Don't panic! Set a fire.
How stress increases our performance.?
At this particular time of the year, all of us in the marketing and marketing research industries are experiencing a so-called Q4 crunch. We’ve all been there, right?! We might get overwhelmed, overloaded, overstimulated even to a degree of panic sometimes… But you know what? Panic can be your ally, not your enemy. Learn below why…?
I’d like to share with you a very inspiring story of the Mann Gulch fire and an R. Wagner "Wag" Dodge persona. This article is primarily based on the book The Leadership Moment: Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All by Michael Useem and Warren Bennis.
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In August 1949, the Mann Gulch fire unfolded in Montana's Helena National Forest in the United States. Fifteen smokejumpers were dispatched, landing near the fire. High winds triggered a sudden and extensive expansion, cutting off their escape route (it's estimated that the fire rapidly covered 3,000 acres/12 square km in just ten minutes during the blow-up). In response, the crew foreman R. Wagner "Wag" Dodge first orchestrated a strategic retreat uphill, then deliberately ignited a fire to create a secure, pre-burned refuge. Amidst the chaos and misunderstanding that followed Dodge's actions (starting another fire), only Dodge and two others survived from the 15-person crew. These tragic events profoundly influenced the development of future firefighting strategies and equipment.
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Some of Dodge's crew members may have rushed by him and his life-saving fire not from rational thinking, but out of sheer panic. Psychologists explain that panic occurs when the mind, overwhelmed by stress, fails to process new information about a threat or draw on relevant prior experiences. It's hard to imagine that the twelve men who died, with flames even closer, weren't overwhelmed by fear. Panic disrupts rational thinking, causing mental processes to halt. Unable to make informed judgments, we resort to the “last learned behaviour”. While escaping from a wall of flame, worked well before, it proved disastrous in this instance, where what made sense in the past was now a perilous choice.
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Intense panic hinders sound decision-making, yet it's worth noting that moderate stress levels can enhance it. This nuanced connection between stress and performance is depicted in the accompanying chart. On the left side of the panic threshold, the surge of adrenaline sharpens focus, channels energy, and reduces distractions. Conversely, on the right side of the panic threshold, excessive stress clouds our thinking, making it difficult to reason or calculate effectively.
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This clarifies why the firefighters did not follow Dodge. But what allowed him to maintain composure while others struggled? One possible explanation arises from a study involving urban firefighters who travel by truck instead of parachuting to the fire site. Concentrating on department captains and lieutenants, the study uncovered that experienced officers tend to enhance their performance under conditions of high uncertainty and stress, while the performance of their less-experienced counterparts tends to decline.
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This explains why Dodge, using his experience and intellect, created the escape fire, while others just focused on escaping. It's a simple reminder that experience is vital for leadership. There's a caution too: a bit of stress can make people work better. But when stress gets too high, it's not good for less experienced people because they can't handle it well. So, during anxious times, it's the less experienced who will likely get stressed out first. Providing new people with enough early training and guidance is a good way to help them handle stress better when things get tough.
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