding of what happened before to integrate them into the psychological or emotional space of the old team. Don’t provide excessive information that is irrelevant to the new team or unnecessary for the old team for newcomers to appreciate.

Thanks for reading!

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Shiao